Troutbirder II

Troutbirder II
Click on Mark Twain to jump to Troutbirders book review blog

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

A Walk Around The Yard (Part 2)

Now that we've seen the overall layout of our mostly wildflower gardens it's time to take a closer look at a few blooms.  In mid May most of the early blooming woodland wildflowers like bluebells, bloodroot and hepatica are already  finished with their show.  Still the show must go one....
Flowering tobacco.
Yes it has better smells and more positive uses that it's distant cousin the more obnoxious kind that people smoke.....
 
Trillium
We have two types here. One with the flowers above, the other below.
Bleeding Heart
Old time traditional bleeding hearts both pink and white. Amazingly they have adapted to the woods and scattered all over.  Now in the hundreds.....

Of course, all the spring color is not in the flowers as migrant songbirds stop by at our feeders. Here a male Rose Breasted Grosbeak checks out some sunflower seeds on the platform.
Northern (Baltimore) Orioles



 

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

A Walk Around The Yard

It's mid May.  Spring time in southeastern Minnesota. Feels good with things bursting out all over.  Time for a walk around the yard.  The wildflower gardens and woods of our happy little two acres.....
We've already picked up a lot of twigs and downed branches and the tractor is ready for mowing. Fortunately, a lot of the grassy lawn has been replaced with wildflower gardens. It's less work in the long run....:)
Sticks but no stones in the fire ring. Time to burn.
I was reading a biography of Winston Church who was pictured constructing a rock wall  at Chatham during the height of WWII. Naturally, I tried to emulate him (note the low wall above). However, being retired, I was nowhere under the pressure the great statesman faced at the time....
Our little picnic area and table with houseplants moved outside to be planted.
Oak Hill Drive was a gravel farm road when it's first house was built in 1959.  Later we bought that house in 1970 and there were 7 houses in the neighborhood.  In 2002 we divided our property and built a new house in the woods next door to our old house.  A blacktopped road and over 30 houses now surround us.  We had changed from a little outpost to a nearby suburb of metropolitan Spring Valley whose population is well over 2,000.
A plank atop two sawed off stumps lies along a path around the clump of bleeding hearts. Lets rest a moment and then we'll take a closer look a some of the many flowers now blooming.  Next time!



Saturday, May 20, 2017

The Coldest Winter

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist/author David Halberstam (The Best and the Brightest) tells the story of the war America tried to forget but couldn't.  The Coldest Winter 
Click on Mark Twain's Picture above for my review.....

Monday, May 15, 2017

Dam It!

Baron and I had gone for a hike a few  springs back  at one of our favorite spots. It was the old iron mine ponds, now a WMA (Wildlife Management Area) called the Goethite. It's was a great place for a dog to romp and swim without needing to be leashed. I could also get in some birding. The ponds were  connected by a tiny stream.

On this particular day, however, we met a roadblock. A culvert underneath a shallow spillway connected two of the ponds, which we intended to circle. It seems some local residents had blocked the culvert with sticks and mud and then proceeded to build a small dam across the spillway. The net effect was to raise the water level in the pond by about a foot and discourage Troutbirder from continuing around the pond. He didn't want to get his new hiking shoes wet, as the spillway was covered by several inches of running water, and quite muddyBaron says, "Come on Boss! Whatcha waiting for?"
Troutbirder says, "Dam engineers!"


As you can see from the blog header,  Baron's successor Miss Lily also liked to check out beaver dams.....


Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Lilac Girls


 
Recently out in paperback, ereader, and audio if you or your book club missed it you can easily catch up. It’s Martha Hall Kelly’s debut novel Lilac Girls. Your can check my take on this popular book by clicking on Mark Twains picture above.....

As well the link below takes you to other books reviews as well as my own....:)  This link works as of 5/10/17
Click icon for more
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy

Monday, May 1, 2017

The Zookeepers Wife

First I review the book and then the movie..... Click on Mark Twin above to see both.