Don, he wasn't my first parrot....He could be likened to finally getting a Porsche, if you're into cars. I brought him home when he was 5 weeks old.... about mid-April, 1999. Here is his baby picture when he came home. I'd been going over to my friend's house (the breeder), to hand feed him when she pulled him from the nestbox. I continued to hand feed him, with what is called "abundance feeding" so he weaned himself, at 22 weeks old, without feeling deprived. He weighed 600 grams as a well fed baby boy, and he weighs that now as an adult. He has beautiful feathers, no fat, great muscle tone especially in his breast which allows him to fly efficiently.....but consider that birds are so aerodynamic, with hollow bones, hollow feathers, they eat moderately frequently, also poop frequently and do it almost EVERY time before they take flight....which is a clue to imminent flight, by the way.

When my husband lured him out, he put the red feeder in a large ficus that spends winter indoors and had just been moved outside (because I can NOT completely get rid of the scale on it). The ficus is nestled in a shady corner by the garage door. Amazingly, although never having had a feeder anywhere near that space in the past, two males were fighting over it before nightfall. I think they really like having a feeder in a tree. They'll sit on the higher branches and then flit down to the feeder. My husband didn't know they were territorial and said the two hummingbirds were "dancing" around the feeder. HA! Next time my teenage boys start arguing I'm going to yell, "Ya'll stop dancing!" Either those two males were fighting over all feeders in the yard, or I have several hummingbirds right now. I did just see my first female at a feeder in an older location. Dicentra is blooming, forsythia is still in bloom, and I'm not too many days away from Columbine canadensis flowers opening.

Every spring, Moonstone manages to have the most perfect flush of all my roses. Every bloom is perfect Every stem is perfect Every leaf on the the whole plant is perfect, which has perfect shape. The blooms are huge and uniform, and nothing seems to bother it. We had Bortrytis and weather issues all springs, yet Moonstone looks like it was grown under glass. Such an impressive rose. Not much fragrance and slow to repeat , hopefully that will improve with age, but just so beautiful in spring. A friend sent me this link from rose.org, it appears Moonstone is the top exhibition rose, followed by Veterans Honor. Not surprised at all, these are such perfect and infallible roses.

Yay for the violets, Nancy! And...you still have summer squash? The bugs killed ours long ago. Even the C. Moschata. I am pooped. So tired. We shopped today and I don't have to tell anyone that shopping is very unpleasant right now. However, Dillards allows you to try on clothes and I found a dress. It's not exactly the bohemian/fairy princess dress that I wanted. But it fits nicely and its a forest green color...and it's Robin Hoodish (not really), so I bought it. Paid more than what I wanted to pay, but it's done. DONE! Came home around 3 and sliced, breaded and froze okra. Then figured out how to use my pressure canner as a water bath canner and pickled some okra. On my own. The lids sealed so hopefully we're good. My house is getting to the point that I am very unhappy. I know a clean house isn't the most important thing in the world....but I enjoy a clean home. It just feels nice to me. However, a clean house isn't anywhere in my near future. I am hoping the robot vacuums are cheap this Christmas. That will at least help. We are celebrating Mason's BD tomorrow and that will be fun. It's at a very good restaurant that I haven't been to in a long time. Then grocery shopping and then maybe starting more lettuce seed. In between all of those things is animal care. Lots of animal care. There's always one of them doing something they shouldn't be doing or somewhere they shouldn't be hanging out. One of the fat buff orpingtons has figured out how to get out of the chicken yard. And she isn't swift. She is dumb--beautiful but dumb and wanders over by the dogs. So, I'm constantly leaving whatever task I'm working on to catch her or entice her back to the yard. And everyone is always hungry all the time. The 3 young pullets mingled with the main flock today. It went very well. Having a good rooster helps with that. They're roosting in their own coop, though. It will be a gradual thing as always. Momma Blossom will be tired of her chicks soon and those two chicks will need to move to the pullet coop at that time. Although, at least one of those chicks is a cockerel. Tom may or may not start doing meat birds and these two could be the start of it. They won't be THE meat birds, but they might be the parents of. I've named the one I think is a girl. Her name is Gwendolyn, which is sorta funny because Gwendolyn (actually related to Jennifer/Guinevere.) means white ...and Gwendolyn is a dark cornish. I'm simply rambling now.