"Don't release balloons"

Hey, my letter to the editor 

made it into today's edition of the 

San Antonio Express-News! 

Don't release balloons
   Re: “Remembrance of courage” (Metro, May 5, a photo and caption depicting a balloon release during the Fire Service Survivors Conference here):
   Please help spread the word: Balloons and their string return to earth as litter that can be eaten by wildlife, terrestrial and marine. End result: death. According to the Marine Conservation Society, the string can strangle or entangle animals, too.

Sheryl Smith-Rodgers,
Blanco

Mother's Day in the Wildscape

Actually, I should be more accurate and say this is two days before Mother's Day in our Wildscape. Last Friday, I helped out with "Day in the Park," an annual event for third graders at Blanco State Park. I was gone all morning and returned home after 1 p.m. or so. When I stepped into my office, I saw the blinds part way up and a white envelope propped on the window sill. I picked up the envelope and then headed into our bedroom to change clothes.

"I found an envelope!" I hollered to James.

"Did you look outside?" he asked.

"No," I replied. He was already in the office. Perplexed but wondering if he might have bought me a bird bath after all, I walked back over to the window. 

OH MY GOODNESS! I couldn't believe what I saw! Not only a bird bath but a brand new flower bed! Already planted with salvias and lantanas! 

I opened the envelope....it was a sweet Mother's Day card from James. Now that's a LOT of love, right?

 

P.S. Now it's getting even harder to write! Instead of working, I've got more to watch out my window instead! THANK YOU, JAMES! I love you!!

May 2011 in our Wildscape

Time for my monthly photos! As you can see, we need rain so much....

The new pink house at the Pink House

My cousin Rick Dobie made this bird house just for me. Took awhile but we finally hung it up! (James did all the work.) Thank you, Rick!

UPDATE–This very evening, a wren couple are moving into the bottom duplex!....wait a minute, folks.... Correction....BOTH apartments are getting occupied!!

More to see out my window!

James just installed a new hook outside my office window and hung a hummingbird feeder. Another excuse not to write! 

UPDATE–Forty minutes after James hung this, I heard my first visitors! I turned from at my desk and saw two humming birds, already fighting over the new feeder!

Don't mind me!

This afternoon, I was working on the laptop at the dining room table when I looked up and saw this butterfly, hanging out on the hummingbird feeder and trying to nectar. I watched it for a while. Then I couldn't stand it any longer. I fetched James' Kodak, stood at the window and shot a progression of photos. I'd never seen a butterfly at a hummingbird feeder before. Or one that stayed so long, no matter who else showed up....
 

While I stood there, shooting, a wasp arrived and got on board. The butterfly–a hairstreak species–stood its ground. Hummingbirds came and went. The butterfly stayed. It did, however, meander over and around the feeder. (On some of the images, you really have to search before you can spot it.) From about the ninth photo and beyond below, James photographed those. And he got some really great shots.....

One lucky gal

Last Saturday, James cleaned the garage, and I helped. "Is this a black widow?" he asked, pointing to a corner above the concrete floor. 

"If it's black, odds are that it is," I replied. 

Oh, yeah, it was definitely a black widow.

"You know I have to kill it, right?" James said.

I use the word "said" because he did not say it like a question.

"Yes, I know," I replied. 

I had turned and was heading into the house so he could perform the execution when I heard him say, "Unless you have something to put her in....."
 

"OK!"

In the kitchen, I hurriedly found a jar in a cabinet, then ran back out to the garage. 

"You're NOT THE MAN I MARRIED!" I wailed, jokingly. 

Because he's not. The guy I married five years ago next Monday would have killed that spider or any spider on the spot! Now he has a new appreciation for them. 

Even black widows. 

I know, I know, you're think we're both nuts.

At any rate, the widow stayed in the jar a few days. Now and then, James would pick up the jar from the dining room window sill and peer at her.

"You didn't want to be born a black widow, did you?" James would murmur in his soothing voice. "I bet you wanted to be a crab spider!"

(Yes, James now talks to spiders, too. I've ruined him.)

Yesterday, the three of us got in the car and headed to San Antonio for Easter with James' family. However, on the way, James pulled over on a ranch road (which will remain unidentified), and I jumped out of the car with the jar in my hands. I walked way over to some brush and dumped out the widow. Or at least, I tried to dump her out. She didn't want to leave her cobweb. So I got a little stick and encouraged her to vacate the premises. Which she did. Then she scrambled under a dead twig.  

Three hours later, we headed back home.

"So do you want to stop and check on the black widow?" I teased James.

"NO," he said, shaking his head firmly.

James DOES have his limits.