END OF SUMMER WRAP-UP ~~ PARTING SHOT

END OF SUMMER WRAP-UP

Although it has been a relatively cool summer here in Yakima, we can still tell that Autumn has arrived. There is a definite chill in the air, especially in the mornings. We have had quite a few "dreary" days lately, and we actually had some rain. The leaves are beginning to turn color, but not nearly at a pace that they did back in North Carolina. I wish I could be driving through the NC mountains right now to see all the different colors on the mountainsides. But we have to be content with what we have here.

Changes

Since the blog has been taken up with our trip pictures and videos for the last two months, I am going to try and play "catch up" with this blog. I will be showcasing some pictures and videos that I took after we got back from our trip.

A couple of weeks after we got home I decided that I wanted to go to Randall Park to check on things there. We were so hoping to see some Monarch butterflies this summer, but I wasn't exactly sure when they would arrive in Yakima. There are several large patches of milkweed at the park, so we headed over there one morning to see what we could see. The milkweed plants were in full bloom and were absolutely beautiful.

I was even able to catch a bumblebee going to one of the flowers.

There were many ducks on the pond, with groups of them on the surrounding banks usually consisting of the mother duck and her ducklings. The babies were no longer little, and sometimes it was hard to tell which ones were babies and which ones were adults. In the picture below, I'm not sure if that's a juvenile with some downy feathers still on its head, or if it's an adult female trying on a new hat.

About a month after we got home from the trip we decided to have my birthday celebration, since I spent my actual birthday in a car all day, sick with a cold. As usual, Linda's sister Wendy came over to join us. This has become a tradition, just like when we go over to the Seattle side of the mountains for Wendy's and Emily's birthday celebration. We had some good laughs, as usual, good food and drinkiepoos. Whenever the three of us are together we sometimes get silly (especially during drinkiepoo), but I strive to get a serious photo of the three of us each time. Sometimes that just doesn't work out because, you know, there's always one in every crowd.

Come on now!

We returned the favor in August and went over to Seattle for our other traditional celebration. Wendy's and Emily's birthdays are only a few days apart, so we combine it into one big pot-luck party. It is always a good time. And, as you can see, the silliness continues.

Nice hat!

The day after the birthday party, Linda, Emily and I went to Woodland Park Zoo. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, a bit warm but not too hot. And the best thing of all was NO RAIN. If you know Seattle at all, you know how thankful we were for that. At the zoo, we headed immediately for the butterfly house (natch). The flowers around the gardens were still blooming, so that made the walk to that exhibit all the more enjoyable. We even saw a few hummingbirds. See if you can spot one in the pictures below.

The zoo had some fabulous exhibits of all kinds of animals. We stopped at a few on the way to the aviary, because you know, birds! Whenever I find myself in a zoo situation, I usually don't like to go by the primate exhibits, just because the monkeys and chimpanzees look too much like little people in cages. But Woodland Park Zoo has some nice habitat areas that are close to the actual native environment, so it didn't look like they were in prison. I snapped a few quick pictures, but when we got to the gorilla exhibit, I stopped and took my time. There was one gorilla that was just leaning on his hands, looking around. I took his picture, and the expression on his face and the way the light is hitting it was just about perfect. I think this is one of my favorite pictures.

Once at the aviary, we saw so many beautiful exotic birds that it was almost overwhelming. The vibrant colors they display makes them markedly different from the mostly brown birds we have in Yakima. Of course, I was in bird heaven!

Back at home in Yakima, I tried to sit outside and watch the birds as much as I could, knowing that the impending cold weather wasn't far away. We had a couple of little Red-Breasted Nuthatches (I actually think there may have been three) coming to our feeder on a regular basis. I sat out in my lounge chair and tried to catch a good picture of one. They are so fast because they dart in to the feeder, grab a seed, and then high-tail it out of there to either eat the seed in the tree, or "hide" it for later. I did manage to get one really nice picture, and this little guy actually posed for me!

Hello, there!

One time while I was sitting outside in the my chair, I spotted a small butterfly on the butterfly bush, and he looked like he was caught in something. I couldn't just sit there and watch him struggle, so I got up to check it out. I got a small stick and worked to free him from whatever he was stuck on. Come to find out that he was in the clutches of a nefarious bug known as the Ambush Bug (read about it here). As soon as I forced him free, the butterfly flew away. Here is a short video of this bug, which I have been squishing every chance I get. You don't mess with my butterflies or my birds!!

I have been diligently searching around the yard lately for Praying Mantis, because Linda and I had spotted several this summer. We love the smaller green ones, like in the picture below. I don't think I have seen any of the larger brownish ones this year. The larger ones are not so good to have in your yard if you like the hummingbirds because they have been known to eat those cute little birdies!

I happened to see one a few weeks later and she looked like she was about to burst with eggs. I keep trying to find a mantis egg casing, but they are very hard to spot.

Last week, Linda and I took our annual trip to Leavenworth, Washington. We usually go there for my birthday, but this year we weren't here at that time so we decided to go in September. The temperatures were much cooler than they usually are at the end of June. We had a good time, as usual, taking a nature walk, going to the antique mall, shopping at all the funky little shops in town, and of course, our favorite pastime while in Leavenworth...drinking really GREAT beer!

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl has been patient since she hasn't had her weekly feature in the blog. She wants all of her many fans to know that she is doing just fine. She's had a busy summer of napping in the sun, napping in the shade, and now she is ready for a busy fall and winter of napping on the big bed. Here she is, hard at work perfecting her craft.

And that's the way it went for Summer 2019. Check back again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest (and Summer Girl, too)!