"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands........" 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Some very unusual dinner guests arrived at my front door

first, grabbing the screen door to knock, 

and being brave enough to stay when I opened the door to them.
Curious about  me and very hungry.

There were actually 4 of them.  They scurried away, allowing me to place dinner scraps onto the porch

as I stepped back inside, they hurried back and enjoyed their meal.

Of course, all of this, excited Taboo as he watched from the safety of the locked screen.
I know it is not really wise to feed these wild creatures........but once in awhile, it is a delight to be able to watch them.

The very next day, as I was working my gardens, I noticed a road runner coming out of my greenhouse. I had the door opened for the day to allow the spring air into the plants.

In no time at all, the road runner ran back into the greenhouse with a stick in it's beak.

She was a little concerned with me taking her photo...........I was concerned that she was going to topple and bust every plant that I have in there. If you look just behind her, in the top photo, 
you will see a large black container that has no plant, but still full of potting soil.

She had plans that day on making herself a nice cozy nest.  As much as I would have loved to have this new nursery.......the greenhouse is not the safe place she thinks it is. I have to keep the doors closed at night because raccoon and the neighbors dogs,  have in the past, gotten into the greenhouse and destroyed everything.  
She soon realized that I would be too nosy for a serene nest sitting period and soon left. 

During this time of year, there is a sweet fragrance to the air from the wild blossoming Algerita Berry bushes that grow abundantly across the prairie and ranch land.

The ranch land has a barbed wire fence post.........so aged with time, and has many of these beautiful bushes clinging to it .  

They are so sweet smelling that the honey bees are working all over them
These bushes will soon produce vibrant red berries that are wonderful to eat, but better to make jelly from........if you can gather them before the hungry birds eat them up.
I am thinking about digging up a few of these in the winter to transplant onto the damaged meadow that I recently posted about.
The meadow..........still lying in wait for planting..........still a bit of distress for me because of having to still deal with the people of the electric company......though as nice as they can be.
When it all boils down to the end.......
never, never, never, trust and sign papers with anyone to be on your land..........
did I say NEVER?

If you love meatloaf........and want to try a different flavor to it.........
stop by my cooking blog for this wonderful recipe.
Instead of the usual tomato sauce topping, this is an upside down topping, that is made from brown sugar, cranberry sauce, and orange zest.
Unusual sounding I know.........but so delicious. 
It is a recipe from the 1930's from one of my favorite cookbooks
The story of the author will also be on my post.
You can find it all here

14 comments:

Sherri Farley said...

Your dinner guests must have been very hungry, the word is out that you are a friend of the animals. I have critters that stop by nightly to eat the extra cat food left in the bowl & sometimes I leave a little something left over from dinner. Nothing wrong with living in harmony with our little neighbors. We have road runners here, but their numbers are few. I always grin when I see one running, they are so fast. Yes, I live about 30 minutes from Branson, Mo. right in the heart of the Ozarks.

lil red hen said...

I'm sure the little critters will be back for seconds! Sometimes we have a road runner sitting on the hay bales waiting for the farmer to lift one up and expose grub worms; then it can feast.

One of our daughters takes walks through our field and woods along the creek and takes beautiful pictures of things in nature. Recently there have been people who bought land on the other side of the creek and plan to build a house. She's very upset, thinking they will scare off the wildlife with their canoe and noise. Some things are just out of our control I guess.

mamasmercantile said...

Wow, very impressive dinner guests.

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

I do NOT like raccoons at all! Sure they are cute, but they are so dang destructive and their screech is horrible in the middle of the night.

What a cute road runner.

Happy Spring ~ FlowerLady

Elaine/Muddling Through said...

How exciting to have such wild visitors this week! And I have never heard of those berries. I long to visit. One of these days, I just might. :)

kiwikid said...

How special to have so many wild visitors!! Of course raccoons look like cute little people but we do not live with them!! Will they return for more feeding? I have never seen a photo of a road runner before, only the cartoon!! Lol!! Isn't there much food about naturally for them at the moment? The yellow flowering bush looks beautiful but has big spikes!! The bees look very busy!

Connie said...

I love your photos, Kathleen, especially the one close up of the roadrunner and of the flowering bush. Raccoons kind of scare me. You were brave to allow them to visit you.

Debra said...

Such a nice post! I do love your road runners-they are so cute! But I'm glad you showed her it wasn't a good spot for a nest. I've never heard of the strange bush-so pretty. I'd love to visit your part of the US sometime-it's so different from ours. I do hope you can reclaim your meadow....

Anonymous said...

My you have a lot of wildlife! I am enjoying finding your blog, actually your blogs! I lived in Longview TX one year 35 years ago (during a month-long heatwave summer of 114 degrees and no rain)! I miss it a bit (but we were homesick so came back north) because it holds wonderful memories of starting out in my marriage life and having my first baby being born a Texan! Nice pictures of flowers, etc also. I hope your meadow gets restored! Amazing amount of snow for your area lately. Andrea

KathyB. said...

Your wildlife is so interesting and unique to your part of the country, Often the landscape appears barren and scorched, but your pictures show so many wild creatures, flowers, trees, bushes, and bees flourish. I always enjoy visiting you.

Debbie said...

How I envy you those warm temps. 50's today so far but they promised 71. We'll see. Right now I hear the furnace running.
I'd be tempted to feed those little bandits too.
Deb

letslearnembroidery said...

Living among the nature is therapeutic, isn't it?

Haddock said...

Love those bandied friends of yours. Had spotted a full family at Orcas Island where we stayed, but by the time I got my camera, they fled.
So thats a road runner. Looks similar to the female Koel that we have here.

A Colorful World said...

How fun!!! Love the young raccoons! And it would have been cool to have a roadrunner nest nearby but you are right, it would have caused some issues. Great photos!