Birds, Bees and Barking

I recently posted a short video clip on Instagram of one of my favorite animals, my little Maltese, Emmi. She is such a funny little dog.  I do believe that she feels her main purpose in life is to keep all birds and squirrels out of our yard.  And she takes that responsibility very seriously!

This winter, she has been especially diligent about keeping all birds off of our deck, which is easier said than done most days. Although she gives it her best barking effort (much to my dismay), and patrols the perimeter of the area, some of the sparrows have found a way to outsmart her.

In the flowerbed next to the deck, there is a miniature rose bush that once lived at my mama's house many years ago.  While this time of year, there are no blooms, and sparse leaves, the sparrows have discovered that they are generally safe within the thorny branches of the bush.

Emmi, and even Joy, try their best to scare them away, but there are a few brave birds that know their bark is worse than their bite since they can't actually reach them.

In other news around the backyard, new little buds are popping out all over the yard with the spring-like weather we've been experiencing. There are tiny buds on the fig tree,

and the blueberry bush I planted last year has the prettiest little blossoms on it.

Even the bees are out, taking advantage of the record-setting temperatures.

Memorial Day Camping Trip

Ron was off work for Memorial Day, so we scheduled a last minute camping trip to Cypress Black Bayou Recreation Center.  When I called, the RV sites were full, so we were going to be in the "overflow field".  However, due to the weather, there was a cancellation and we ended up with a back-in site that was just right!  The park is located only about 45 minutes away from our house, which made it ideal for arriving after work.  It also allowed me to return to town for a couple of hours on Sunday to teach my Sunday School class.   While the weather forecast was not good at all for the weekend, but we decided to chance it anyway and we were rewarded with storms that skirted the edges of the area rather than hitting the lake itself.

We arrived in time to set up the camper, cook dinner and sit by the fire.

Saturday morning, we took the dogs for a long walk and enjoyed the stillness of the morning as the sun shimmered on the lake.

The birds were busily flitting from tree to tree throughout the weekend.   We saw a group of baby woodpeckers in tree,

lots of red-winged blackbirds,

another young woodpecker exploring the lakeside,

and lots of cardinals.  I especially enjoyed watching my favorite variety, bluebirds, as they watched us from their perches among the tree branches.  This one stayed still long enough for me to snap a few pictures.

After depositing the dogs back at the camper, we decided to take a hike before it got too hot.  We walked over to the Nature Center, which was a really nice place to learn about the different varieties of birds and animals that are native to the area.

Along the hike, we saw the tiniest little toads hopping around, as well as a nice-sized bullfrog.

But, my heart jumped up into my throat and I screamed when I almost stepped on this in the middle of the trail.

He was LONG.   I don't know if he was cold or scared, but he didn't move.  Ron assured me that he wasn't poisonous (turned out that he was a Mud Snake), but it took a few minutes for my pulse to slow down again.

The rest of the weekend was captured with our phones because the showers were always looming overhead and I didn't want to chance getting caught with my DSLR.  We took the kayaks out for a little while and did a little fishing, but the winds were so strong that the fish weren't biting at all.

Sunday afternoon, we had better luck.  The piers were closed due to instability, so we just fished from the shore.

The wind was still pretty strong and swept our lines onto the pier more than once.

Ron used the kayak to get it loose and we went on to catch quite a few fish (which we just threw back).

There were more campfires and we even popped corn that was mighty tasty!

While we had great cell service in this spot, we were mostly "unplugged" and had nothing to do except relax and enjoy being outdoors and together.  We've already scouted out which site to ask for next time.