Not A Creature

It was extremely quiet on the Front Porch this morning. Not a creature was calling anywhere within earshot. Nothing was moving within the line of sight either, but I did notice the increased number of beautiful red leaves on the lawn. My nose couldn't detect any specific scent and refused to wake up until I fried a quesadilla for breakfast. Which, by the way, tasted YUMMY.  And the feel of the 45° temp was almost enough to cause goosebumps, but not quite. Pretty much sums up the the five major senses and their wake-up call.

Getting darker and darker out there. It took a vacation for me to notice the shortening of the days.

Not enough light to pull out the true color in these leaves. They look like red gems laying on the grass and walkway. 

I know Autumn doesn't officially begin until until September 22nd at 4:02 pm. (I looked it up.) But September 1st has always hailed the beginning of autumn in my mind. If the leaves are any indication, I'd say Fall has begun. But there is bound to be an Indian Summer, sometime in our near future.

May your Autumn be a delightful and pleasant one, Travelers.

Vivi Ridi Ama

American Pelecinid Wasp

53°. Another cool morning on the Front Porch. Mama Nat served up this delicious temperature with 93% humidity, calm winds and fair skies. I guess the skies are fair. The morning is definitely getting darker and I couldn't tell if the sky was cloudy or not. Three crows flew over head, perched on the phone wire right in front of the house, spotted me fumbling for my camera and flew off before Camera had a chance to power up. One of the Crows had a really funny caw. I hope that was just his natural voice and not a sign of something wrong with him. I got nuttin' this morning but worthless babble. I did have a strange visitor perched in my parsley plant. Camera managed to get a couple of decent shots of this particularly scary looking guy. No clue what it is, so, Google here I come.

And Google comes thru again. This beauty is an American Pelecinid Wasp. That long body belongs to the female of the species. It's primary purpose is to lay eggs on grub larvae in the soil. Ok. It's still a bit on the scary looking side. Apparently, it will try to sting if captured but can rarely pierce the human skin. It's the "rarely" part that puts me on guard. But she let me take a few dozen pictures without any worries. 

Have a great day, Travelers.

One more quick check at the sky did not show me any blue out there, Wee-Gees. The skies are overcast, not fair!! Way to guess wrong, again. However, it is a thin cloud cover. Probably didn't show up on their radar. 

Eyes Crows And Peelers

46° on the Front Porch! Calm winds, fair skies and 93% humidity all make it feel like autumn has arrived. I think it's just a brief reprieve and the heat will be back. Must enjoy the cool air while able.

The M Woods had many Crow visitors. Briefly. They all left the Woods when I planted my fanny on the Porch step. So, I uprooted fanny and stepped out into the street to get a photo of them on the phone lines.

There were a lot more than four of them and what a racket they were making. It's this time of year that I usually see hundreds of them flying in the evening sky just as I get off work. What a sight that is! I'll keep my eyes peeled and on the lookout. 

... eyes peeled... That sounds decidedly unpleasant. Here I come Google!

Hmmm...

To keep one's eyes peeled means to be alert, observant. This seems an odd phrase, but dates back to the 1820s in Britain, when Sir Robert Peel established the first organised police force. The officers were known as 'peelers, or 'bobbies'. They were expected to be particularly observant and to keep their eyes 'peeled', after their founder's orders! Of the two popular names, only 'bobby' survives. 

So sayeth the site Quora and the people kind enough to answer the query. Peelers. Ya gotta love it. If this be true, Sir Robert Peel would probably be shocked to find out that his name would be used in this way almost 200 years later.

May you have a wonderful day, Travelers.

You deserve nothing less!

Vivi Ridi Ama

Two Daddy Long Legs Not One

It feels like Fall! 49 brisk and delicious degrees, with calm winds and clear skies. The 93% humidity is barely noticeable at this temp other than a definite chill in the air. It was very quiet on the Front Porch, except for a mouthy nuthatch somewhere in our trees. I never saw him but he was sure upset about something. My only other visitor was a sizable daddy long legs guarding my tomatoes.

Whoa!

I was so intent on framing him and the tomatoes in the same shot that I NEVER noticed the spider directly under the tomatoes! Sometimes I amaze me with my observational skills. On the other hand, I love it when a picture surprises me this way!

May your skills at observation serve you well, Travelers. I understand you can train your eyes and brain to observe a great deal. How to do that is not in my brain files. I must have missed that class altogether.

SPOONERISM! 

I think I shared this already but I love it enuf to repeat. 

"You have hissed all my mystery lectures and tasted the whole worm!!"

Translation- you have missed all my history lectures and wasted the whole term.

:)

A Visit From The Blue Angels

Good Evening from the Front Porch. No sooner got home from a great trip to DVille, when the Angels started flying over the house. Now that's a visitor!

We were also greeted with a gorgeous 71°, 49% humidity, 6 mph winds and overcast skies. So sayeth the Wee-Gees. Partly cloudy is a more accurate description. But I'm too tired sling names at the the moment. I'm thinking its an early bedtime for me tonight.

May all your vacations be of the awesome sort, Travelers.

Vivi Ridi Amo! 

Dville Eagles And A Turkey Vulture

Pictures this morning!

L sure knows how to build a fire. With a 49 degree night and a 59 degree morning we needed the warmth.

We had just finished breakfast when we heard a bird calling. S spotted a bald eagle and a turkey vulture out the front door. The turkey vulture stayed long enough to pose for a picture.

He even stayed long enough for a zoomed shot. We went back into the house where it was warm. and heard the birds calling again. This time we went to the river side of the cabin where S spotted the eagles!!

