Spotting a flight of Sandhill cranes was quite thrilling!
I did hear them coming, and the last shot shows how low they were flying.
Nature
Inch Worm wants off the metal feeder
This little fellow somehow ended up on our hummingbird feeder and kept “inching” around the edge. He wanted off, and we assisted him in a trip to some foliage.
Sustainable farm in North Little Rock
Original 1910 orphanage
North Little Rock, Arkansas is home to the St. Joseph Center, a non-profit organization based on a historic building that was once a children’s orphanage run by the Catholic Church. The impressive structure was built in 1910 and currently there are several Artist’s Studios inside the spacious old building that houses other functions. As a Harvest Hosts site, we used our membership to park our RV free for the night.
Currently the St. Joseph Center is an educational and working farm. The grounds are really beautiful. The first thing Sher and I did after we parked was to take a stroll around the main building, enjoying the old statuary and flower beds. We also got our first look at the garden plots. Turns out that there is a large citizen garden space where locals can come and, for a modest fee, have their own personal garden plot.
Bull, right and cow
Recently sheared ewe
A couple of very friendly mommy cows
The Farm Stand, in other words the store, offers locally sourced goods ranging from in season produce to canned veggies, jams and jellies, pickles and cheeses. Local sourced flour, grains, and even meats are for sale. We certainly took advantage of Michelle’s opening the store for us and we made several purchases including pickles, pickled green beans and peppered Colby Cheese.
Raised garden boxes
View of the lovely grounds
There are quite a few head of livestock on the farm. Steve directed us to pastures and pens where goats, sheep and beef cattle make their homes. The sheep had recently been sheared ready for the hot summer. I enjoyed seeing the good quality cross bred cattle. Several calves were still on their mothers and would have been fall calves. There are also chickens supplying a great supply of free range eggs. There are two sets of beehives, and we purchased some delicious honey produced by the honey bees right there on the St Joseph Center grounds.
The honey we bought came from these hives
Sher and I enjoyed our visit at this educational farm. Owner’s Steve and Michelle made our visit to this sustainable operation very pleasant. Recently North Little Rock was hit by a series of tornados. Fortunately the St Joseph Center only suffered the loss of several beautiful old trees, but no animals or buildings were damaged. Here is the farm website.
Grackle at the bird bath
It is a nice warm and sunny day. The bird bath was appealing to this grackle.
Helicopters, whirligigs, twisters and samaras
These are all names for those wonderfully spinning things that come off of some maple trees each spring or early summer. (The name samaras is the technical nomenclature for this.) Yes, they become the seeds of the trees. The aerodynamic design allows the seeds to spin as they fall, and they will travel over long distances from the tree.
“Whirligigs” on the tree getting ready to fly
Seed positioned ready to germinate
Hundreds of these spinners will come from each tree, and they will be responsible for many seedling trees as well as clogging gutters and downspouts. In addition, many like to consume the seeds. Try them, they are tasty!
Legends of the lowly dandelion
You have seen them. People love them or hate them. People eat them. Yes, that is the dandelion. There is quite a bit of folklore connected to the dandelion.
Dandelions are related to sunflowers
Each “puffer” has between 150 -200 seeds
No one knows when the first person believed this: If you blow all of the white flying seeds off of a dandelion in one breath your wish will come true. There is also a belief that sending the seeds in the wind will carry your thoughts and dreams to those you love. In addition, some think blowing all the seeds in one breath means your love is true and is returned. Other stories include using the flowers as weather predicters, and the daily opening and closing of flowers indicating time of day.
It’s easy to enjoy a duck
Lots of activity at the river yesterday! Soon after we saw the snake swimming along this duck decided to cross the shallow backwater to a stick covered sand bar. She found a suitable path across the bar to the river, making sure to shake her tail in the process!
Snake swimming in shallow water
We were out looking for some photo ops of ducks and maybe geese. Imagine the nice surprise of a snake deciding to swim by right in front of us.
Arizona’s Sonoran desert at sunset
Back in February, 2016, we were traveling the desert southwest. Tucson was of course a required stop! One evening we took a drive to the Tucson Mountain District of the Saguaro National Park. It was a visual delight to watch the desert turn from the bright sunlight of the day into the subdued lighting of dusk followed by yet another night.
The shadows lengthen
One by one the cacti lose the sun’s warmth
The golden hues of the day’s last light
There is something magical about the Sonoran Desert
Proof they hatched
We’ve been watching a pair of robins constructing and setting on a nest in the crook of the old maple tree outside our back door. We had yet not seen any blue egg shells on the ground. Discarded shells often indicate that the clutch has hatched.
At least two hungry mouths visible demanding food
Today while taking a break on the swing after some weeding I saw one of the robins returning to the “empty” looking nest. Immediately little wide open beaks appeared wanting to be filled with some tasty morsels. No more wondering: we have a clutch of baby robins. We’ll try to get some more photos soon.
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