Well, Yes It Was Irresistible

We were unable to pass up the opportunity to visit the newly adopted foals at our neighbor's ranch and walked up yesterday just before sunset.



In other news, the Dinosaur just got a new-to-him truck. We took it to the Ford dealership yesterday for a couple of little items he wants repaired.

A Man-Horse Moment

While returning from our hike on Sunday, we ran into King and Pelton, who have been hanging out down on our place.

Other interesting sightings: a golden eagle apparently chasing a heron. The same eagle being relentlessly harassed by a local raven.

Let the Obsession Begin

Now that we've had a little rain (a little more please), the fungi are popping up along with the grass. We saw at least five or six varieties of mushrooms and other fungi on our walk Sunday. The only type we could identify was a good stand of puffballs. Last year I was fascinated by these things, and it looks like that interest has not abated. The Dinosaur has a mushroom identification book that's about four inches thick and I doubt I'm going to be able to study enough to figure out what these things are, so I'm just going to have fun taking pictures instead. (How's that for justification of mental laziness?)

This particular fungus has the same general shape as a puffball, but is smaller - perhaps slightly more than an inch tall, and sits on a small stem.

83. Can't Count 84 or 85

Gotta love fall migration. Our walk Sunday brought us 83: Black-throated Gray Warbler spotted in a lovely area near the river. And we also saw two new (to us) species but we can't officially count them because we are not 100% certain of our identification. The not-84 was either a Dusky or a Hammond's Flycatcher - these two species are very similar and I guess we're just not up enough on our flycatchers. Not-85 was a possible blue-winged teal sitting all by her lonesome.

Old Pots. Also Number 82

Spotted this week was a Northern Mockingbird, not a rare bird but new for us here. My delight at tallying our 82nd species here at Dryad Ranch was dampened by the fact that when spotted, it was busy poking its beak into one of our ripening pomegranates.

Even so, we're rather fond of mockers. Some years at our Bay Area place we had a mocker begin to imitate the sound of a whirligig my father had made for us and that we had placed on top of the garden shed.

This photo is of some old cookpot found in a box near a picnic spot on the other side of the river.

Weekends at Dryad Ranch

We got done all sorts of chores done yesterday. Dino put a temporary fix on a toilet that decided to start running/leaking. I did all the regular housecleaning stuff. After lunch we went into the garden to discuss how we want to arrange things and after that we just started drifting into doing little things out there that looked like they needed doing. I fell into a zennish trance of weeding.

Around 4, I found Dino"resting his eyes" on the front porch swing and decided to take a little walk. I laced up, grabbed the camera and headed up Ant Hill. From there I swung around to Altar Rock, which is my favorite spot on the place. There is a spring there and just above it is a very large rock upon which another large rock sits, altarlike. It's a very special spot and I go there on almost all of my solitary walks in that direction.

Just below the spring, I found bees enjoying sips from a small pool covered in duck weed.

From there, I climbed Deer Ridge in a straight shot uphill, found a good dozen or so bluebirds busily hunting bugs, then I dropped back down to the road and started the full loop around the Northwest Territory.

Finally, I made my way to Dino's favorite spot under the Oregon Ash and the little pool there. I really got munched by mosquitoes as usual. While I was sitting and waiting hopefully for a bullfrog to show up for a photo op, I was greatly alarmed by rather loud rustling footstep noises behind me. I whirled to start my defense, only to scare the crap out of about thirty wild turkeys who hadn't been aware of me either! They ran off about twenty feet to the other side of the river, then stopped and started milling about in a standard turkeyish way, talking amongst themselves. After not seeing the turkeys during the summer months, we've seen them the last couple of walks and have noticed evidence of them, in great scratched up patches in the ground under the oaks in that area.

When I got back to the house, I found it was three hours later. Since I hadn't intended to be gone that long, I really had to start hustling to get dinner ready.

Don't Tell My Boss

Although I am not completely enamored with my daily commute into the nearest town to hole up in my solitary office, look at the view I am treated with every morning!

We all know that I am toiling away, nose to the grindstone, work work work. Right?