SATURDAY MORNING AT THE BIRD FEEDER - A THUNDERSTORM

Those birdies just can't stop telling groaners but that's how it goes on a 

Saturday Morning at the Bird Feeder.

Thanks for flying in.

I wish you a very happy and blessed day.

For our international friends to translate using the widget on my sidebar.

Photo 1:

“It rained hard last night.”

“I was glad to get back to my nest.”

“Mr. And Mrs. had to drive around a fallen tree on a back road. Someone had put those emergency cones out.”

Photo 2:

“If  a thunderstorm starts and a band is playing, who is the most likely one to get hit by lightning?”

Photo 3:

“The Conductor of course.”

“Oh boy! I can’t believe you said that.”

A CANADA GOOSE FAMILY

Canada Geese mate the second year and are monogamous throughout their lives, but if a mate is lost, the remaining goose will find another mate. They breed earlier in the season than most birds. The goslings usually hatch when the plants are at their highest nutritional value. Those residing in temperate climates begin nesting as soon as the conditions are favorable. Those nesting further north start in late April or early May.Most nest sites are located near water. The sites chosen offer protection from the wind while still giving the female a clear line of sight. The nest is usually built in a depression on the ground and lined with soft grass and feathers.A clutch usually consists of 4 to 8 eggs. Both parents assume responsibility for protecting the nest and incubating the eggs, but the female spends more time incubating the eggs. She will leave the nest long enough to feed and bathe before returning to her brood. During the incubation phase (25 to 28 days), the adults molt, losing their flight feathers and cannot fly.Newly hatched Canada Geese are covered with a yellow down.The gosling's down gives way to feathers and usually fledge (fly) between 6 and 9 weeks of age. The family unit remains together until the spring migration.Females always return to their place of origin, nesting close to where they hatched.The family unit stays together with the female leading, goslings following along in a row with the gander bringing up the rear. This arrangement is often called a crèche. Both parents protect their young, becoming violent when necessary.

I have always enjoyed being around the Canada Goose. These photos are from my archives.

Have a wonderful day everyone,

and thanks for stopping by.

MY TWO FAVORITE THINGS IN LIFE...

"My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything.  The perfect day, riding a bike to the library."

~Peter Golkin~

The photo came from my archives. It was taken at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens (Virginia) way back when. I added the books for today's quote. My two favorite things in life (should say people) and goes without saying, are husband and son. But I have great memories from childhood of riding my bicycle up to the library and filling my basket to overflowing. I am still an avid book reader. I enjoy reading on my iPad, but there's nothing like the feel of turning the pages of an honest-to-goodness paper book, and I occasionally add a new one to my collection. We have built-in bookcases in our family room at home, also overflowing. Sitting in the corner reading one of those books is another favorite pastime. Gregg is also an avid reader, as is our son.  

TREE TRIMMING

Gregg took all of these photos. He was very interested in the process. His first photo will give you an idea how high our fir tree has grown. Look for the young man standing on a branch. Our fir tree was about 10 foot high when we moved in, and then its root system hit the water table and it was Jack in the Beanstalk time. For the last 30 years plus, we have watched it grow and grow and grow. That young man, all of them, are very fit! They also have a good head for heights, and we are very grateful to them.

This all came about when a young man knocked on the door early this afternoon. Gregg talked to him for a while, and later a small group of young men, who have been very busy in our neighborhood, turned up with the equipment. All very hard working, very professional. They did a great job and cleaned every scrap up at the end. We talked to them last year when they were looking for work, but it was lower down on our priority list back then as it was manageable. Gregg and our son did some of the trimming in the lower branches. We bought a trimmer on a pole for the thinner ones.

Our trees will need to be taken down eventually, especially this fir tree that is reaching up to the sky. This is the one that showered us with a thousand pinecones in the winter. I love that tree, I love all our trees, but we are concerned that this one's roots are going to get into the foundation of the house and that would be dreadful. They are already growing out of the soil and along the ground. On reflection it was planted too close to the house, but when we moved in it was quite small.

Years ago (30+) before we moved in, one of our backyard trees fell onto our house. This information came from one of our neighbors when I mentioned how big the trees were getting, voicing some concern. One in particular was a favorite. Its branches used to overlap half our deck. It gave the feeling of being in a forest and the birds loved those lower branches. They always paid us back by putting on quite a show. I would sit underneath and watch them hop from branch to branch, squirrels too.

Sadly, the tree was dying and for safety reasons, not only for us but for our neighbors, we had it cut down. I still miss that tree and the refuge it gave to the birds! The tree that fell on the house was a dead one also. You can see the post I did about it at this link.

Today these young men are trimming the branches away from the house, and several others were only inches away. We had a small one resting on our bathroom window, and the other in the front, its branches were getting too close to our bedroom window. They took care of the fir tree first, getting rid of a lot of the lower branches. Then we have a crepe myrtle just behind the house. A job well done but, the writing is on the wall, and next year, maybe sooner I don't know, we will have to get them taken down.

Good news for these young men, our neighbors came home when they were cleaning up. They need a couple of trees taken down in their back yard, and gave them the job after Gregg recommended them. They could see the great job. 

