She is a cutie! Our Amazon was abused before we got him. He was very untame and bit everyone at first. He still has his moods but did finally come around to letting people hold him and likes his neck scratched. It has to be on HIS terms though. He takes a siesta every afternoon and everyone knows he is cranky then and will bite. We have just let him be himself and let him decide what he wanted to do...and it has worked. For some reason he still hates people with big fluffy hair. My mom has wild curly hair and he won't let her near him lol. I made the mistake of trying to pick him up once with a towel on my wet hair. I still have the scars from that! His previous owners used to grab him with a towel to take him out of his cage and do who knows what. He has a messed up wing from some injury b4 we got him and can never fly.

These are rose-ringed parakeets, and are beautiful. The Quaker is much smaller, with a grey breast and a shorter tail. No other wild parrot currently living and breeding in Florida has the red beak and ring around the collar of its neck, so it's pretty easy to identify it. I know they are exotic, too, but I still can't bring myself NOT to love them. VERY pretty pictures, Jan1. Thanks for sharing. Marcia

Well, the pair came by again today. They've found another delicacy in the yard, the seeds of a terribly invasive vine with gorgeous pink flowers. I have no idea what it is, I'm constantly pulling it, probably because birds eat the seeds and drop them in my yard. But watching the two of them in the very tippy top of the little oak, toppling over head-first to get to their seeds, was pretty cool. I'm still pulling that vine and the Virginia creeper in the cabbage palm next to it, but maybe I'll leave it for another week, just in case I get to see "my" pair of Amazons. Funny was watching them look down completely unconcerned at the hunter cat with the bell. He's small for a cat and they're big for birds and he sulked by, making it clear he knew he was outmatched and wasn't happy about it. He stalked off to the neighbor's yard to terrorize their cats, who haven't figured out he's declawed and fixed. They think he's one bad kitty because when they first tried to defend their food, the giant yellow lab barked at the commotion. They seem to have decided that my little guy has a bodyguard. We need to give our neighbors cat food for Christmas.

Got the hubby home tonight and the first thing he did was start watering the bushes. Thank goodness. That is a job I find too overwhelming. It is so hot and dry, I am going to have to start regularly watering the flower gardens now. Thanks for the drink Celeegra. I had a long day. Hubby and I took his brother home to Kalamazoo and stayed overnight. Found out there are tons of greenhouses there and some are retail but most are wholesale. Of course, I had to stop. One was having their famous "cart sale" and they have those two shelved carts and you can load all you can get on it for 45.oo. I would have done it if it weren't for the fact we had already bought 8 huge bags of peat moss at Walmart for 2.50 a bag. I saw a lady with 5 flats on the bottom of her cart and a huge selection of gallon plants on the top. I settled for 4 for 10.00 perennials of which a Pow wow echinacea was included. Too excited. I then stopped at another place and they had 1.79 quart size perennials. I bought 3. It's a sickness I tell ya, a sickness. Margo