WALK AT RANDALL PARK ~ OUR FRIENDLY POLLINATORS ~ BOILED PEANUTS ~ PUZZLE UPDATE ~ PARTING SHOT

WALK AT RANDALL PARK

The last time we took a walk at Randall Park the crew was still in the process of re-doing the walkway around it. We decided to go last Friday morning to see how far the Parks & Recreation crew had gotten with the renovation. It looked as though almost everything had been finished, except for one parking lot. The walkway around the park is now nice and wide. The pond still has orange fencing up around parts of it, so there is still work going on there. We walked out on the observation deck and could see all sorts of ducks and geese swimming around. 

Ducks and Geese

There were a lot of baby ducks at the pond, and they were so cute that I just had to get some video of them. There were several families swimming around with babies of different sizes. I am not sure what kind of ducks they were but I think some of them were Mallards. 

Some of the parents were letting the bigger ducklings swim around by themselves, while other parents were keeping their babies close by. However, all of the babies seemed to be having a good time. Maybe they, too, were glad that it was Friday!

One little guy got separated from his mother and other siblings. He was swimming around all over the pond looking for them. He kept going up to adult ducks and peeping at them. They all ignored him, so he continued on with his search.

It was heartbreaking to see and hear him in this distress. I would have helped him out but I wasn't sure which group he belonged to either. He finally found his family, though, and all was well again.

Safe again, at last

These guys look like teenagers

Lined up

While I was videoing the babies a flock of adult Canada Geese flew overhead, honking loudly. 

The flock flew over the pond and circled around to an open area of the park. It soon became apparent why they went to this area.

We had seen this mating behavior before from the Canada Geese when we walked down at the cemetery. It never ceases to amuse me, though. The males look so funny going after the females with their necks stretched out and heads down. Even though they can get quite aggressive, the females try their best to ignore them. Playing hard to get, I suppose.

OUR FRIENDLY POLLINATORS

One thing we tried our best to do when landscaping our yard was to have plants that would attract bees and other pollinators. We also wanted our plants to be somewhat drought tolerant since we do live in the high desert. We were surprised and happy to see some wonderful pollinator-attracting plants come up completely by accident...Sunflowers. We have had a crop of sunflowers pop up every summer near our bird feeders. So many of them come up that sometimes I have to pull tons of them up so we won't be inundated. We don't even water them and they still come up. 

Sunflowers beside the driveway

This bee has a rust-colored band around his middle

There are many different kinds of bees out there and some of them are hard to identify. The one in the picture above has a rust-colored band around the middle of its body. I looked it up on Google and I believe it is a Tri-Colored Bumblebee. Their range is the Northern US and parts of Canada, so this could be our guy. Regardless of what he is called, we want him in our yard to pollinate our flowers and our vegetables out in the garden.

In addition to the sunflowers, we also have Rudbeckia, which are members of the Coneflower family and are often called Black-Eyed Susans. 

Pollinators like Black-Eyed Susans

We have several different kinds of Gallardia plants in our yard. The bees and other pollinators seem to like them all the same. I don't think they care what color the plant is, only that it has the pollen or nectar that they are looking for.

Some kind of orange insect on a red Gallardia flower

Not only do we provide food for the bees with our nectar-producing flowers, but we also provide water for them. I never noticed this before but the other day we had quite a few bees come to our bird bath and get a drink of water. You never know what you are going to see out there in nature!

Bee sucking up some water

BOILED PEANUTS

I have been craving some boiled peanuts for about 11 years. This is a long time for a Southerner to go without any boiled peanuts. So you can imagine the absolute joy I felt when I found out I could make boiled peanuts in my Instant Pot! As I mentioned a few weeks ago in the blog, Linda found some "raw" peanuts at the fruit stand and we got a 2 pound container. I had to make two batches as I couldn't fit them all in my 3-quart pot at one time. The first ones I made (the shake-down cruise, if you will), I did not cook them long enough but they were still good. I researched recipes in all of my Facebook groups and finally decided on a recipe to try again. Below are the peanuts swimming in water in the pot, ready to be boiled.

I boiled them for 3 hours this time, and they were much better than the first batch. I have almost eaten them all up, so I need to go back to the fruit stand for more. Here is what the finished product looks like.

Ummm....boiled peanuts!