As for those dogwood trees we wanted to plant in their place, we had to put those plans aside as we also had to have the deck replaced, again for safety reasons. Priorities! It's still a plan. You'll read about what we were planning in the link above that takes you to my other post about that first tree take-down.

Perhaps you have seen my dream cottages on my odds and bods posts? If I had my way, we would live in the middle of a forest, but that would be another story. Never going to happen but it's fun to conjure up the whimsical side of my personality at times.

I guess you can call me a tree hugger. This quote says it all.

"Alone with myself

The trees bend to caress me

The shade hugs my heart."

~Candy Polgar~

Thanks for looking and 

I wish you all a continued good week.

            

THE HAPPY TART IN FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3RD, 2026

Last week our son treated us to a favorite restaurant of his and our daughter-in-law. They had visited the previous week. Gregg was over the bad cold and cough he had, and was eager to get out, as was I. We found The Happy Tart a very unassuming and very pleasant place, with excellent food. They ordered at the counter and they were brought to the table not so long afterwards.

I had my eye on this framed photo on the wall, overlooking a canal in Amsterdam. Totally black and white except for the bicycle which was red. You can’t tell from this photo but that red of the bicycle really popped. Come to think of it, so did the color of the wall.

The menu photo also shows part of the ceiling, which interested me. I was having difficulty taking a photo later but son obliged…

and took this for me. Thanks son! 

It is the first time I have been in a 100% gluten-free bakery. I didn’t know beforehand and I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was surprised at how delicious the pastry was on the quiche, and the same for Gregg’s chicken pot pie (top left). The crispy potatoes were delicious too. Also, the desserts later. On the right is my Quiche Lorraine and below is our son's Quiche Florentine, all individual sizes. Not shown is a small takeaway canister with a veggie salad.

Our desserts were a slice of opera cake for me, so delicious and chocolate-y. Son’s heart-shaped one was a New York cheesecake concoction and Gregg’s was a chocolate eclair, not shown. He and I took ours home which we enjoyed that evening.

More goodies below…

If you ever find yourself in the area I can highly recommend the place. It is on a busy road with on street parking, but there were also a couple of parking lots nearby, so son told me. He dropped us off and parked around the corner. He picked us up later after getting the car again. Each side of the street is filled with interesting little shops on the first floor. The Happy Tart is located on the ground floor of the Pearson Square apartments. The rest of the photos were taken outside or a couple of doors away.

These were taken in front of another shop.

I can see us going here again. It was a fun place and we had a very enjoyable lunch with our son. Here is a link to their menu if you would like to take a look here. 

Thanks for visiting and 

I hope you have a great day.

MONDAY MORNING RECIPE POST - BLUE CHEESE STUFFED POTATOES

Today's recipe was found at Our Best Bites hosted by Sara Wells. The original recipe can be found at this link. I had potatoes and blue cheese, plus a couple of ingredients in the fridge I wanted to use up. I typed the ingredients and a request for a recipe in the Google search engine, and this the first one that popped up. There were dozens of others, but I was more than satisfied with the sound of it. If you find Blue Cheese too strong, you can always use your favorite.  I have made this with Cheddar, Swiss and Parmesan. Mozzarella would be nice also.

Blue Cheese Stuffed Potatoes

4 servings - approximately 272 calories per finished potato.

4 medium baking potatoes

1/2 cup sour cream

1 ounce (1/4 cup) crumbled bleu cheese

1/4 cup buttermilk or milk

4 tablespoons real butter cut into chunks

3/4 teaspoon of salt

A few dashes of pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

8 pieces bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

Grated cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 

Wash and dry potatoes. Rub them lightly with a bit of shortening or vegetable oil (helps crisp the skin so you will be able to scoop them out later without breaking. There is note about this below the recipe). 

Place potatoes directly on oven rack, or a cookie sheet. Bake for one hour or until potatoes are done. (See my note below.)

When you take the potatoes out of the oven after roasting, leave them for a while so that they are cool enough to handle, or use an oven mitt if you want to get on with it. If they are large potatoes you can cut them in half for 8 servings. 

Scoop out the insides and place them in a bowl. Add butter, sour cream, bleu cheese, milk, salt, pepper and garlic powder. 

Beat with a hand mixer until fluffy (we used a potato masher as we like a little more texture in ours). Carefully spoon the mixture back into potato shells. 

Place in a baking dish and return to the hot oven. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes. 

Remove and sprinkle bacon and cheddar cheese over each potato and bake an additional 3 to 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Sarah's notes: 

You can make ahead, though these are best right out of the oven. Cook your bacon and shred your cheese. Bake potatoes and whip up your filling. Fill the potato skins and store them, tightly covered, in the refrigerator, until ready to bake. They may need a few extra minutes when baked straight from the fridge. Just wait until they are nice and hot to top with cheese and bacon as described above. 

Store leftover potatoes in an airtight container in the refrigerator up until 3 to 4 days.

You may have some extra filling, especially if making a large batch. You can either store in the fridge to bake up later, or pop into a small, oven-safe dish, top with cheese and bacon, and heat in the oven with the rest of your potatoes.

