I saw this little green hummingbird aiming for the flower and I was able to get 3 shots in a row of his action.
It is like Ready, Aim, Fire.
Rosharon
Cardinal in the shadow
When you shoot towards a bright area such as towards the sun whatever is in front of that will be a silhouette or a shadow as long as it is darker than the background.
There are at least 8 cardinals that hang around our yard and come to eat. In the early morning, I can get silhouettes quite easily because the sun is rising behind them.
You can tell by the shape of the birds and the head that these are cardinals.
The colors of Crepe Myrtles
Here are some of our crepe myrtles.
We only have one purple one and one red one we have numerous of the pink fushia ones and one white one.
I really do not know how many we have but I think it is around 10 -12 of them. Some are big as a tree because they are much older.
I love crepe myrtle time.
It’s hot
I saw this and I cracked up because I can just see our daughter’s chickens doing this very thing.
Watermelon time
Do you know how to pick out a good watermelon?
First of all, thump the melon you want to get sort of a hollow sound from the thump.
Secondly look for one that has a creamy beige underside this means it was on the ground long enough to ripen. You do not want it to be white it must be cream colored.
If the watermelons still on the vine look for a curling of where the vine is attached.
We do not plant our watermelons we have a dirt pile we toss them on upside down this keeps the birds from eating the seeds and allows the melon to rot and create mulch for the fallen seeds. I only buy Texas watermelons at the store because they seem to be the best to grow in our area.
This is our first year to have watermelons during the right season most of the time we have them in December.
Our biggest watermelon so far weighed a whopping 32.6 pounds it is the one in the pictures below. This watermelon had just been picked so it was not washed off yet it still had some dirt on it.
As you can see when it was cut the color was a bright red and it was sweet.
This was watermelon number 2 and Sunday we picked number 3. So far number 1 and 3 have been the sweetest and they came off the same side of the dirt pile but we are not sure it if was the same vine or not. Watermelon vines grow like crazy and can spread as much as 10 feet or more from the actual start of the plant.
We cut them up and put them in ziplock bags in the refrigerator they stay good for 5 or 6 days and they get ice cold which is my favorite way to eat watermelon.
More goats on the farm
Our daughter and her husband drove 7 hours to pick up 2 more registered Nigerian dairy goats
One grown one already had babies and still has milk she will be bred again in August. Our daughter can practice milking on this goat 1 x a day because she still has milk. The other one was just bred and should have her babies in December. I said, babies, because most goats have multiples.
While they were there they went ahead and bought a buck and they were given a wether to keep the buck company. They say wethers make really good pets.
Now they have a total of 7 goats. I think that will be all the goats for now because some will be having babies and others will be bred when they are old enough.
I hope to get some pictures of them next week to share.
Connections
I was outdoors bright and early Monday morning taking pictures with my Canon 400 mm lens. If I had been out there with any other lens these shots would not have been possible.
While I was shooting a fence post and barbed wire out of the corner of my eye I saw something run past me but about 3 acres over. I looked up and low and behold it was a deer a very large buck. Of course, my camera was not set to be shooting towards the sun but I just started shooting. I had no time to check settings change them or even review the pictures I was taking.
Then all of a sudden here came another buck this one was younger and his rack was not as big as the older one. I was able to take about 12 pictures before they left, of course, my favorites were when they were together.
We see deer here on occasion but normally it is a couple of doe or a doe and a fawn but never bucks and much less never two of them.
In fact, it has been several months since we have seen any deer at all. My husband and I recently talked about it and wondered where they were all hiding.
Over the last week, there have been so many signs right in front of me. There have been lots of butterflies in all colors some I have never seen before, Cardinals, and many bird feathers in a specific order certain colors each day.
All of these things I noticed and even spoke to my sister and my cousin about it. I felt like all these things were my dad trying to get my attention.
When the deer came along it was like a giant billboard flashing right in front of me.
I honestly feel like my dad was trying to tell me he is around and he is always watching over me. At the same time, I think he wanted me to know he sees everything that is going on.
The connections we feel to our deceased loved ones are there as long as we pay attention to the signs.
