Wildlife Wednesday – Napping Squirrel

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IMG_3370This is the only napping squirrel I’ve ever seen.
I’m glad it chose to nap in a tree within my line of sight.
I smile each time I look at this photo. I think it’s so cute.

Wishing you all a Wonderful Wednesday!
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*I originally posted my napping squirrel photo May 2013 in my ex-blog

Cherokee Purple Tomato

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Through the years, my brother has mentioned a tomato called a Cherokee Purple. The Cherokee Purple is a beef stake tomato, so it’s a dandy sliced up to put on a sandwich or hamburger. It sounded like it would be a good tomato to grow and eat, but I’d never seen any plants for sale around here.
This year, we found some Cherokee Purple tomato plants for sale. We bought two and planted them. They’re growing well and full of tomatoes. I’ve kept a close eye on the first tomato that began to grow and grew more larger each week. I put my glasses on it to show how large it was when I took photos of it.

I waited patiently and then…

I was so excited the other day to see that the tomato was changing color, ripening beautifully.P1030186Once again, I put my glasses on it to show how large it was. I intended to make a post about this delicious wonder and then…

Sunday, my husband and I went to the garden and saw deer tracks going down by the tomato patch and my gorgeous ripening tomato had been snacked upon. 😦P1030254I was sooo not happy, but there was no sense in getting to upset since we don’t have a fence around the garden. I took some photos and  well, our first Cherokee Purple got it’s own post after all.

Storms visited our area yesterday gave the land a good hearty drink. Our garden sure appreciated it. The tomato vines are full of tomatoes so hopefully, we’ll be able to get to one or two Cherokee Purples before the deer does.

I hope you all are having a good week.

Further Reading:
Cherokee Purple Tomato

 

 

Fan Bird Nest

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P1030106Friday afternoon we had to spend some time cleaning the back-porch ceiling fans. It would seem that birdies have decided that since the fans make handy bee-fob nurseries and it not bother the humans… then the fans should also make wonderful birdie-nest nurseries and it not bother the humans.  Unfortunately, we humans disagree and draw the line at critters nesting in spots that render our appliances useless.P1030118

We always feel sad when we disturb or destroy a nest, but sometimes, it’s necessary. To prevent the birdies from trying to nest on our fans again, we’ll keep our fans running on low for a couple weeks more or less.

Have you had issues with the feathered or furry friends trying to nest where they shouldn’t?
Do you feel sad, like we do when you have to disrupt their nesting?

Here’s wishing you a peaceful co-existence with nature.

anibrd

Male Cow-Killer Ant

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Male Red Velvet Ant

redvelvethMy photo for the ‘2015 WP Weekly Photo Challenge – Vivid’ is a female cow-killer or red velvet ant. In the post I mentioned that they’re actually wasps. The female is a wingless wasp and has a painful sting.
The male looks similar to the female only with black wings and the males doesn’t sting.
The male in the photo is the first one that I’ve had the opportunity to photograph. He’s a smidge smaller than the female and quite fast with his wings.

*You can read more about red velvet ants at Orkin’s website:
http://www.orkin.com/ants/cow-killer-ant/