Just Sayin'

found here.

Road Runner Conversation

Yep. They're sitting on a nest - we've seen both Mama and Papa. Yesterday evening, one of them had a very large lizard dangling from his mouth. I chased the black cat away. I have a feeling I'm going to do a lot of cat chasing. Anybody have any good ideas to keep him away, without scaring the road runners? Should I spray around the tree with amonia/vinegar? Put out moth balls?

This morning I went outside and had a quiet discussion with whichever parent-bird was sitting on the nest. He listened to me, cocking his head to the side, trying to understand this strange language.

They are fast, and difficult to get a good picture! I snapped this one from inside my little office - Mrs RoadRunner had come to visit in the little courtyard. Picture is taken from the other side of the screen - sorry!

I'm excited for baby road runners!

It's a wild country with lots of predators, so I'm going to keep fingers and toes crossed.

Something ELSE in the Tree!

(photo courtesy wikipedia)

I remember the first time I ever saw a roadrunner, and not the one that tortures Wily E Coyote. (did I spell that right??)

Although they can fly, they spend most of their time on the ground. We've seen them catch lizards. Sometimes they are very curious, and don't run away.

I've heard that they can get very used to humans.

This morning, I saw one hop in the big mesquite tree in our front 'yard' (not really a yard, no grass...).

I wandered outside to see what he was doing.

He/She has built a nest.

See his/her head? Right in the middle of the picture, through all the leafy foliage.
So, I guess I'm going to have to try to keep the maurading cat away, and hope for the best.
Right after I snapped this picture, she ran out of the tree, and then I could see her nest.

We had a birds nest on our side porch for the past couple of weeks, I was enjoying watching Mama feed her babies. The other day, I realized that I had not heard them all day. I climbed up to see - gone. There are fresh claw marks on the post nearby. Owl? Bobcat? :(

I'll keep my fingers crossed for the possible road runner babies.

Wild Life in the Desert

One of the things I do love about where we live is the wildlife.

I love the tarantulas. See my latest pics HERE. So Cute!!

I love seeing the coyotes and bobcats - no pictures to share as they are too quick for me.

The rattlesnakes scare me to death - no pictures, I'm too busy screaming. Although here are some pics of another snake HERE

I adore all the wild bunnies - see HERE

But one of most majestic of the desert wildlife are the hawks. A couple days ago, I was sitting in my little office, which looks out onto the front of our house. We have a few very big old mesquite trees. And a wonderful visitor came to hang out for a while. I took a LOT of pictures, hope you enjoy them. He (she?) never took his eyes off of me. I think he was trying to decide if I was too big to eat. I talked softly to him the whole time, and he just sat there. I walked away before he flew away.

He's probably about 2 feet tall.

I think he is a Harris Hawk, perhaps a juvenile (due to his spotted breast).

Amazing.

Caught my Eye

In the hotter months in Tucson, we leave the horses out in the big arena at night. Room to roam, lie down, sleep in the really comfy loamy dirt. I bring them up to their stalls (with lots of shade, critical in the heat) in the morning.

This morning, I went out to bring up the horses.

And something caught my eye.

In the dirt, it blended in.

I was so excited to see this.

He looks just like a miniature dinosaur.

If he gets scared, he will shoot blood from his eyes, I kid you not.

Regal Horned Toad Lizard.

So. Cool.

Hawk

Can you see him? This picture was taken from my little office window, and the hawk - easily 2 feet tall, landed in a mesquite tree just outside. I love this about living in the southwest.

Nature's Enchantment Giveaway!

Rainbow Acorns! 6 Large Rainbow Acorns, needle felted wool for nature tables, waldorf inspired

Here are six large "acorns", made with real acorn tops and needle-felted bottoms. They are made using wool roving in the colors of the rainbow.

Haven't you ever seen a purple acorn?!

They each measure about 1-1 1/2" in length and are great for nature tables or seasonal tables.

All of the colors are primary, colors of the rainbow

A wonderful unique treasure!

CONTEST RULES:

1. Please VISIT Nature's Enchantment. (One of my all-time favorite Etsy shops!)

2. Pick your favorite item.

3. Come back to my Woolies blog and leave a comment with your favorite item.

4. NEW RULE: you must leave your email address, or blog address. If you do not want to post it here, you can contact me privately at either of my shops - here are the links to them:Buster and boo, or Woolies.Just because you have registered with blogger does not make your email address visible. If I cannot reach you, you cannot win.

5. Contest will end one week from today, September 7th at 12 midnight.

PS If you LOVE Nature's Enchantment, you will probably love all the other Natural Kids Team shops. You can search for them by going to the search bar on Etsy and typing in NaturalKids Team, or you can see a few of them by going to Natural Kids Store. All the members strive to bring you wonderful toys and children's products made from natural materials. Thank you!

the winner is MOONBEAM! #47 - thanks to all who entered!!

Monsoon!

Our last spring and summer in Philadelphia, it rained 18 weekends in a row. We were happy to leave, and come to a land of endless blue skies and sunshine.



Blue skies and sunshine can get really OLD, after a while.



Ecstasy. The monsoon season has come to the Old Pueblo. !! I LOVE it when there are clouds in the sky. It breaks up the monotony.




But yesterday, the clouds REALLY built up. Late in the day, it started. Lightning, thunder. You can see rain shafts, off to the west. You know it's raining, over there. You wait and hope for rain where you are. The first few big drops, then it rolls in. Thunder, Lightning, RAIN. I sat outside, on my porch, and reveled in the smell of the rain. My drought stricken trees reveled in the wetness.

These pictures of the lightning over the city of Tucson, were taken by stickb0y7, you can find him on flickr. Used with permission. Amazing.

So, for now, I'll sit back and wait for the next storm. Impatiently.

A Bug's Life

Wow. I went to open the kitchen door early this morning, and was greeted by a rather LARGE bug. Just hanging out on the screen door.

I sort of feel like I stepped into the movie, A Bug's Life. If you've never seen it, rent it sometime - it's a great kid's movie, but fun for adult's too.

Anyway, the bug is about 4 inches long and it's a GRASSHOPPER. I would like to point out that we live in the desert, and there is no grass here. So where did he come from? Should I invite him in for tea, or coffee, or...what do grasshopper's eat??

Say good morning:

View from my road

We live on a dirt road. I grew up in the suburbs of a big city - Philadelphia, so to say that I live on a dirt road just puts the most gigantic smile on my face. My dream is to live on a dirt road that is 20 miles from my nearest neighbor.....not there yet! (I always seem to have noisy neighbors, dogs that bark 24/7 or blast really bad music). Anyway, that is Mt Lemmon - the highest peak in the Catalina mountains.

High Desert

We are from Philadelphia, so the move to Tucson was a BIG change for us. We love it here, and the incredible beauty of the high desert will never cease to amaze me.
Tucson is surrounded by mountains. We live in the foothills of a small mountain range, the Tortolitas. To our immediate east is the Catalinas - the highest peak is Mt Lemmon, at over 9000 feet. There is snow up there - one road up - with a ski resort at the top (no, not a big resort, just a few runs). Catalina state park is where I used to ride Dozer, and many times riding there I thought I had fallen into a wild west movie.
Here's a pic of a the Canyon Del Oro wash - this is dry MUCH of the year, but when the rains come in the summer, or the snow melts, this can turn into a raging river.