Another Animal Visitor

 We get many visitors at our house! Here's a little fuzzy one!

You would think with our dog and our one cat that goes outside we wouldn't have so many visitors! 

Here are some of our other visitors; ducks, a squirrel, little footprints, goldfinch, and a funnel web grass spider.

Bright Visitor!

Goldfinch

Beautiful isn't he?

Spring Weather

It's started with rain, a lot of rain. Then tiny hail.

Then this...

They got a little larger then the rain started coming harder and stronger. 

The hail once again got smaller. 

Now, it's just raining. 

We're fine, back to normal.

January Update!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted anything new in such a long time. But, I was in training for a marathon; no um... finishing my doctorate, no, I wish ... Ok, I don't have an exciting excuse. I was just busy here around the house, and seemed to never have time to sit down and post. Horrible I know. Thanks for staying with me.

So first I'll catch up with January!

January 15th was my baby brothers birthday!

He had made a mission trip to Trinidad and Tobago! While he was there her learned to love Doubles which is a common street food there. It is a sandwich like food made with two bara (flat fried breads) filled with channa (curried chick peas/garbanzo beans). He asked me a couple of weeks before his birthday if I thought that we (mom & I) could make him Doubles for his birthday meal. Of course we said we would give it a try. 


I made the bara, and cucumber chutney the day before and the channa the day of his birthday.

He graciously got all the ingredients for me!

0.06 oz of Saffron was $18 dollars! 

 I didn't take step by step photos. I was going to, and I wish I had! Tony want's Doubles again next year for his birthday. Maybe then I'll get the full pictures and recipes on my blog. Here's the one we used.

 Tony said it was the one that reminded him the most of the doubles he had on his trip!

T

Red velvet cake

Two little helpers. Avery on the left (my sister's daughter).  Janie on the left (Tony's daughter).

~♥~ 

On January 21st we were covered in a layer of ice.

That covers the main highlights of January! 

Animals

Since October I have had three posts about our strange visitors. You can reminisce here, here, and here.

We spotted this falcon just sitting in one of our trees in the backyard. In a tree right next to this one, we have a squirrels nest. It was quite funny watching the squirrels peeking out of there nest every few minutes to see if the falcon had left. 

The falcon stayed for awhile, I guess he was taking an afternoon siesta! 

We figured it was a Peregrine falcon that flew to our yard from downtown for a little "country" break from the city (even though we live in the city limits).

Here I've zoomed in closer! It does look like a Peregrine falcon.

(Photo taken from Google search: Peregrine Falcon)

Another Animal Visitor

The other day Audrey was sitting at the computer and 

saw a strange shadow on the other side of the blinds. 

She peeked through and saw this. 

We didn't even scare him when we raised the blinds!

He then ran off!

Have you ever seen a squirrel do that?

I haven't

Still Here...

Back in October, I posted about a Strange House Guest. Well, John (if you read the other post you may remember that Audrey has named him "John", I'm not sure why) is still here and making a a"mansion" in between our kitchen window and screen.

Isn't that weird? Look at all those layers! 

All those little dark speck are tiny bugs he has stored.

And....

there's John. 

Oh boy, since my horrible ordeal with my

 spider bite, I really don't like spiders.

A Strange House Guest

Well, actually he isn't inside the house. He is between the glass and the screen of the kitchen window which is above the sink. 

Audrey has named him "John"

As you can tell in this second picture he has an intricate layering of webs with a funnel opening right behind him in the picture. (Hence why we think he is a funnel web grass spider)

With nothing to use as a guide, it's rather hard to tell how big he is. Looking at the top picture, the length of his body is about the length of a quarter. Then he's very thin across, and of course you have to add his legs. 

I didn't tell my blog friends, but 4 weeks ago I was bit in the leg by a spider. We are not sure what kind. In our area we have brown recluse, funnel web, and wolf spiders. The bite was on my left leg at the base of my shin. The swelling, redness, and dark red rash spread up my leg and spiraling toward my outer leg and up my calf. The dark read rash and swelling stop about 3 inches from the back of my knee. 

The pain was Horrendous 

(and I have a high tolerance to pain)! 

I have migraines and the first week of this spider bite was worse than any migraine I have ever had. 

It is still slightly red and will occasionally still hurt. So with all that said, you can see why I don't really like this "house guest". In the past I didn't really like spiders, but they really didn't bother me either. Now...I don't any of them. Even the little house spiders make me jump out of my skin! 

Oh well, they're every where! So I will have to get use to them I guess.

I tease Audrey that if John "come's on this side of the glass" (inside the house) I would get my gun and shoot him. I wouldn't of course, but I do hope as big as he is that there isn't a way for him to get through an unopened window.  

A Break In The Rain

 Well at least for a few minutes!

Audrey & Oliver both took advantage of  the break in the rain!

Taken from the kitchen window.

She snagged a rose thorn!

Rain + Rain + Rain... = Beautiful Flowers

I'm sure you've heard of the rhyme "April Showers Bring May Flowers". 

(Photo from Photobucket)

Well this year we have had April showers and May showers (with forecasts of a lot more May showers).

(Taken from Cincinnati.com)

However, I'm really not complaining, because the rain really has brought May Flowers!

Thank you Lord for all the beauty around us!

Through the Eyes of a Three Year Old

My niece Janie turned 3 at the beginning of October. She loves to take pictures. Every time she see's a camera lying around she picks it up and starts taking pictures.

The pictures below were taken by her all by herself. Aren't they perfect?

I love seeing pictures through a child's eye! Their lower angle & perspective is such a joy to see. I have also posted "Pictures Through the Eyes of a Thirteen Year Old"! 

I love pictures!