PUZZLE UPDATE

Sometimes when we finish a puzzle we will immediately start a new one, only to get a little ways into it and decide that's not the one we want to do. Linda picked up a bunch of puzzles from our local Senior Center a few weeks ago, so we now have some new ones to put together. We started one puzzle that was a landscape scene, and although it was a Ravensburger brand (one of our favorites), we eventually decided not to continue with it. We've found that landscape puzzles are more frustrating than they are fun because most of them have huge areas of the same, or similar, color. Puzzles with an intricate design are more fun because you feel like you are accomplishing something when you work on them. So, our most recent puzzle that we finally decided on was one of the Senior Center puzzles. This puzzle depicts the art of Rex Ray and is entitled Rallenta.

I love this puzzle! I told Linda that I want to glue this one together (after we put it together a few more times) and hang it up somewhere. It is so colorful and 50's-looking. I would say this was one of the harder puzzles to do, but it was also a lot of fun. That's the key ingredient, fun.

PARTING SHOT

No matter where Linda and I choose to sit outside, Summer Girl always seems to find us. Not that we are trying to get away from her, mind you. I guess she hears us talking so she comes ambling up to see what's going on (so she can report back to the Mothership, because, you know, cats are aliens). Here she is stretched out on the front porch, pretending to be asleep but she is listening to every word we say.

Zzzzzzz

That's all for this week, folks. Check back again next week, and in the meantime, stay cool, just like Summer Girl!

FIRE IN THE SKY ~ SANCTUARY ~ OUR TREE ~ BIRDS ~ ARTY PHOTOS OF THE WEEK ~ GARDEN UPDATE ~ PARTING SHOT

FIRE IN THE SKY

During the summer it stays light here in Yakima until around 10:00, and when we get up in the mornings it has usually been light for an hour or so. We don't stay up very late, so we hardly ever see the night-time sky. One night this week we just happened to be up a little past our usual time. We finally decided to call it quits for the day and headed towards the back of the house. On her way, Linda glanced out the window and exclamed, "Wow!" The clouds in the sky were amazing, so we both went outside to take a look (mosquitoes be damned!). I grabbed my camera on the way out, and we were both rewarded to these gorgeous views below.

Summer sky

Even Yakima sky is Carolina Blue!

I've posted before about sitting outside in my lounge chair in the afternoons and staring up at the sky. We tend not to go outside after supper due to mosquitoes, and I know we miss out on a lot by doing that. But that just makes it an extra-special treat when we do go outside and come across a beautiful sky like the one above.

SANCTUARY

It is so much fun to be able to watch nature in our own back yard. We try to keep our yard safe for the critters and insects (well, except for the Black Cat Ninja). Our efforts result in a variety of visitors on a daily basis. The number of visitors we get is way lower than what we had in North Carolina, however. There, it was commonplace to have 15-20 different species of birds visit our yard in any given day. I would sit outside for hours (with sweat streaming off me) watching the birds, squirrels, butterflies, and dragonflies play around in our back yard. My good friend Sheila even had this sign below made for me by a local potter from Pembroke. I had it in my back yard in North Carolina and now it is in my back yard here in Yakima.

A haven for all critters

Birds are mostly what we get visiting the yard now. In past years we have had the occasional skunk, wild turkey, raccoon, and sage rat make an appearance. But for the most part, it's birds. So you can imagine the excitement when something other than a bird pays us a visit. The past couple of weeks we have seen some butterflies, which is always a good thing. We even saw a lovely dragonfly, but I wasn't quick enough to capture that one with my camera.

Those little buggers are hard to video because they move so fast! Every now and then I get lucky and capture one flitting about. "Flitting" is a most appropriate word for them.

Some of the visitors that we have are not as welcome as the birds and butterflies. Whenever we come across these guys in the video below, we give them a wide berth. I would give this video an "Ew" factor of about 8.

OUR TREE

I posted some pictures a couple of weeks back of our Catalpa tree in full bloom. This is the tree I like to sit under because it provides so much shade. Well, it is not providing quite as much shade now. Our tree is subject to some kind of disease every summer that makes the leaves on random branches dry up and fall off. Sometimes the leaves come back on that branch in a few weeks and sometimes the leaves never come back. We have learned to just put up with it and move on. This year seems to be way worse than previous years, though. It just breaks my heart to see our beautiful tree ravaged this way. I am hoping that most of the leaves come back at some point.

In case you can't tell from the video above just how bad it is, I am including a close-up picture below. It looks like about half of our tree is dropping leaves.

Tree problems

BIRDS

I know you're saying, "Here she goes again with the birds." They just happen to be one of my favorite subjects so you will have to bear with me! I remember one time Linda was reading an article that stated you should work at a job that you love (it was probably an Oprah thing). She asked me if I could have a job doing anything, what would it be? I answered that I would love a job where someone would pay me to sit and watch birds. That would have been my "dream job." Now that I am retired, I can basically do that, I just don't get paid. But that's okay with me. Here are some of my most recent bird observations.

