Today is so beautiful. We have a pond (that needs spring cleaning) however, I was really glad to see that we still have our huge beautiful bullfrog. He has grown so large over the last 3-4 years since we've had him. Every year we worry that he won't make it through the winter when the pond is frozen over; but here he is you can see him on the rock in the water. We have another one too that is about half
the size of this one. I haven't seen him yet this year, but my husband says he's back. Last year, the smaller one would let me pick him up occasionally, but I think it's been too long for him to remember me, so I doubt I'll have the pleasure this year.
I also took some pictures
of a few of our fish. We try to count them and we think there are about 20 fish, but they don't stay in one place too long to be sure; even then some hide out when we're counting so it's hard to say how many we really have.
Last week, I showed some branches on our tree that were getting ready to leaf out.... look at it now, it won't be much longer!!!!!
We also have 5 birdhouses in the back of our yard and 4 of them are being occupied right now. The funny thing is we have one decorative one that's
tall and skinny and in the last two years the birds have raised a few families in there. The birdhouse is the blue one and the one in front is a feeder. I found these 4-5 years ago at Costco. I thought they were so cute, but never imagined a bird would also think so.
We call this one the
"round" house and it is even occupied in the winter. See the bird poking her head out the hole? The female bird sits on her eggs and keeps her head at the hole always looking around. This is the only bird we've seen do this and we think this is her second year here; in fact, I think she stayed in it all winter too. We saw her in there when it was cold and all the other birds were looking for shelter in the bushes and trees. She had a nice warm (well not really warm) dry home to live in.
We were watching them a little earlier this spring and it's fun to watch new birds come to the houses and start spring cleaning. They come out carrying old "stuff" and sort of spit the stuff out to the ground. It's like they are saying "ptooie" and shake their heads. Just think if we all had to clean our houses with our mouth, yuck and ptooie!!!!
This is our squirrel feeder.
We have 3 squirrels that come visit and open the little box lid and take out their peanuts and seeds. Have you ever bought/priced the large bags of peanuts???? This winter, the squirrels were burying the peanuts all over our yard, then the neighbors yards. When I was in my stamp room, I would see a reflection in my computer screen of movement, when I turned around, it was the squirrels running down the fence towards the front yard... When I looked out front those little buggers were running across the street and burying the peanuts over there too. Too bad they aren't smart enough to realize that the box is always full for them and they don't need to do that. What a cushy life we've created for "our" animals.
I'm surprised we haven't seen them yet, but we usually have a couple of ducks that rest in our pond for a couple of months in the spring. We keep seeing them fly over, but so far they haven't landed. I was going to show you some old pictures I have, but they must not be on "this" computer, so I couldn't. They really are pretty, but they make a real mess out of the pond, especially when they decide to fly out and stir everything up, including the pond plants. I'm still not sure if they eat fish. I thought I saw a fish in a ducks mouth a couple of years ago, but I can't confirm that..... so I do worry when they are in the pond that they're here to do more than just swim.
We do have so much fun in our backyard..... but my daughter tells us we're really old since we like to sit outside and watch the birds, fish, squirrels, frogs and our dogs LOL. It is enjoyable and relaxing especially now since our trees have grown enough that we actually have some shade now.
Well, I'm off to stamp....... Hope you all had a Beautiful Easter and remembered what it's really all about.
BIG SHOT and my Tulipe Bigz Die and cut out the image from some vinyl I purchased from Stampin' Up a while ago. I punched out the inside of the image and attached the outline to the bottom of my glass plate. I pressed it down around all the edges carefully so there weren't any areas the etching cream could creep in. I applied my etching cream heavily with a Q-tip and let lay aside for 10-15 minutes while I played with something else.
