MYSTERY BIRD
I'm going to start the blog off today with another mystery bird. This little guy in the pictures below has recently been visiting the Golden Currant bushes outside our living room window. At first I thought he was a Golden-Crowned Kinglet because he is so small. But now I'm thinking he is something else because he doesn't have the reddish-yellow topknot on his head. So, I decided to post a picture here and see if anyone can help me identify him. This bird is about the same size as a Chickadee. I have a guess as to what it might be, but I want to see if anyone else has any ideas.
 |
| What bird is this? |
ROCK PAINTING UPDATE
I thought it might be a good idea to give an update on how my rock painting and hiding is going. So far, I have had 2 of my rocks found and posted on our Facebook rock group. One posted was a rock that Linda hid over in Tacoma when she went there a couple of weekends ago. The other one was a rock I hid yesterday outside the grocery store. Also, I have painted several rocks that were given to the teaching staff at the Montessori school where Linda works. I have several more rocks that I hid in various places, but those either have not been found yet or else they were found but not posted on Facebook. At any rate, I am still working on my rock painting skills. My favorite rock that I have painted so far is my Mount Rainier rock.
 |
| My rendition of Mount Rainier |
This is my favorite rock because Mount Rainier is very special to us. When Linda & I flew to Tacoma in 2005 to visit her sister, we took a trip up to Sunrise. Sunrise is one of the visitor centers on Mount Rainier (click here for more info). Having come from the swamplands of North Carolina, I had never seen anything quite so beautiful. We hiked on one of the meadow trails, and at one point Linda and I stood on one of the lookouts gazing out at the Emmons Glacier. I thought to myself, "This is so beautiful, we need to live here." And so was planted the seed for us to move to the Northwest. Over the course of the next two years, Linda and I made plans to move, and in 2007 we did just that. Although we did not move in the near vicinity of Mount Rainier, it is only an hour and a half away from us, and we still go there about once a year to visit. If it is a clear day, you can see the top of the mountain poking above the hills around Yakima.
 |
| Top: Emmons Glacier, 2005 Bottom: Mount Rainier, 2015 |
UPDATE ON SEEDS
Some of the Savory Herb seeds that I planted in my seed starter have sprouted. To me, they look like alfalfa sprouts that you put on your salad. The Tam Jalapeno, Zavory Habanero, and Shishito pepper seeds have not sprouted yet, but I am still hopeful that they will. Right now, it looks like I have a good crop of popsicle sticks.
 |
| Are you sure you planted seeds? |
RECIPE OF THE WEEK
I am always on the lookout for a good BBQ sauce recipe. Linda can attest to this fact as there are usually several jars of various kinds of BBQ sauce in the freezer or fridge. Last week I came across this recipe for Blueberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce on the Edible Communities website. I decided to give it a try with some chicken wings on the grill. I am here to tell you that they were absolutely fabulous! This is actually two different recipes...at the bottome is a basic, mild BBQ sauce recipe, and then the recipe at the top is what you add into the basic recipe to make the spicy Blueberry Chipotle BBQ sauce. Neither one is hard to make, and I think you will be happy with the results. If you do not want a spicy (hot) sauce, then I suggest you omit the chipotle pepper and adobo sauce. When I made this, I made the full recipe of the Tomato "Q" Sauce, and then I used only half of the ingredients in the recipe for the Blueberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce. I didn't want to make the full blueberry sauce recipe just in case I didn't like it. Now I kind of wish I had gone ahead and made the full recipe. It was that good.
SUMMER UPDATE
I am happy to report that the little Summer Girl has fully integrated into being our resident part-time indoor kitty. But now that warmer weather is upon us, she has decided that she wants to spend more time outside. I figured that would be the case when the weather got better since she just loves running around outside, sleeping in the sun, chasing away birds, and just being lazy (see below). Although we thoroughly enjoyed having her inside most of the day when it was cold, now that it's warm we are content with her coming in only when she wants to. As the weather gets better and better, we will be outside in her realm more often.
That's all for now. Be sure to check back with the blog next week to find out what's happening in our part of the woods!
No comments:
Post a Comment