There they sat, in the dead tree by the river! Allow me to zoom in.

I was zooming in for an extreme close up when they took off. 

Nothing but tail feathers and one wing.

Poetry in motion...

Adventures In Fishing.

Yesterday---

And to think I opted out of going on a pleasant drive to the 45th parallel in exchange for a relaxing couple of hours fishing. All because I thought catching a 3 inch minnow was a good omen, promising better things to come.

!!!HUMPHF!!! 

I had on all the gear needed to keep the bugs off me. Long pants, water shoes, 2 shirts (one being long sleeved), a straw hat with a net over it to protect my face and enough bug spray on me to give Chernobyl a run for its money as to who's the most toxic. I looked like the entire population of the worlds worst fashion designers came together to vomit all over me. But I was determined to find a way to out smart the blasted bugs and fashion dictates be d... well, you know what they can be. 

Let me see if I can remember this adventure in the proper sequence...

To the river.

I grabbed a chair, dragged it over to the rivers edge, cast my line into the water, and sat down. Immediately the chairs front legs sank into the mud so fast and so deep it took all I had not to be pitched headlong into the water. I readjusted the chair, sat down a little more gingerly this time, looked for my fishing pole. Where'd it go? I caught sight of the handle just as it was disappearing into the water!! I managed to land the pole without getting too wet, but I didn't land the fish that tried to steal it. 

Humphf. 

Once the hook was re-baited, which requires leaving the shore, trekking over hill and dale to the picnic table where bait and tackle await, I cast, once again, into the crystal clear waters of the river. I sat down, carefully, and proceeded to watch, with growing exasperation, as these big, beautiful fish leisurely swam by my poor drowning bait, giving it a sniff, but not so much as a nibble. 

Humphf

That's it, over hill and dale to the pond.

I cast my line and caught a sizable fish!! YES!! I knew this was gonna be a good day to fish!... Well, I celebrated a bit too soon. My reel decides to go haywire. There's a nest of tangled line bunched around the bottom of my pole. I lost track of how long I spent trying to untangle that mess. All the while, my bobber is racing around the pond surface, occasionally disappearing under the water. Patience, which was wearing very thin, paid off. I got the line rewound on the reel and proceeded to bring in my prize. It looked big, whatever it was. Just as I got it to shore, that rotten fish spit the hook out into the debris at the edge of the water. Debris that proved too strong for my line. First lost hook.

Humphf.

I go up hill and over dale, again, to the picnic table and rig up a new line. I notice I'm getting low on tackle. Back over hill and dale, yet again, and into the pond you go, worm. Caught something! Reeling reeling reeling! This one's a tough one. Hang on... it's not acting like a fish on my line anymore. What happened? Oh. That's what happened. I traded a big fish for a grass fish.

At least this particular grass fish was interesting to look at. 

While untangling this grass beauty, I notice something was missing. Where the h... is my hook!? Once again, over hill and dale...

Running low on tackle now. Making do with what I have is testing my imagination to it's limits. I somehow manage to rig up a make shift leader, bait my hook, cast my line in the direction of the last successful strike and caught... a tree limb above my head.

 

We have discussed tree fishing before, so I'll just say that another year older and wiser has done nothing to diminish the rage factor involved with this particular activity. If anything, it's worse. And this time, the tree decided to keep my tackle. Tackle that never even made it into the water. 

!HUMPHF!

Okay, slim pickings in the box, but I still managed to rig a line. I cast into the pond after glaring at the tree limb, which is not an object of beauty in my eyes at the moment, and YES!

 I caught a lil'bitty guy!

He was so cute! Back into the water with ya, lil' guy. 

With renewed determination, I cast again. At that precise moment something managed to sting me thru BOTH shirts!! Right side belly! OWIE OWIE OWIE!!!! That's it, I'm DONE! With something furiously flying around my head I made a beeline for the picnic table, grabbed the worms, abandoned all fishing gear and shot up to the cabin. And guess what we have in the cabin buzzing around in the great room?!?

!!HUMPHF!!

Shoulda gone to the 45th parallel. 

Fishing And The Old Boy

Meet Sam.

Sam's a sweet Old Boy.

Sam knows how to prevent fishing trips.

 See Sam run in front of fisherman, 

or in this case, fisherwoman.

See Sam run the entire length of shoreline.

See Sam turn around.

See Sam run back the entire length of shoreline.

See Sam turn around.

See Sam repeat all of the above at least 100 times.

See fisherwoman stomp away from river in disgust.

Oh wait. There is no selfy of sulky fisherwoman stomping back to cabin in disgust.

See Sam successfully claim the water as his own.

*HUMPHF*

DVILLE Walk

Took a walk this morning. Here's what we saw-

Time to play in the water!

LIVE LAUGH LOVE, Travelers!

DVILLE Life

Good morning from DVILLE. It is currently 66 degrees with 83% humidity, calm winds and mostly sunny skies. A gorgeous DVILLE morning. Pictures must speak for me as breakfast is almost ready, thanks to L and S.

A swift eagle visit.

  

My morning visitor. Made fishing a bit difficult.

  

My first catch.

Life is good!

Let's Fish

Pictures will have to speak for me this week!

D-Ville Time

I forgot to check the weather when we began our drive, but I took a picture!

Foggy. Very foggy.

But by the time we got here...

What a beautiful day!!

First thing...

A cool down in the river.

And, of course...

Fishing!

Goodnight Travelers. As B said, "fishin' o'clock comes early."