Sunday Discoveries

We've discovered a couple of things lately.

Like this.  It's a robin's nest and is still in the construction stage.  We've been watching mama bird for a couple of days, she is very busy.

If you look at the left near-top corner, you can see what appears to be a string hanging down.  If the picture wasn't so shadowed, you could probably tell that the bird nest is being built right outside our back door!  She's picked a good spot, right up under the roof so it's protected from rain and would be hard for a predator to get up there.  We're not going to stop using the back yard, but we are going to give her as much room as we possibly can.  The dogs big yard time is going to be curtailed for a while, at least once the eggs appear.  (I'm partially reflected in the glass on the back door with the camera in front of my face).

This is Maggie about to make a discovery of her own.  That's a cactus she's sniffing!  She didn't actually come into contact with it, but her little nose was close.  Otter thought that she was going to have to pull cactus spikes out of her dog's nose, but the beagle seemed to figure out quickly that she needed to leave it alone.  She might have actually touched it just enough to know that it was going to bite her and then she left it alone.

It was so nice yesterday that I moved all of our cactus plants out to the deck.  I'm probably going to leave them out now, unless I know we're going to get a lot of rain.  The one that Maggie Moo was investigating is one that we got last spring at a cactus show.  I can't remember the name of it, but the spines are the prettiest pink/lavender color.  It's planted in a cast-iron cooking pot that I found at a thrift store for next to nothing last summer.  I think it might have cost me around $3.00, and it also has the lid.  It worked great for a cactus.  The cactus planters will eventually get moved to the rock garden.

Quite a few of Otter's tulips are now up.  I forgot to get a picture when I had her camera earlier.  She's gone to the movies with a friend, and she keeps her camera in her purse so it's not here.  But the tulips look really good.  The movie she's at is The Hunger Games.  She's read the books and enjoyed them, although she said that the ending was not very good.

My allergies are starting to ramp up.  Early, but not unexpected given the weather we've had.  I don't particularly like having allergies, but I do so I have to deal with them.  Otter said that hers are starting to bother her as well, and Bill's been sniffly the last couple of days.

It's also supposed to be a bad year for ticks and fleas.  The dogsters will probably go see the vet in the near future, Maggie will need her routine butt squash next month.  I'll probably start the frontline soon, although I usually don't buy it at the vet's office because it's about 1/3 less at another place.  Frasier is probably going to get a good brushing out soon, he's very fluffy and he's also shedding.  He gets regular brushings during warm weather, and he seems to really enjoy it.  Maggie usually gets one too, although she's smooth coated so it's just affection for her.  I have noticed that the birds also seem to like it when the dog gets brushed; Frasier fur was part of some of the bird nests we had last year.

Tomorrow, I'm ordering a birthday cake!