Absolutely glorious day today! Bright and clear and sunny and breezy and cool. Just delightful! So of course we spent a large chunk of it outdoors. We had to hang around waiting for the vet to come pull blood on the ponies, so we set out to see what we could find of interest in our pastures. It didn't take long before the kids made a discovery.
Here's what captured their interest -- a little toad. They followed him around for quite awhile, and despite the fact that Zoo Boy, showing great restraint, claimed "I'm not going to touch him, I'm just going to follow him", he did, in fact, touch him. More than once. Stopped just this side of actually picking him up, although if he had, what could I really say about it? I carried toads around for most of my childhood. As I recall, my Mom didn't say much about it either.
The front pasture (also known as our front yard) is sporting an odd growth of grasses these days -- we've obviously got a couple different types, one that the sheep favor (and so keep it mown down really short) and one that they don't (so is growing knee-high). So it's sort of a grass forest out there, with tall grass trees towering over shorter shrubby undergrowth. They've done a number on the wildflowers already, not much except grass out there at this point.
We also got the opportunity to learn about poison ivy. We've unfortunately got a pretty lush bed of it growing just outside the fenceline, so it's possible for the kids to get their arms right in it if they reach through the fence for something (which they did when the above toad jumped out of the pasture). So we got to talk about what it looks like (It's the 3-leaved thing in the center of the photo, in case you're not familiar), and why we should stay away from it, and then they got their arms washed down. We'll see if they get lucky or not. I never used to get the rash when I was a kid, but as an adult I am highly sensitive to it. In fact, I'm sporting a mild case on my leg already, and I won't be too surprised if I get a fresh batch just from talking about it! Fortunately, the sheep like poison ivy almost as much as they like dandelions, so now that the dandelions are gone, they'll probably start working on the poison ivy next.
This edge of the pasture I like to call "songbird paradise". This time of year we've got nests of Robins, Cardinals, Northern Orioles, Chickadees, Titmice, and Chipping Sparrows in these trees, and the Bluebird houses each have a family of Tree Swallows. (Well, one of them had a family of Flying Squirrels earlier in the year, and they chewed up the hole to get in so big that there's a family of House Sparrows in there now.) We've been feeding the birds on our deck this spring/summer for the first time -- usually we stop when the winter ends, but Zoo Boy didn't want to stop this year, and I'm so glad we didn't -- we are getting the most amazing variety of birds coming! All of the above, plus Hairy Woodpeckers, White-Breasted Nuthatches, Goldfinches, and even a male Rose-Breastd Grosbeak. Add to all that the steady patrol of the Barn Swallows that call our barn home, and it's pretty much a tribute to the Audobon Society out there! And for bird lovers like Zoo Boy and me, that's pretty close to nirvana.
Absolutely glorious day today! Bright and clear and sunny and breezy and cool. Just delightful! So of course we spent a large chunk of it outdoors. We had to hang around waiting for the vet to come pull blood on the ponies, so we set out to see what we could find of interest in our pastures. It didn't take long before the kids made a discovery.
Here's what captured their interest -- a little toad. They followed him around for quite awhile, and despite the fact that Zoo Boy, showing great restraint, claimed "I'm not going to touch him, I'm just going to follow him", he did, in fact, touch him. More than once. Stopped just this side of actually picking him up, although if he had, what could I really say about it? I carried toads around for most of my childhood. As I recall, my Mom didn't say much about it either.
The front pasture (also known as our front yard) is sporting an odd growth of grasses these days -- we've obviously got a couple different types, one that the sheep favor (and so keep it mown down really short) and one that they don't (so is growing knee-high). So it's sort of a grass forest out there, with tall grass trees towering over shorter shrubby undergrowth. They've done a number on the wildflowers already, not much except grass out there at this point.
We also got the opportunity to learn about poison ivy. We've unfortunately got a pretty lush bed of it growing just outside the fenceline, so it's possible for the kids to get their arms right in it if they reach through the fence for something (which they did when the above toad jumped out of the pasture). So we got to talk about what it looks like (It's the 3-leaved thing in the center of the photo, in case you're not familiar), and why we should stay away from it, and then they got their arms washed down. We'll see if they get lucky or not. I never used to get the rash when I was a kid, but as an adult I am highly sensitive to it. In fact, I'm sporting a mild case on my leg already, and I won't be too surprised if I get a fresh batch just from talking about it! Fortunately, the sheep like poison ivy almost as much as they like dandelions, so now that the dandelions are gone, they'll probably start working on the poison ivy next.
This edge of the pasture I like to call "songbird paradise". This time of year we've got nests of Robins, Cardinals, Northern Orioles, Chickadees, Titmice, and Chipping Sparrows in these trees, and the Bluebird houses each have a family of Tree Swallows. (Well, one of them had a family of Flying Squirrels earlier in the year, and they chewed up the hole to get in so big that there's a family of House Sparrows in there now.) We've been feeding the birds on our deck this spring/summer for the first time -- usually we stop when the winter ends, but Zoo Boy didn't want to stop this year, and I'm so glad we didn't -- we are getting the most amazing variety of birds coming! All of the above, plus Hairy Woodpeckers, White-Breasted Nuthatches, Goldfinches, and even a male Rose-Breastd Grosbeak. Add to all that the steady patrol of the Barn Swallows that call our barn home, and it's pretty much a tribute to the Audobon Society out there! And for bird lovers like Zoo Boy and me, that's pretty close to nirvana.
1 comment:
i love seeing all this lovely outdoor ROOM. ahhhhh! so inspiring. but the poison ivy scares the *bleep* out of me. i always get the WORST rashes.
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