Wordless Wednesday - Katie's part Rabbit???

Well, I knew she was a Chihuahua cross, but I didn't realize she's a Chihuahua/Rabbit cross!

From me and Katie, have a great Wordless Wednesday, everyone!  :)

Another visit from the Hairy Woodpecker

I love this campsite - I'm so close to this tree with the hummingbird feeder, and anything on the lower branches that moves catches my attention.  In the last few minutes I saw a tiny squirrel, the one with the stripes that looks like a chipmunk, run along the lower branch and sit. He had a small Pinyon pine cone in his front paws that he was working with.  It would have been a great photo, but I'm so close that if I move for the camera, I often scare away the critters, and that's what happened.  It's the second time I've seen him there, but he's pretty sensitive to any movement inside the rig and runs away.

Then two Pinyon Jays landed on the same spot.  One was twisting his head quizzically toward the feeder, and I was ready and hoping to get the shot if he tried to feed from it.  But he and his companion jumped up to the higher limbs then flew away.

Anyway, this little guy stayed long enough for me to get some good shots yesterday, and here he is:

Tons of rain still.  I don't know how long the summer monsoons last here because in 2012 I headed north into Colorado and missed most of it, I think.

Look at how the wind is blowing the hummingbird feeder. 

Last night a little after 10 I was in bed listening to the radio, which is right by my pillow.  The rain was so hard on the roof, I turned up the radio all the way and couldn't hear it. I finally turned it off and the noise on the roof made it hard to sleep.  Finally it slowed down.

Raindrops bouncing off the street.  The street was WET and the drops were BIG.

Boy, I'm so glad I don't have any leaks.  This summer has sure been a good leak testing time with all the rain, and it's been blowing from all sides.

Look at the rain pouring down the windows.

I am still enjoying the rain and finding the storms exciting.  I'm sure glad I like rain.

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)

Hummers - why can't they find the food?

Here are some of the hummingbird photos where they couldn't find the nectar, I've never seen them do this before:

 

Finally!

It was fun watching them, but I did feel bad for the poor birds.  Mostly the Rufous has been here lately, and he knows exactly where to go. 

WELCOME to our newest follower, Skylady whose blog is RV There Yet?  She and her husband, RV - yes, those are his initials - retired and moved from the Washington, DC area to Florida, then decided they weren't ready to settle down yet.  Skylady suggested RVing, and to her surprise, her husband agreed!  Or as she says in her blog, she almost croaked when he agreed with her.  They have been full-timing since 2007 and are still going strong in their Class A Tiffen motor home. Check out her blog to see where they recently had lunch - very interesting!  Welcome aboard, Skylady, Katie and I are happy to have you along on our travels!  :)  

From me and Katie, have a great Monday, everyone!  :)

Storming like crazy

Right now it's raining cats and dogs and hail - thunder and lightening.  A really good storm.  The temperature really dropped.  I'm barefooted and wearing shorts, and suddenly my legs and feet are cold.  I just love this changeable weather this time of year at Bluewater.  Katie and I took a nice walk this morning down to the Visitor's Center to chat with Hazel, and while we were there, a big rainstorm came up.  By the time we left, it was dry and good walking weather. 

The sun has been out, and then suddenly, this storm - WOW, I just saw lightening and immediately there was a thunder clap that almost stopped my heart.  It was CLOSE.  I love this.  (I hope we live through it.)

Anyway, I just had to post while the storm was going on.  So exciting!

Here are some photos from yesterday. More hummingbirds - the Rufous did well feeding, as well as the male Black-chinned, but the female kept sticking it's beak over and under and around the hole in the middle of the yellow plastic flower.  It even hopped on top of the feeder and flew under, testing the underside with it's beak.  It always finally made it to the food, though.  I thought the feeder was leaking through all the seams at first, but no, she was just looking in all the wrong places.

 

 

 

They are so beautiful and entertaining, I love taking photos of hummingbirds!   :)

And during our evening drive, Hazel and I had a nice surprise and saw a horse family by the lake.  A stallion, mare, yearling and baby.  We were losing the light, so these are pretty flat, colorwise, and only these photos turned out at all.  Hopefully more horses will be back.  With all the rain, we have lots of grasses and ground cover for them to eat.