Eurasian Collared Dove in flight

Goldfinch leaving sunflower

Yes, we live near the airport

I'm sorry I don't have an update on the May baby quail. I haven't really seen many quail out in the front yard this week. I am attributing that to the fact that we have had temperatures over 100 degrees and it may be too hot out there for them. It is supposed to cool off a bit for a few days so maybe I will be able to get an updated picture of him/her.

ARTY PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

I love taking close-ups of things I find in the yard. This always affords the opportunity to examine a common subject in greater detail. I find that with close-ups, I see things I wouldn't otherwise notice. Flowers and bees (and sometimes other insects) are favorite subjects for this endeavor.

Close-up of Stargazer Lily

Bee on Perennial Sunflower

GARDEN UPDATE

The garden is still a little behind schedule. I picked my first cucumber, jalapeno pepper, and tomatoes this morning. Also this past week we got our first zucchini, of which I am sure we will have many. I also got another N.C. Squash with a little baby on the side.

These were great on our tofu kabobs!

Destined to be my lunch

Some sort of alien (dill plant)

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl continues to amaze me as to her ability to absolutely do nothing. Here she is stretched out on our back yard pathway. As always, she makes doing nothing look so easy. And, she always looks good doing it.

Hard at work

That's all for this week, my peeps. On a side note, I'm glad the blog has returned to its original colors. Tune in next week to catch up on what's happening in these parts!

FLOWERS IN THE YARD ~ UPDATE ON THE GARDEN ~ THE "NURSERY" ~ VISITOR TO THE BACK GARDEN ~ PUZZLE UPDATE ~ PARTING SHOT

FLOWERS IN THE YARD

I tell you what, we have a beautiful yard, if I do say so myself! Everyone who comes to our house remarks on how pretty all the flowers are, and I always give credit where credit is due. Linda is the reason we have such a lovely yard. She works very hard at taking care of the flower gardens in the yard, and I do the vegetable and herb garden. I think she does a wonderful job. Here are some pictures of some of our flowers so you can judge for yourself.

Our Stargazer Lilies

 A friend of ours gave us the Stargazer Lily plant about 9 years ago and it has gotten bigger and bigger over the years. There are so many blossoms on it that I had to stake it up yesterday because the stems were bent over and almost touching the ground. The flowers are absolutely gorgeous.

Butterfly Bush (top) and Bee Balm (bottom)

I got our Butterfly Bush last year at the Yakima Master Gardeners sale. It was very small and didn't bloom last year, but it grew a bit over last summer. This year it has numerous beautiful blooms on it and we have seen a lot of butterflies going to it. I am hoping, when the hummingbirds return to Yakima on their way back down south, that they will go to it also.

(Clockwise from top) Yellow Currant berries, the Dad Rose, and Lobelia

We bought one Yellow Currant bush a couple of years after we moved to Yakima. Over the years it has proliferated and we have had baby bushes coming up all over the place. We routinely pull them up unless one happens to be in a spot we want a bush. A few years ago, Linda decided to make a hedge of these bushes across the back of the vegetable garden area, and along the side of the house. She carefully transplanted tiny babies along the line where she wanted the hedge, and faithfully watered them in for the first summer so they could establish themselves. We now have a nice hedge growing in both places. The berries of this plant can be picked and made into a jam. I made Currant Jam in the past when Linda's dad was up here visiting, because he loved jam and toast for breakfast.

Hedge along side of house

The garden also yields some flowers when it is producing vegetables. Right now we have a plethera of squash blossoms on all of the squash plants. The flowers are so beautiful when they are open, and when you think about what develops at the base of the flower (the squash itself), you realize they are even more beautiful. These gorgeous pictures below are of the North Carolina Yellow Straight Neck Squash that we grew from seed sent to us by my good friend Sheila.

Squash blossom (top) and squash fruit (bottom)

UPDATE ON THE GARDEN

As I mentioned above, we have loads of squash growing out in the garden. The potato plants are doing great, and the cucumber plants are starting to get bigger and creep along the ground. Here is a picture of our biggest cucumber plant, with a little spoiled brat beside it for size comparison (sitting in the shade, of course).

Lemon Cucumber (left) and Summer Girl (right)

We have a few peppers on the pepper plants. Some of them are finally getting bigger, although the two Habaneros and one of the Jalapenos are still small. Also, we have some tomatoes coming on too, so everything is starting to get in the swing.

