Friday Foto Friends~ This n That

Hello Everyone!  It's Friday already, and our Sand Hill Crane Colts, "Spring" and "Trumpet", are a week old and growing like weeds!  

We enjoy their daily visits to our back yard along the shore of Still Waters Pond with their parents...

Mom and Dad are quite protective and careful, but they seem to be pretty trusting of us and enjoy a little handful of bird seed when we throw it over the porch rail to them.

As you can see, these youngsters are quite healthy and strong and ready to go wherever Mom and Dad lead them.

Our kitties, Blackie Sue and Sunshine, don't appear to be much of a threat to the Crane family.  They don't appear to be much of a threat to anyone! LOL. Lazy kitties on a Friday afternoon...

Yes, they are quite at home here now. And I'm still not too sure about Blackie Sue's "condition".  Sometimes I think she's just fat. But time will tell...

Speaking of special friends and their pets...Lily Grace (click HERE for a story about when Lily Grace met Bailey for the first time) wanted to say hello. She and her dog Bailey were out for a stroll in the land of the teddy bears in the guest bedroom.  But there's something else special about this:

If you noticed the pillow behind Lily Grace and Bailey, you will see a lovely little girl walking her very fancy Poodle.  Well, Lily Grace said she wanted to do the same thing with Bailey, so here you go...Bailey may not be a fancy Poodle, but she is a very nice Beagle, and Lily Grace may not be a fancy ballerina, but she does have flowers in her hair and a flowery skirt just like the little girl in the embroidered picture! Never mind that she is wearing her flowery skirt over her Ladybug Pajamas! It's still kind of chilly here overnight and in the mornings, and the Pj's under her skirt feel really nice and cozy.

Link to the story of when I made this pillow. There's quite a special story there, well worth going back to read. The embroidery was originally done by my hubby's grandmother, "Nanny Martin", and I made it into that pillow for hubby's cousin Janice on her birthday...but read the link to the post to get the whole story.

      

Let's see, what else is new?  Well, today hubby and I did our civic duty and we voted (early voting) for the special election that is taking place in our district to elect a Congressman to the House of Representatives to replace a Congressman who was selected by President Trump for his cabinet.   I won't say who we voted for, but let's just say we made  the "right" choice and voted for a very "fine" candidate.

 The actual election is Tuesday, April 1st, so for those here in our part of the state, you still have time to vote! Don't forget!! It's a very important seat.

We drove by the Old Brush General Store again this week to see what progress is being made. They have put the tar paper or whatever it is that goes under the metal roof on top of the plywood.

I expect the new roofing material will be put on this next week sometime.  They still have a long way to go to restore this old building, but at least it's a start.

We took a walk down the walking trail in old downtown Interlachen, and saw some wildflowers and wisteria growing in the empty lots where the old houses used to be before the highway was widened.

Coral Bean

I think this is a kind of Trumpet Vine

Spiderwort

And more beautiful Wisteria, growing up the side of a palm tree!

Every season brings out more and more beauty to enjoy!

Well, I thought I was out of pictures to share, but while I am sitting here trying to write this post, I keep getting interrupted by all the excitement outside my window...

These Pesky Muscovy Ducks keep coming up here on our back porch, or the roof, or in the yard, or wherever they want to go, and they like to eat the cats' food, or the cranes' food...and they are making themselves to be general pests.

This Canada Goose is about to let the ducks know what he thinks of them in his territory...

 He chased them away... Hooray!

And was very proud of himself and talking to me saying, "There, I took care of those pests!"

So I had just thrown out a little bit of birdseed to reward him when I noticed that the Male Sand Hill Crane had come back around for his afternoon snack.  He has safely deposited the mother crane and babies over on their nest for the night, and then he comes over to see if he can forage up a little more food before settling down for the night himself.  I wasn't sure what the Geese and Crane were going to do, but since the babies weren't present, the Crane didn't seem to have any problem with the geese.  Earlier in the day he had thoroughly chased them away when the babies were present. It was quite a sight, but I wasn't fast enough with my camera to capture it.  There was a lot of honking and flapping of wings going on! LOL.

Meanwhile, Blackie Sue and Sunshine where just trying to mind their own business up on the porch. 

They had just eaten their supper, and I know those ducks were trying to sneak back up there to eat whatever was left.

Blackie Sue was reassuring Sunshine that everything was okay. They are really good buddies and very sweet with each other.

 Meanwhile, the geese and Mr. Crane are all getting along fine.

The ducks are discussing their plans to get at that food...

They would like to get to the bird seed, but the geese and crane have it under their control.

The Geese are turning back around to chase them away again...

And even though I quit taking pictures, they did chase them off again, and I chased them off the porch a couple more times, and finally just gave up. The cats' food has all been eaten so they don't have any reason to come back up on the porch.

I may have to contact someone to come and trap these ducks and remove them as they are definitely becoming a nuisance.  We shall see. I don't want to harm them, but they are upsetting the balance of nature here on Still Waters Pond  (and upsetting my balance of nature too. LOL).

Here's some good thoughts to keep things in perspective...and remember that God is always in control.