Make my "turbo-hot" (STRONG coffee!) at 4:45-5 am. Trip on kitties who are expecting me to share some half 'n half. Sing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" (remember Mr. Rogers?) to 2 of them, and tell them to go out and have themselves "an adventure." Feel guilty for not letting the 3rd out because a neighbor complains that she keeps peeing in her flowerbed near her front porch. She asked me to keep this kitty on a leash. :0( I DON'T THINK SO. Turn on the computer and check out GW/Rose forum and IM our son who is stationed in Guam (Navy). Throw on some shorts/jeans and t-shirt and go walk around the gardens. I sell mixed bouquets locally, so I bring a big container and scissors/thorn stripper with me if I have orders for that day to bring to work with me. Then I arrange them and finish getting ready for a day at my school (I'm a Teaching Assistant all year long). Wish I didn't have to do ANYTHING other than be in our gardens! :0) Phyl

Nice, Lisa. I like Mourning Dove,too. Sorta off topic, but I saw a cardinal feeding a little brown bump of something in the orchard yesterday. I was walking my little senior pup and the cat always has to come with us. Well, I hurried ahead and scooped up the baby cardinal and placed he/she in the tall grass before Kitty spotted it. The baby made a big fuss and spread its wings to try and scare me, I felt bad. The adult hovered nearby so I'm sure it knew where it was.

Oh my....I feel like I live in an autobahn society research center! lol. We have so many birds this year...more than we have ever had before. Tons of Barn Swallows! Remember early in the spring when I complained they were nesting on the neighbors front porch and trying to nest on my patio? Well we didn't allow them to nest here but they were not all raised on my neighbors porch either...lol. There are so many of them. And I am hoping we are having Purple Martins as some of our black birds...there are a couple of Martin houses a few houses down. And Grackles fly through often....I run them off each time I see them as I just hate those loud obnoxious birds. Sparrows have taken over my yard. I plan to plug or remove the bird houses I have on my fences when they are done with them....the population of sparrows is just too high in my yard. Each time I go out there is loud constant chirping out there coming from every part of the yard and sparrows all over the place. Those fledgling sparrows are so loud-mouthed...hahaha. I have been seeing a type of bird and I have no idea what it is. It is sort of large..larger than a Robin, has a yellow breast and a sort of olive green back with white cheeks. I have been all through my bird book and several times on a great bird I.D. site on the net but have still not been able to identify this bird. I have seen one or two in my yard and one in my mom's courtyard area yesterday as well, which is a few blocks from me. I am waiting for a better and closer look at one so I can identify it better. Each time I see one I don't have my binoculars handy. We have some robins and mockingbirds who pass through also. And occasionally a mourning dove. I have not been able yet to attract Cardinals to my yard. I had a pair of them visit a few times a couple of weeks ago so went and bought a new bird feeder and some black sunflower seeds only have them leave. I really want to attract cardinals as they are my fav bird. I saw a hummer on my calabrochoa a few days ago...but I have not seen any visiting my odd little feeders I put out after we lost our kitty. They are stakes which I put in the ground and have a small feeder with a large pink flower on them...lol. If the birds are coming to them I have not seen them yet. One thing I can say for sure...I don't seem to have a high mosquito population right now with all the birds I have flying around. But I am hoping that will continue to be true after all this rain we have gotten now. I thought I heard wrens around my back fence a few days ago...but didn't see them. I also love wrens and I have wondered what has happened as we normally have quite a few. The neighbors pigeons still fly around on and off all day. And I found out that the 'OWL' I called "our neighborhood owl" is not an owl at all...it is the sound a Mourning Dove makes. Dad taught me to "blow my fist" when I was a child to make that sound and I have thought all my life it was an owl sound....lol. NOT! Still learning-although much more slowly-at over 50...lol. G.M.

Oh mymymymy, I did not realize there were so many hunters in the group. I know it's a way of living if you must but the only thing I'd be lucky to hit is a barn at 20 feet away adn I don't think I could eat that LOL. I've never cared for guns they scare me. Me I'll stay with whatever I can find at the store, not much for wild game here. My dad told me that when he was a kid he and some friends would go into the woods with a potato in their back pocket and a sling shot, they would shot the doves with a rock, clean it and cook the dove and tater in the woods. Funny how parents tell you more when you get older. I never pictured my dad doing something like that. Kathy, Walking Dove could this be a new type of dove? LOL I don't think it's a young'un cause it would have flown away by now, I still say it must have a hurt wing. You must not have many cats around or it would have been dinner already. Hope the poor little guy gets to where it can fly.