Pepe LePew Jr.

Yesterday evening ,as I was emptying the interior trash cans in preparation for taking the big bins out, out of the corner of my eye I saw a tail. I thought it was Ria (see yesterday's post), but then I saw a baby skunk. With a parent. About 18 inches away from me. I quickly turned on my heel and went inside.

The mama or papa skunk went under the gate but this baby kept wandering around, back and forth, by itself, in our yard. Finally it, too, went under the fence. Bad parenting! (I was afraid it had been left behind but assume it reunited with mom/dad.) They truly are ridiculously cute!

Hi, Neighbor!

 Our gorgeous feline neighbor Ria comes over to visit occasionally...she is like a Slinky, rolling down te steps.

We love her--she is the most dog-like cat ever--she likes to have her belly rubbed!

The Bee Rescuer (Me!)

 I have put out an oriole feeder filled with sugar water and with cups on top for grape jelly; they seem to go nuts for the jelly but not for the sugar water. I was refilling the jelly and noticed that a bee was "swimming" in the sugar water (the holes are obviously large enough for a bee to fall into). I quickly fished her out...

A note: we are having the weather described as "May Gray" (cloudy and chilly), and this was also at the end of the day. Bees need warmth/sun to fly, generally, so...

 First I put her on the ground...she was disoriented and sort of fell over. I then picked her up and put her on my hand so that my body heat could help warm her. She spent the next half hour drying herself off, each leg, her antennae, etc. I was very worried that her wings would be stuck (sticky sugar water!), but she finally opened them up.

As she started to walk around on me, I took her over to a sage plant--where her fellow bee girls were still working the flowers--and I put her on a branch. She hung on and walked to a flower. Yay!

(I went out the next morning, afraid to see a dead bee beneath the bush, but no!) Yay yay yay! 

Ice Cream, de Rigueur

 On national holidays, we eat ice cream. It's the law.

Stuff I Collect Fridays

 For obvious reasons, Fridays are now a very difficult day for blogging. I have blogged about Tallulah Mae on Fridays (and many other days) as long as I have been blogging.

Friday could be just another day, but I am trying out a theme: stuff I collect (and there are MANY things I/we collect, but I will run out of collections much sooner than I ever ran out of pix of my sweet girl).

So: these are clothing brushes, meant to brush the lint, etc., off of your clothes before you set out for the day. The green penguin started the whole thing...I found it at an estate sale; B. has added to my collection over the years. I usually get several each Christmas. Fun! (Yes, some of them are politically incorrect...)

 Judgy ladies are judging you!

Geometry

Geisel Library with moon (and without!).

Woody!

 This lovely is a Nuttall's woodpecker! We saw (and heard!) him a few weeks ago up on the telephone pole behind our house, but he was extremely busy all along the fence yesterday. So pretty--the red head and the amazing feathers on his back (this is the male; the female doesn't have the red head).

Master of Disguise

We see you, little lizardo!

Farewell, Tallulah Mae

 Yesterday we said goodbye to Tallulah Mae, one month into her fifteenth year. The very best dog ever, she will be forever missed. I plan to do a more fitting tribute to her when I am able--I cannot at the moment, as I am so very very sad. B. and I were so very lucky to have her for so long. I'm glad I was able to share her here for so many Fridays. Rest in peace, baby girl.

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Just...

Carpenter/Flower

So happy to see this lovely carpenter bee. We used to see them all the time, but they seem to be much rarer these days, alas. They are solitary and make nests in wood, bamboo, etc. Love them! They pollinate just like our friends the honeybee girls.

Yellow

The fountain is the place to be right now...earlier a crow put something (a cracker, I think) into the fountain, and then this lovely--I think it is a Lesser Goldfinch--and a smaller bright yellow bird were hanging out. The doves visited, too...ah, springtime!