With a Thankful Heart

Copyright © 2007-2008. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am continuing my record as an official Blog Slacker this year by only posting an entry one time per month. My excuses? Well, recently I've started selling books online again, which is fun, but rather time-consuming. Also, this has been a difficult year for my family. Though, I must say I have a lot to be thankful for: mainly my son's successful recovery from his spinal surgery. Here he is watching a 3-D movie at a friend's house...

He has gained all his weight back and is enjoying his new straight spine. Other than avoiding sudden impacts or heavy lifting, he can do most anything within reason. He has been doing well in school too. Below is one of his recent English class projects. It's a product he made up called Hippy Cat: Organic Catnip-Flavored Cat Food©. Since there were flowers on the bottom of the poster I thought I wouldn't be cheating too badly if I shared it here. It's groovy baby! ;-)

My garden has been fairly active with wildlife since the weather has cooled off. The birds and squirrels are especially fond of the water & food that I supply. Below you can see a small bird drinking from the water garden. At first I thought it was a finch but, according to Mikael Behrens from Birding on Broadmeade it is actually a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Thanks Mikael!

And nearby a squirrel was busy getting her own drink from a small bird bath...



She didn't really trust me, but decided she was thirstier than scared...



I hope all of you have a most enjoyable and delicious Thanksgiving Day. And don't forget to eat some pie!

Animated Thanksgiving eCards.

"Seeds of discouragement will not grow in the thankful heart." ~Anonymous

Copyright © 2007-2008. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Halloween Preparations

Many of my neighbors have already decorated their gardens and porches for Halloween by adding pumpkins, spiders, ghosts and scarecrows. My only nod to the season so far is a sweet ivy a friend gave me that I surrounded with gourds and baby pumpkins for my table...

I have noticed the local nurseries are getting in the All Hallows Eve Spirit, though. I love the pumpkin patch at Red Barn Nursery.

I plan to take my son there this week to pick out his favorite pumpkin. I liked these wrinkly pumpkins the best.

Not far away, this black & white Jumping spider, (Phidippus audax) almost seemed in costume as s/he waited for lunch on the sedum.

Jumping spiders are some of my favorites because they are small (and so not scary to me) and they seem curious and brave without being aggressive. They will often check out a person by turning towards them instead of running away. I've never been bitten by a jumping spider in all my years of examining them. The little guy I watched above had beautiful, neon-green mandibles that unfortunately did not show up in my photographs.

I walked outside this morning to see what other visitors were in my garden. I found the bees busy as usual on the passionflowers.

The butterflies are showing their appreciation as well.

Two new mystery mushrooms (or are the toad-stools?) have appeared and beneath the short wrought-iron fence.

And I have the best kind of rose: a visitor from my neighbor's garden that has leaned over and through the fence to say "Hello".

"Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers." ~ from The Naval Treaty by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle