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Playing with the colors of Summer today…

As most of you know, I’m not one to tinker with my photos in Photoshop or PSP very often. What you see is what comes out of my camera. This time I opened up photoshop and played around with this particular photo to make it pop a little more.

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful HOT Summer weather we’ve been having here in the States.  As much as I love warm weather, we could use some cooling off here in Tennessee. We’ve had temps in the upper 90’s for 2 weeks now and the heat index has been over 100 every day. It would be nice to see some 80’s!

We’ll be heading off to go camping Sunday. ..hoping to get ahead of the July 4th crowds by camping earlier in the week instead of the weekend when spots will be few and far between in the mountains. I’m ready for the cooler nights that the mountains produce here in Tn.

Until next time…..

You mentioned me posting this on Flickr but you were unable to see it. This is our baby.. the little girl I rescued from the middle school area. She’s a big sleeper! This was the first time I’ve seen her with her tongue stuck out though. Scruffy (our Persian) gets excited when you rub him for awhile and sticks his tongue out then gets the hiccups. lol

Foxy

  Hubby, Kris and I took a little drive to the lake yesterday. A few weeks ago when we were there we noticed the boardwalk behind the museum was blocked off. With the amount of trees down I figured it was because of the ice storm earlier this year. This time the barricade was down but it obviously shouldn’t have been. The poor boardwalk is a mess! I hope they intend on fixing this soon. It’s a joy to walk this boardwalk and search for turtles and snakes in the water.

Before we set out for our walk, we had to visit the local squirrel family. Red Fox Squirrels aren’t as shy as most. And they’re a hoot to watch!

From the smallest of turtles…

to the largest…

and even some snakes lurking about in the water…

The destruction was obvious everywhere.

Sad isn’t it?

A little attitude from a Mockingbird who expected to see his favorite brand of cat food on the deck railing but instead..got a dose of regular ole birdseed. lol

  Not the best photo in the world but it speaks volumes. Taken through the back door glass.

Daddy Bluebird would pick up one piece of cat food at a time and give it to his young. I think i need to put out some meal worms. lol

Not exactly what you’re hoping to see when you go out to check the mail.

I heard the birds making an awful noise over towards the ditch bank and noticed something just didn’t look right about the nest box. Looks like a Speckled King snake found a late breakfast. I hit him a few times to try to get him out of the nest box but he was having none of it and eventually curled up completely inside. UGH. At least these were sparrow eggs and not bluebird! My condolences to the parents.   I tried to save them!

I went back out yesterday to see if he was still held up in the box and it seemed like after poking a stick inside that he indeed was. So I got myself a big plastic container and put under it with the intent to knock out the bottom of the box and have him drop inside then clamp the lid down on him and take him off elsewhere. Well my poking was all wrong and all that dropped out was the empty sparrows nest. He was long gone. Now I have a birdhouse to repair.

This is the first snake I’ve seen in the yard so far this year but according to my neighbor, he’s seen 3 or 4 already between our yards. One being a water moccasin! It’s definitely going to be a bad summer for snakes and ticks here. I’ve found 3 ticks on me in the last 2 months. I hate ticks! Just the idea of them burying their little heads into my skin and the possibility of Lyme Disease makes me wary of going outside. I’ll be using OFF more often now and not just for camping trips.

It’s been a very wet past few days with a big thunderstorm passing through and a day of constant drizzle. But today the skies are sunny and the temps are warming back up quickly. A beautiful day for a graduation!

Tiger Lily