Beautiful Mare and her Baby

Look at those long legs.

Staying close to Mom.

I can't believe it, but it's still raining with thunder and lightening.  So, I'm going to Publish this and go back to enjoying the light show and all the noise.

From Me and Katie, have a great Friday, everyone!  :)

Hello from Bluewater Lake - again :)

A couple of commenters asked how I did the photo posted in Wordless Wednesday yesterday.  I love good, free programs, and this was done with a free program called Funny Photo Maker.  It has a lot of different options to use for your photos, and some of them are pretty funny.  You'll probably be seeing a few more photos I've changed with that program in the future.

We drove back to Bluewater Lake yesterday morning and tried out a new campsite that lots of people seem to like.  It's right on the corner of two roads, a main road and the end of the loop I was in last time.  For me, though, there was too much traffic, and every time a car drove by, I had to look up.  Very distracting for me. Also, I like to have a tree close so I can hang my feeders and watch the birds. These were a little too far, and since I had other options, I decided to move at the end of the day.

At around 6 pm I looked down the road and our campsite from last time was still vacant, so we drove over there.  I really like the campsite we're in now and we'll stay here for the next two weeks.  I was lucky that all the the sites I like were vacant yesterday, so I really had a choice.

I put out my hummingbird feeder this morning and have already had one hummer.  And look what I saw when I looked out the window a few minutes ago:

Female Hairy Woodpecker.  Now, that's a horrible name, isn't it, for such a beautiful bird.

I took this one through the screen and was surprised it is so clear. I was afraid if I moved to get a shot through the other window, she'd fly away.

I don't see a red cap of feathers on her head, so I think she's a female.

I saw this guy last time I was here, he is a male - see the red cap on his head?

I have to show you this photo of a big rig that parked on the street where I was overnighting a couple of days ago.  I went over and talked to him.  He said this set up is 100 feet long, and when he adds all his trailers, as he did last week, the rig is 120 feet long.  How would you like to drive something this long?!?

I was talking to volunteers here at the park, Kathy and Don, yesterday evening, and they told me that El Morro, which is about 60 miles from here, is now fee free to enter and/or camp.  Hazel and Cari and I drove there last year and walked all around the visitor's center and took one of the short walks.  I don't remember driving through the campground, but since it's free now, I'll be heading there for my next six days out.  It's a beautiful area with lots of things to see and do.  So now I have what I hope will be an even better plan than Grants for next time. 

Katie and I were walking after a heavy rain during our last visit and there were three large mushrooms in the dirt that had sprouted. On one of them was a beautiful blue beetle.  I did some research and found he is a Pleasing Fungus Beetle.  He was about an inch long. I've never seen a blue beetle before, and found him very interesting.  The black dots are actually depressions, and from what I read, he is black with a blue wing cap. 

Pleasing Fungus Beetle - and what do you know...here he is on a fungus.  :)

I don't usually post photos from other sites, but this one really shows this beetle and the black dot depressions, and the color is so much brighter.

Photo by Jeff Mitton.

 A big Welcome to our two new Followers:

Ramble Ann has only been blogging for a couple of months.  She and her husband have their house in escrow after only a month on the market - WOW - and they are going to be hitting the road in an RV.  Ann is into photography, so I'm sure her blog will have some good photos of their travels.  She didn't post much about the sale or their RVing future, so I hope I have that right. Check out Ramble Ann's World - it's interesting and varied and I've enjoyed reading it. (Ann, your first post didn't mention that it's your first, am I correct that you are a new blogger?  I love your header!)

Eileen from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, is one of our blogging neighbors to the north.  She actually has two blogs, a little of this, a dash of that and Kitty Korner.  Eileen has been blogging since 2011 and keeps up with her posting on both blogs.  I have trouble keeping up with just one! Check them out, the Kitty Korner blog has lots of photos of her three beautiful cats, and a little of this, a dash of that covers lots of subjects.

Welcome aboard to you both!  Katie and I are happy to have you along with us! :)

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)