Catybug planted our sunflowers this year, this is one from a variety blend of seeds. When I looked up at it (it’s about 10 foot tall) it was just glowing from the sun behind it.

I planted Lantana again this year because last year it grew into nice sized bushes that the swallowtails really loved. It’s a little measly thing this year, but still has pretty blooms that are definitely worth a view through the lens.

A friend of ours brought over a bird yesterday not knowing what it was, just that it seemed pretty friendly and that maybe it was a domestic bird. I opened up the box to find this fledgling robin. We immediately set to digging in the backyard to find some fresh worms, and Catybug enjoyed mothering this little fella until dark, when we sent him on his way (with a very full belly). Robins stay with their babies until they can fly, which he can, but he wasn’t doing so well in the hunting for food department.

Pretty calm around us, he just made himself comfortable on the concrete and demanded his dinner.

In anything other than news, I’ve been enjoying a week “off”. Off meaning I’m not working on things for other people, but I’m also not really going anywhere or doing anything spectacular. The girls and I had a nice day of shopping, another day of cleaning and organizing their room, and basically lounging, taking walks, and playing games. This is my summer “vacation”. heh! I’ll be painting next week, so you’ll see a sketch soon.

How have you been?

I started Tucker’s kerchief’s today, since there’s so much detailing involved I could only do so much before I had to stop and let this layer dry. There’s a lot of blue lettering/detailing and painting wet in wet just doesn’t work for this kind of detail. Once both kerchief’s are done and dry, I’ll be able to proceed with Tucker’s final layer, and his fur will lay and curl over the top of the kerchief.

More food from the garden for dinner lastnight - we harvested all of the beets (too early, but oh well - they’re still delish!), more broccoli, green beans and three green peppers. Our cucumbers are doing really well and they’re super tasty, three more will be ready in the next day or two. The cauliflower has finally made an appearance, I’ll get a pic of that for you because it’s really cool looking. White on top, PURPLE on the inside. Purple. Is that natures way of telling you when it’s ready- when it’s not purple anymore?

Anyway, back to work for me - it’s been a suckish work week and I’m not getting near as much done as I’d like to thanks to a goofy head cold thing that is making me feel all lightheaded and yuk. Today is a little more clear so I’d better get crackin’ while the thinkin’ is good.

Wild vine wrapped around a power line @ our Church

Because I haven’t said much at all this week, I thought I’d give you a little Weekend Wrap-up of how the week went for me, over here, all childless and “eh” and stuff. So here’s the skinny version, Leanne Lite, you might say, just to bring you up to speed.

• I missed my kids.
• I worked on a few blog designs this week, Lisa Riggs is up and launched but I’ve still been in there tinkering and changing and tweaking and stuff. I launched Individual Sole last week but am also working on some added features for that project. I also launched Hyp2 yesterday morning. So yeah, I stayed pretty busy this week and as always, there’s still more to do.
• I’ve been Plurking. I’ve quickly become addicted to this sweet little service that is like a group IM. I love it because it brings your friends together, if they didn’t know each other before. I am happy that my dear friend Taba is getting to know my other wonderful friend Pamibe. It’s cool to watch that friendship happen. If/when you sign up (using my referral link, of course), find me here.
• I have been swarmed by gnats and flying bity things. The Mississippi River (which I live a mile uphill from) and its overflowing banks and standing waters are breeding these nasty, horrid swarms of bity things. I am anxious for hubby to mow today so I can spray my magical bug spray. And I am grateful that we had 2 tubes of Benedryl cream when the girls left for camp.
• I was excited to see my first little Baby Burpless Cucumber take off this week, it’s about the size of a dill pickle now. I am amazed at how fast vegetables grow over the course of one week.
• I missed my kids.
• I wondered why not one oil exec wants to be the hero of the nation by simply taking a pay cut and putting some of his crazy capitalistic profits on hold and only marking up product a fixed 5-10%. I wonder if one company did it, and one chain of stations lowered their price by a buck a gallon, if they understand that they would reap the rewards of that anti-capitalistic movement by increased sales, production and profits probably wouldn’t change much since they’d be on top of the world with their little superhero cape waving in the wind. And then I wonder if I “get it” at all, because if I were one of those execs, I’d want the cape. Guys always want capes. So I wonder if that’s even possible. I wish it were. It all seems like price gauging to me.
• I also wonder why this Democratic Nominee running for President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, is working so hard to help a former millionaire (or whatever she was/is) like Clinton get out of debt with all of this fund raising and writing her personal checks and crap all while he pretends to care about the lower and middle class who are broke and can’t fill their gas tanks. Why didn’t he write 100 - $20 checks to people at the pumps instead of $2000 to someone like Hillary who should have stopped spending frivolously months ago? Wouldn’t that have made SUCH an impact on voters? Guess maybe Hillary is more important to him than all of us silly Americans. Hey, maybe we should pitch in and help out Hillary, too, huh? Send her some cash, since things must be so difficult for her, after all - she continued on with her lost campaign and probably took out a second mortgage on one of her many homes to do it. Poor gal.

