Neighborhood

 My schedule lately has been something like this: wake up between 4 and 5 am, wake up John about 7am, walk around the block between 7 and 7:30am, come home eat something small and send john to work between 8 and 8:30am, and of course passing out cold between 9 and 10pm. It's almost a rut, though a healthy good rut but a rut none the less.

So because I am so stealthy (not!) and adventurous (really not!) I brought my camera one morning just for the heck of it. ;)

This is the "jungle lot" at the corner of my street. Being a corner lot it's prime real estate and I am kinda surprised no one has snatched it up yet.

O.M.G. What is that fiery ball doing in the sky!!!


 Another shot of the jungle lot, on the right side you can barely see the roof of the house next door.

This is one of the 3 dogs that run loose in the neighborhood. This ones name is Lisa, and the most problematic of the 3. She is some sort of rat terrier mix and if I tell you that my urge to punt her in her tiny little snout would you look down on me?

Seriously though, this dog is a problem. She has almost nailed me twice now. The "owners" don't give a shit and I am just waiting for her butt to get run over. She has some serious LDS, (Little Dog Syndrome) and she runs full bore at Gunnar who has like 80 pounds on her and is waiting for her to get close enough to eat.

I am a stealthy predator and I -will- get your pesky ankles some day....soon.

Believe it or not this 15lbs menace is not the smallest one. There is some sort of "teacup" Chihuahua that is allowed to run lose in the street to harass anyone walking by. Again it doesn't look twice at the huge boxer and thing, "Hmmm, that thing could eat me." Nope, just runs out barking, doesn't flinch for traffic or anything.

Some people should not be allowed to own animals. :(

Weather

It's rain season here in Florida, which, in a nut shell, means it rains..a lot. When it is not raining, it's hot...and muggy..and basically, yuck all the way around.

The birds are thriving in this though. Understandable, it feels like the Amazon rain forest out there so their quite at home and love being rotated out into the heat and wet. Kenya is loving it. The only water she lets touch her is rain anyway so it's good to get her out there and take advantage while we can.

On the other hand, any outdoor activity I do, must be done and completed before 10 am. After that I'd melt, or at least wish I would. So for the last week or so I have been walking Gunnar, rain or shine at about 7:30 am. It's the only out door activity I can get normally during the week, and now with the rain, the only thing I get to do on the weekends as well.

I wish my neighborhood was interesting enough to post pictures of, but I think if I walked around with my camera and just started randomly shooting, people would get suspicious and want to know -what- I thought I was doing. I highly doubt the explanation of "There was this nifty bird in the bush by your window." would exactly sooth things over any.  :(

So unfortunately no picture posts for a little while at least. The good thing about all this icky weather is I have gotten a lot of art done and I am thinking about opening an Etsy shop to try and sell it in. I have found a source to get my art put on note cards and they have been turning out really nicely. So what the heck. I'll give it a try and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained right?

Bird Blogs and Mash

I follow a few other bird blogs, A bird for Keeps has some interesting posts. This post here followed by this post  here are all bout making mash for your birds. It is also a great resource for other articles about bird health and behavior. I would suggest anyone interested in such things to take a look and follow the blog for great insight on parrots and their care.

Mash like bird bread is a home made fresh option to feed your birds. It's chock full of healthy grains and legumes along with veggies that our birds should have in their diet. I have been researching mash recipes and will be (hopefully) trying my hand at it next weekend. We will see how it goes, and of course I will be reporting it all here, the good, the bad, and the messy. ;)

Until then, have a great weekend everyone.

Photo Friday: Plague Season

It's plague season here in Florida. I was outside on the front stoop trying to get a picture of a woodpecker (he wasn't cooperating) when as I turned around I was surprised by this guy.

While not technically a locust, (I don't think) This thing was HUGE! So I am calling it a locust, a big pissed locust with friends! I found his bigger and badder brother on the back porch later that day.

 Big Bad Billy Locust (BBBL for short) is here to KILL YOU! (And all you little plants too.)

So after the plague of Locusts it was time for.....
FROGS!

Found this cute little guy on my back door when I was bringing the dogs in. Awww, cute widdle baby froggy.

The next night, Big Bro showed up on the door. Still cute!

And the next night, Momma showed up hiding behind Lou's cage.

Though you can't really tell by this picture, she was much bigger then the first two. We've been finding frogs all over the back porch at night and last night one hit the front window so hard I squeaked from the unexpected noise.

So that was my week, how was yours?