Rondeau Ric

Hey, somebody turn the water on! We have 4 bird baths in our yard. The two raised baths seem to get more action than the ground ones. In the fall we get flocks passing through and they can empty a bath in minutes. We had a large number of grackles who spent more time posturing than bathing. A flock of smaller birds spent their time bathing.

It really is amazing the things we have crawling, sitting and flying in our yards. It doesn’t matter if you live in the city or in the country; the beasties are there if you take a close look. This is a Tiger Swallow Tail caterpillar. Its first line of defense is that it looks like bird droppings. If that doesn’t discourage the predator the display their horns. They look like a forked tongue but they aren’t

Hanging by a thread Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur You've heard the expression well here is proof. We went for a walk on a closed road and haning in the middle was this little white fellow. It was about 20 feet to the nearest over hanging branch. If you look at it in large and you can just make out the thread. Uploaded by ricmcarthur

When I was a kid we didn't have any fancy starting set up. We just found a hill and we were off. Now a days there is a racing circut for the derby.This was the final , two brothers racing for the championship. I wonder if it Is as much fun as we had racing down hills with no adults. Just kids having fun. The one on the right won by 3/100 of a second. I think we had more fun building our own from what ever we could beg, borrow, or steal. The wheels might fall off half way down the hill, or the steering would fail and we would hit a tree but we weren't coddled and we learned to be independent. Lose the protectionist adults and bring on the fun!

And you really have to scratch < A full body roll is just the thing. Pure satisfaction.