/sarcasm

• I received a cute little pink Nintendo DS for my birthday in January. I found a game in May that I love, Word Jong, that I’ve played religiously every evening. It’s a single player game, so it’s all mine. No sharing. I’ve made it to the top level now, level 40. Here are some fun facts about me and my Word Jong game:

  - Time Played: 12:08
  - 2,085 Words created
  - 186 Puzzles completed
  - Average word length, 4.49 letters
  - Total score - 40,174
  - Rank: Diamond Dragon

  Anyone who knows me knows I’m not big on gaming things. I wanted the thing for Brain Age Games because I’m not the sharpest tack in the box, if you know what I’m sayin. But now I’m coming up with words. I love words. Obviously not very big words, but still. Words. This week, though, I missed my kids. I couldn’t think of any words. I didn’t play.

• The girls are home from camp. YAYYYYYYY!! I missed my kids. I couldn’t sqwish them hard enough. And Catybug? Is growing up so fast. I realized quickly that I need to work harder to stay in her confidence, I so desperately don’t want her to feel like she has no one to talk to during this phase in her life. It’s hard enough, going through all those changes as a pre-teen, but feeling like you’re all alone and your questions are stupid and you feel totally *not* normal - no one should feel that way. Chickeymonkey? Is more like a Chattermonkey now. Good gravy someone get that girl a piece of gum.
• I picked up 250 patio pavers so we could extend our 6×18 patio to 10×18, and actually fit a patio set on it. They were on sale for $0.25 a piece. A quarter a piece. NOTHING costs a quarter anymore. They cost a whopping $62.50. What a bargain patio! Those are our weekend plans.

So, what’d I miss this week? How have you been? What are your weekend plans?

YellowRose asked for photos of people’s favorite coffee mugs, and since the mugs out of which I sip my latte every morning are such a vital part of my life, I thought it would be nice to share.

Let me introduce you to my mug, Sunshine. (Yes I named my mug.) This mug was gifted to me several years ago by my BFF Paige. She found another one, I believe it is blue, that she uses herself, and sent this happy daffodil to me. I just love it. It is old, and tattered - the glaze is a little spiderweb’ish on the inside, there are hairline fractures in the glaze and tiny chips missing from around the lip, but I will not part with it. It is my Sunshine, my only Sunshine….

I thought you might also like to know that the cutting board that I photographed my mugshot on was also a gifty from Paige. It’s a Ruby Throated Hummingbird board. I love it, too. She spoils me. (and I also know she reads me, and she wonders if I ever use it. Yes, I absolutely do!)

We’re not exactly city folk here, but not entirely country, either - so it’s not often you see a sight like this!

Two turkeys sipped water from the tray of the flower pot this morning as we drove by after dropping (sniff) the girls (sniff) off (sniff sniff) to go to church camp (sniffle, sob, sniff).

My hubby (Happy Anniversary, Hubby!) spotted them and thankfully they really didn’t care about having a car pull up beside them. They were busy getting a drinky drink. I thought you might like to see a little more detail, since they’re all wild and stuff - here you go:

Isn’t his feathering just beauuutiful? I want to print this photo and have cans of paint made to match his feathers.

It’s odd though, I’m guessing if you’re not familiar with wild turkeys you kind of have this preconceived notion of how they look based on all those “Tom the Turkey” images from childhood. I know I do - so when I see them I’m always thinking they must not be for eatin’, ’cause turkeys meant for eatin’ look like this:

Photo: KCKPLYS.com Miss Ima Turkey Goodie Can (linked to source)

Hm. Part of me thinks I should adjust this perception, and the other part of me thinks “nah, those wild turkeys probably taste all gamey.”

I walked into my living room to put my camera into Standard Hummingbird Photo Op Positioning when lo and behold, there was a stranger on their feeder. Good timing, I thought.

This cute little House Wren hopped around, posing for me in several positions. I wondered why he was there. Did he just enjoy the reflection in the window? Did he really think he was going to get nectar? Or maybe it was just a convenient and safe place to land while he’s still a little wobbly on the wings.

Who knows - I’m just grateful for the timing. It’s certainly not often you see something other than Hummingbirds - and ants - on a Hummingbird feeder.

You know a Lorikeet loves you when …
he sticks his nectar-loving tongue up your nose.

Moments later, Catybug snuggled him up to her chest and rubbed his head until he made teenie tiny squeeks of joy. This is a hand fed infant Rainbow Lorikeet that we met at our local zoo in Lorikeet Landing, an aviary with a couple dozen Lories flying around.