Black Krim tomato (top) and Sun Sugar Cherry tomato (bottom)

THE "NURSERY"

Right before we went on vacation I took some video of the sparrows underneath our feeder in the front yard. I was hoping to get video of the quail babies, but they didn't show so I settled for the sparrows. They were quite comical as there were probably 10 or 15 babies out there, hopping around. I think the parents were trying to teach them to fend for themselves. The babies seemed to be having a good time playing in the dirt.

There was some bizarre behavior on display by some of these youngsters. It appeared to me that they were exploring the various objects out there, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do with them.

As the videos above show, one little guy sees another one pick up a twig and fly off, so he tries to imitate his friend but doesn't quite know what to do. And then we have a little sparrow inside a Basket of Gold plant, and it looks like he is trying to take a bath in it like they do in the dirt. These little fellows were very entertaining to watch!

I was hoping to have better news to give you on the quail babies, but I have only seen the one May baby and the Papa since we got back from vacation. He's growing, though, so Papa is doing a good job of taking care of him!

Baby May

VISITOR TO THE BACK GARDEN

Last week we finally had a visitor to our garden that I have been looking forward to seeing. A gorgeous Western Tiger Swallowtail butterfly came to our butterfly bush and visited each flower on it. I was able to get some good video of her as she sipped on the nectar from the flowers. As far as I can tell, this one is a female because she has a lot of blue on her wings. The males have more black than blue at the bottom of the wings.

I saw one again earlier this week so I took some pictures of it to compare. I don't know if this is the same butterfly, but it looks like a female as well. The video above was taken on July 3rd, so in the span of a week's time this butterfly's wing has taken some damage. Their lifespan is only two weeks, so by the end of that time their wings are sometimes in tatters.

Top picture taken 7/3, bottom taken 7/9

PUZZLE UPDATE

It was my turn to pick out which puzzle we were going to work on after we got back from vacation. I picked out my favorite puzzle thus far. We did this one way back in February and really enjoyed it, so I picked it to do again. It is the first puzzle that we got using Colin Thompson's design (thank you, Emily!). This one is called "The Gardener's Cupboard" and we will probably finish it today or tomorrow. I just love this type of puzzle because there are so many little interesting things to see on each piece.

The Gardener's Cupboard

PARTING SHOT

Whenever I go outside and get out my lounge chair to sit under the tree, Summer Girl usually comes nonchalantly ambling up, and this is where she usually winds up.

Sitting in the lap of luxury

I apologize for the look of this week's blog. Google apparently changed something and the colors went all wacky. I will try to get it fixed before next week's blog because these colors are not very easy to read. Thanks for your patience.

That's it for this week, my friends. Please check back again next week because I have a feeling that we will be harvesting something out of the garden by then! Until then, have a safe week!

BIRTHDAY VACATION ~ UPDATE ON THE KIDS ~ PARTING SHOT

BIRTHDAY VACATION

Last week, Linda and I took a couple of days around my birthday to take a quick vacation to Leavenworth, Washington. We went there last year on my vacation and had a good time, so we decided to go back. Last year, my back was hurting because I had tweaked it right before we left, so this year I was careful not to do that.

Our vacation spot

We arrived in Leavenworth on the day before my birthday. The plan was to spend our two days enjoying ourselves with lots of shopping, eating, and drinking...beer (it is, after all, a Bavarian village, so = great beer) and coffee.

Our favorite brewery in Leavenworth, Icicle Brewing

Our favorite coffee spot, Starbucks

Our first day there began with lunch at our favorite brewery, Icicle Brewing. We ate outside because it was a beautiful day, although a bit chilly. It was several degrees cooler in Leavenworth since it is higher in elevation than Yakima, and also is right beside mountains.

Next, we walked around the shops and checked out all the restaurants to see where we wanted to have supper. About mid-afternoon we decided it was time to take a break from all the walking and looking, so we visited Viadolce, a gelato shop beside an Italian restaurant. I couldn't make up my mind on what flavor to choose, so I got one scoop each of Pistachio gelato and Mango Pineapple sorbetto. They were both excellent!

I would love some right now!

We walked back to our motel and rested for a bit. One thing we love about Leavenworth is that everything is right downtown, so you can stay nearby and walk anywhere. Also, there are lots of nature trails that are only a few minutes drive away. This little town pretty much has everything you would want for a short vacation.

Vacation home base

After resting we decided to head to our restaurant of choice for supper. They make the best artisan pizzas at Blewett Brewing, so that wasn't a hard decision to make. Before we had supper, though, we wanted to sample some of their beer. We ordered a flight and we got to choose which five beers we wanted on the flight. Here's what we thought of it...