Changes we made: we forgot to add the cheddar cheese at the end but this did not detract from the taste. They were very yummy!

I hadn't made twice-stuffed potatoes in a long time. Our potatoes were cooked but it would have been better to leave them in for 10 minutes longer. You might not need this but our oven runs on the cooler side. When we scooped them out the first shell we filled, it broke in half. No problem, we 'glued' it together with extra filling.  It would have been easier if the potatoes had been cooked longer, however.

When mixing the potato, add a little of the buttermilk/milk at a time, to gradually get it to the desired consistency. We did not use all of it and had a small amount of liquid left over.

The taste of bleu cheese was in the background and didn't overpower the dish.

We served it with a cob of sweet corn and sweet peas.

Here is the full address in case you would like to copy and paste instead of using the link at the beginning of the page.

https://ourbestbites.com/stuffed-bleu-cheese-potatoes/

It's definitely a keeper. We both forgot how much we enjoyed eating potatoes prepared this way. It made a very nice change.

I have actually frozen twice-baked potatoes in the past, but I would have to look that up to refresh before putting any instructions for the freezer on here.

As always, if you have any questions or tips of your own, let me know in the comment section and I will be happy to answer if I can.

Thanks for looking, 

have a great week and Bon Appetit!

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE - SHARING ANN'S FRIENDSHIP GREETING CARD.

I have said this many times before, but when husband comes in with the mail and tells me "Hey, there's a card from your friend Ann in Pennsylvania" I just about do a happy dance.

What a sweet card Ann, I absolutely love it. Thank you, I feel blessed to be on your mailing list.

You can visit Ann's blog here at Ann's Snap Edit Scrap. Just click on the link.

Thanks again Ann, and to you and everyone out there, have a wonderful day and week ahead!

SATURDAY MORNING AT THE BIRD FEEDER

 

Our Cardinal is a Quodophile, which is a popular slang term often used in online communities for a devoted lover of quotes. 

And now we know that that's how it is going to go this week on another whimsical

Saturday Morning at the Birdfeeder...

because the woman of the house had no clue as to where this was going but the wise old owl below did apparently.

Thanks for groaning along with me

Have a great weekend!

For our international friends to read using the translation 

widget on my sidebar.

Photo Cardinal says:

“Poor indeed is the garden in which birds find no home. Abram L. Urban said that.”

AN OLD FAVORITE - PEACOCK PROFILE

We were on vacation 11 years ago, near my hometown at the Paignton Zoo in South Devonshire (UK). This handsome fellow was walking around freely. He wasn't too far away and was obviously used to being around people. 

If you would like to see other photos I took of their peacocks, you can go to this link. 

I will leave you with this.

"How come it can't fly no better than a chicken?" Milkman asked.

"Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can't nobody fly with all that stuff. Wanna fly, you got to give up the stuff that weighs you down."

The peacock jumped onto the hood of the Buick and once more spread its tail, sending the flashy Buick into oblivion."

~Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon ~

Thanks for stopping by. 

Happy Weekend!

OUT AND ABOUT…THAI BEAR

 

For the first time in over a week I left the house. Neither of us were feeling too energetic but our son took us to one of his and our daughter-in-law’s favorite restaurants for lunch, and dear other half was feeling quite good and eager. The bear was in front of a Thai restaurant we passed in slow moving traffic. We didn’t have lunch there but it made for a photo op.

I was curious about this interesting figure and looked it up by posting my photo on Google. It said it is a large-scale artistic bear dressed in traditional Thai Khon performance attire. The statue features several culturally significant elements. Here is a list of them.

“Khon Mask (Hua Khon): the bear is holding a miniature mask, which is the central characteristic of Khon, a classical Thai masked drama. These masks represent characters from the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Ramayana epic.

Traditional attire: the bear is adorned with “Chada” (a pointed crown) and elaborate glittering garments typical of Royal Thai performance costumes.

Artistic Interpretation: while the bear itself is not a traditional figure in the Ramakien, modern Thai artists often blend traditional motifs (like Benjarong overglaze painting styles) with contemporary forms to promote cultural heritage.  

This specific piece appears to be a modern cultural installation or a high-end collectible figurine designed to showcase “Thainess ” through a playful and creative lens.”

I had fun finding out about this figure. Google has a wealth of information. All I had to do was click on the little camera in the search engine line and load my photo up. I learned about this originally from Madsnapper. Thanks Sandra!

And thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day!

YELLOW ROSES

 Thank you for all the get-well wishes for Gregg. He still has a cough but is a whole lot better than he was and is on the mend. I have had no similar symptoms and at the same time, keeping fingers crossed. I hope you are all okay out there. 

Today I am sharing a few bright and cheerful yellow roses.  

On a whim, this being quite a while ago now as these are from my archives, I saw one particular bouquet of yellow roses at the local supermarket and decided to treat myself.

After putting all the groceries away, I took them outside into the sunlight. I liked how the green from the leafy branches of the trees looked in the background, especially in that top photo.

I read that in America and western Europe, yellow roses symbolize friendship and joy. In other countries they have other meanings, like enlightenment and wisdom for instance.

I was very happy to find these roses again. I hope you enjoy them too.