Field guides

I have amassed a collection of bird books over the years.
My first ever book was  this one:

My dad had a copy of this book and I loved looking at the little thumbnail maps.  It showed if the bird was a year-round resident or a summer visitor.   I found it essential when looking for information.

When I no longer lived at home, it is one of the first books I bought.  I used it often.  

During one careless camping trip to Lake Superior, I left it out on the picnic table over night.  It got wet and the pages stuck together.  I cursed my thoughtlessness and tried to dry the book carefully.  Because the paper had a shiny finish, it made the pages stick together if they were not separated during the drying process.  I remember putting leaves of toilet paper between each page to prevent the book from becoming an unusable brick of paper.     In the end I think I bought a new copy.

I wish I had kept that damaged book, because I write notes in the margins.  I had kept a list of birds that I have seen.  I am sure that now I will have forgotten that I have seen some of those birds.  I have a few notes in the margins of this copy.  Maybe it was beyond help. 

My eldest son now lives in Portland, Oregon and he had a hummingbird at his feeder this week.  A hummingbird in November is worthy of looking up.  With minimum research, I discovered that there is a resident and year round population of Anna's hummingbirds living in Portland.  Dashing for my book of North American birds I discovered that my beloved book is only for Eastern birds.  Portland is firmly on the West coast.  Different bird populations and a completely different field guide is needed.  

Here's the thing. . . I don't live in Portland, Oregon in the Pacific NW of America.  I live here in Scotland.  Do I get myself a field guide for birds of Western Birds?  I'll only be there two weeks.  Of course I'll be visiting from time to time to spend time with my son and his family.  I may get one. . . . I can add it to the field guide section of my library.

These are my field guides to things (fish, coral, seashells, turtles etc) in the Red Sea.  I do actually  need both field guides.  There are some animals in one book that are not in the other.  I have discovered over the years that I use both.  

As you can see, I still write notes in the margins. Also obvious is the damage of one of the books. A rescue dog that we had here for a short time, ripped the book up.  It is still quite usable.  I am just going to tape it up and carry on.

Lovely June

Spring has been quite successful this year.

 This is the first year I will have my own peonies.  I have finally found the right spot in the garden for them to thrive.  This one has a little green caterpillar hiding in a petal.

 The UK name for these flowers is Hen and Chicks.  At my grandmother's house in Wisconsin, we called them Indian  Paintbrushes.  I always think of Elcho when I see them in my garden.

 The roses are doing well, but I see that I have to treat for blackspot again.

The foxgloves are looking particularly lovely.

 Purple early orchid

 Abundance of strawberries

 I finally have the lawn that I have always wanted.

No mole damage, very few weeds and it has been dry enough to keep it mowed properly.  All organic too!!

I found this bumblebee walking across the floor in the house. It looked as if it were struggling.  I gave it some sugar solution and took it outside.  I love seeing it's little tongue.

Discount shelves

If blueberries are on the discount shelf in the supermarket and you bring them home thinking, "What a great price on those fat blueberries! There was nothing wrong with them."

You get them home with visions of the delights that will be made with these super bargain blueberries. 

Then. . . . they sit there for days and days while you suffer with a dental abscess. . . .

Finally on a day that you feel halfway human again, you are braced to throw those blueberries out, thinking well if you don't USE them, they're no bargain at all, and they are still good!

A lemon blueberry cake is baking right now and should be done soon.  :-)

It is done.  The bargain blueberries are yummy and my mouth has healed enough to eat it.

Where we walk the dog

This is a map of our regular dog walk. 

From start to finish the walk is about three kilometres. 

Starting from the house, we walk along the road.  Fenrir has to stay on his lead during this part of the walk.  He bolts toward cars and I am sure he would run in front of a car if he wasn't restrained.  

When we make the left off the road and start walking toward the gate we can unclip the dog and let him walk free.  A few times a year we will bump into a neighbour, but it's never a problem.

When we get to the gate, Fen is too big to go under the gate and far too heavy to lift over but we found a way to walk around. (smile)  

Until a couple of years ago the whole walk from the gate was completely forested.  It was a big piney walk in the woods.  It's now rough meadow and newly planted trees.

Every single walk follows the yellow line.  When we get to the end of the yellow line, we have a choices.

Taking another left toward The Pond leads us to a big gorse bush that smells of coconut in the spring.  There are sometimes deer up here.  If we have been loud, they will have bounced off  well in advance of us showing up.

The green path takes us to the Hidden Pond.  The hidden pond is off the track and a bit of a scramble to get to, but is very pretty and at this time of year is full of frogs.

I have indicated the two main turn around points in pink.  However, if you are feeling adventurous and the weather is good, you have the option of taking the wild path (purple) back to the gate. 

If you are quiet and observant during a walk, you can see loads of wildlife.  Look in the puddles, muddy bits and drainage ditches.. Look up at the sky and the tops of the trees, there is always something to see.