All of their beers were IPA's except one, and that's not our preferred type of beer. Yet, we still drank all of the flight and then ordered another pint each to have with our pizza! We were on vacation, you know. By now we were pretty tired and headed back to the motel to turn in early. We had a nature hike planned for the next day so we wanted to be well-rested.


The next morning (my birthday) we set out for our nature hike, which was up the road just a little way to a place called Ski Hill. Leavenworth is a major destination for winter sports, but in the summer Ski Hill is open for walks along the many trails that crisscross the area. Just as we got out of the parking lot we were greeted by a cute little wren singing us a song.

The majority of our walk was in forest, which we love to do because we love the greenery. We were both amazed at how quiet it was. You could barely hear a sound. I was surprised there were not any birds chirping, but we soon found out that there were quite a few mountain bikers going along the trails and I am sure they were the reason the birds were so quiet.

Of course, there were many Ponderosa Pine trees along the trail. Linda and I both had to step off the trail to sniff one, just to make sure it smelled like vanilla. Yep, it did!

Too bad we don't have smell-o-vision

There were a lot of pretty wild flowers along the trail. The temperature was very pleasant making this the perfect day and place for a walk in the forest.

We exited off the trail onto a road leading back to the parking lot. Across from where we were was a gorgeous view of the valley below.

When we got back to town it was getting close to lunch time, so we stopped by a Dan's Food Market and picked up a sandwich to split. They make the best deli sandwiches and they are huge. We headed to Waterfront Park to have a picnic lunch. We arrived at the park and were greeted by signs warning us that a mother bear and her cubs had been spotted in the area. We found a picnic table and had a nice lunch while watching some kids play football nearby. I was also busy watching the bushes for bears. We even spotted a couple of baby deer off in the distance. After lunch, we walked along the hiking trail which goes beside the Wenatchee River, then crossed over the river to Blackbird Island. Afterwards. we headed to Starbucks so I could get my birthday reward drink. It was still a bit chilly outside and there was quite a wind blowing, so I was glad to wrap my hands around a nice, hot coffee.

We did a bit more shopping that afternoon for presents for some upcoming birthdays. We found a kitchen store (always my favorite) that had some hilarious tea towels, pot holders, and such. I took a few pictures of them and this one below is the only one that is safe for posting.

By now it was time to head to our favorite brewery for a celebratory beer. I also bought a new beer mug, and upon telling the bartender that it was my birthday, I was treated to a free beer! There's nothing like getting a free coffee and a free beer all in the same day! I chose my favorite, the Colchuck Raspberry Wheat, and Linda had her favorite, Dark Persuasion. Dark Persuasion is a chocolate stout with coconut overtones, and tastes like you are drinking a slice of German Chocolate cake. If you ever get a chance to have one, give it a try.

The best kind of beer...free

My birthday glass

We walked to our restaurant on the other end of town for my birthday supper. We took it slow not because of the beer, but because we were so tired. I had chosen Los Camperos, a Mexican restaurant, because I was craving nachos. Typically when we go to Leavenworth we always wind up having German (Bavarian) food for meals. I wanted to try something different, thus the nachos. They did not disappoint. I was so full after all the indulgences of the last two days that I could not even finish my meal.

Los Camperos

By the time we walked back to our motel, I was literally dragging. My feet and left hip were killing me. When I took off my Fitbit step tracker and synched it up for the day, I could see why. I've never gotten this many steps in one day. Hopefully I burned off those nachos.

Whew!

It was a perfect birthday spent doing the things that I love with the person that I love most. There is nothing better in this whole wide world.

UPDATE ON THE KIDS

I am not happy to report that we have only seen one baby quail since we got back from vacation. I haven't seen the one with the bad foot, so I'm afraid he's no longer with us. The June family with the 10+ babies seem to have moved on to somewhere else. Perhaps they do not like visiting a yard where there is a cat. The one remaining May baby is now on his own as we have seen him foraging around in the front yard without the parents. Here is a picture of baby May that I took this morning. You have to look closely because his coloring is almost the same as the ground. It's still to soon to tell if it's a male or female.

PARTING SHOT

Yesterday Summer Girl and I were sitting under the tree in my lounge chair and I was explaining to her about the upcoming July 4th holiday and all the noise that she was likely to hear. I don't think she was listening to me.

What?

Hopefully I will have more updates on the baby quail next week. Until then, I hope everyone has a relaxing and safe July 4th Holiday!