Friday’s Farm Fotos

October 8, 2010

Time for a round-up of photos from around the farm this week.  We’ve had some beautiful weather, and critters and people are all enjoying it.

The guineas are done nesting for the year, and back in one big flock.  Here they are in our front yard. . .

picture of guinea fowl

Foraging Guineas

They hatched a lot of keets, but made a poor showing for keeping them!  There are only two survivors.  Guineas will NOT be winning the mother of the year award!

The chickens like to forage in the grass too.  It’s a nice buffet of seeds and bugs.

picture of red rooster

Strolling along. . .

They not only forage in the front yard and fields, they go down around the pond too.

picture of chickens

Grazing by the pond.

And they are often near the birdbath, since they like to use it for their local watering hole.

picture of polish silver laced rooster

The Patriarch Rooster of the Chicken Clan

While the chickens are running around, the goat and llama are taking a break and enjoying the sunshine.

photo of goat and llama

Resting in the sunshine.

Since the weather was cooler, Toby and I decided to walk in the woods.  In the bottom pasture, there are still some butterflies flitting around.

picture of Gulf Fritillary butterfly

Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae)

There are still white flowers blooming in the fields and woods.

picture of plants with white flowers

Anybody know what these plants are?

Since ya’ll are so good at identifying birds, how about trees?  There is a pretty tall tree in our woods with purplish stems at the top.

photo of tree

Name this tree!

And to help with the identification, here is a closer look at the leaves of the tree . . .

picture of tree

A closer look at the leaves. . .

And now, a closer look at those purple stems at the top of the tree. . .

photo of tree

Looks like there was fruit here?

So how about it, anyone know what the tree is?

And now, it’s time to jump into the week-end!

picture of chicken

"Gotta Fly!"

Hope ya’ll have a GREAT week-end!

Friday the 13th & Phobias On The Farm

August 13, 2010

Another Friday on the farm, this being Friday the 13th.  I don’t see any black cats and I guess I don’t walk under ladders even if it’s not the 13th.  And I don’t really suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia anyway.  How’s that for a mouthful!?  It’s a big word that means you’ve got a phobia about Friday the 13th.  (From frigga meaning “Friday” and triskaidekaphobia (or paraskevidekatriaphobia) which is derived from the combination of the Greek words Paraskeví (meaning “Friday”), and dekatreís ( meaning “thirteen”) attached to phobía ( from phóbos, meaning “fear”)).

I do not suffer from probatokaunlophobia . . .

wet llama

I do not fear the wet llama. . .

Or a fear of llamas.  And obviously, she does not have hydrophobia (fear of water).

Nor do I have alektorophobia. . .

chicken birds

I do not fear chickens!

Nope, no chicken phobia.  I don’t even have apiphobia!

honeybee

No fear of bees!

Oh, I don’t want to get caught in the middle of a swarm of bees, but that’s not apiphobia, or fear of bees, that’s just good sense!

Thankfully, I do NOT have anthrophobia either.

flowerbed

I do not fear flowers.

That would be sad to be afraid of flowers. 

Don’t really have to worry about nyctophobia or selenophobia either.

trees and moon

No fear of dark or the moon.

(If I did have a fear of dark or any other real phobia, I’d go on over to someplace like the Fear Of Dark and learn how to get rid of my phobia!)

I will confess, however, that there might be a smidgen of the well known arachnophobia lurking in my psyche.

Garden spider on web

On the web is fine. Crawling on me is not.

But while spiders of a certain size give me the heebie-jeebies, I can live with the fear.  … mostly.

So not a lot of phobias here on the farm.  Happy Friday the 13th!

Friday’s Farm Fotos

June 25, 2010

Another Friday, and just a few photos from around the farm this week.  Well, actually, I just took these pictures this morning, while doing morning chores and then walking to the mailbox with my crazy gotta-love-him dog, Toby.

The phlox is finally blooming in the flower bed on the northern end of the house.

Phlox paniculata 'David'

There are some daylilies hiding in the shadows along the steps.

Daylily 'Stella d'Oro'

By the pond, there are always dragonflies.  I like this picture because you can see how transparent the wings are.

Just Resting A Minute

There are also butterflies flitting around.  This morning a nice yellow and black swallowtail was sipping water off the leaves in the shadows.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

And there was even a frog sitting on some pond plants in the swallow water near the bank.

No lily pad in sight I'm afraid!

And waiting on me to quit being so poky and GET OUT OF THE SUN was Toby in shade at the top of the steps.

It's too hot to stay in the sunshine!

When you’ve got a black fur coat, the sun feels really hot really fast!

And there you have it, the same old stuff here on the farm!  Hope you have a great week-end, and thanks for stopping by!

Around the pond…

June 18, 2010

Here’s what I’m seeing these days around the pond. . .

There’s Lizard Tail plants growing around the edge. They like wet places, obviously!

Lizard Tail Plant (Saururus cernuus)

More surprisingly, a butterfly bush is growing on the bank.  How it got there, I have no idea.

Butterly Bush (Buddleia davidii)

There are morning glories growing wild, mostly white ones.

Morning Glory (Ipomoinea . .)

And of course, we see lots of these flitting around. . .

Taking a short break!

There are also a whole lot of frogs in the pond, but getting a picture of them is rather difficult!

But once in a while I catch one. . .

We hear a whole lot more than we see!

I’m sure there are a lot more things living in the water than I’m seeing, but that’s it for now!

It looks like spring!

March 31, 2010

We’ve got some lovely weather this week, and true to the south, it’s even going to be rather hot later on!  At least if the weatherman’s predictions are right!

There are still a lot of daffodils blooming in the flowerbeds. . .

Narcissus in bloom

Daffodils (Narcissus)

And some of the other spring flowers are starting to poke through the earth.

Trillium recurvatum

Prairie trillium (Trillium recurvatum)

There aren’t any blooms on the trillim yet, but they are popping up all over the woods.

There are also beds of Trout Lilies springing up. . .

Bed of Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) in the woods.

Trout Lily ( Erythronium americanum)

But here again, it will be a little while before they are in bloom.

The dandelions are blooming here and there. . .

Violets and dandelions.

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) and violets (Viola papilionacea)

Some consider dandelions and wild violets to be weeds, but I rather like seeing them.

Even the honeybees are coming out to enjoy the sunshine and look for food.

Honeybee on flower

Beeee-ware!

The perennials are starting to poke through the ground too, like these hosta plants and live-forever.

Hostas in spring

Hosta shoots

.

New growth on Sedum 'Matrona'

Sedum 'Matrona'

Whether it is good or bad, the pond is even showing green plant growth. . .

Pond in spring.

Pond with green plants growing.

This is one of the best parts of the year.  Unfortunately, we don’t have what I’d call spring-like days – moderately warm – for long.  Nope, it gets hot all too quickly.

But for now, it looks like spring!

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