SUNROOM THOUGHTS, A BIRD PHOTO TIP, & FEEDJIT LIVE TRAFFIC

A SIGN OF SPRING AT OUR HOUSE TODAY
Half a dozen short sharp wind gusts early Saturday night had us both on our feet & out the door wondering, ‘what the heck was that’.  Noticed it was raining again so all & all I guess we did get a pretty good soaking Saturday after all.  Went I went out with Pheebs this morning at 6 we had a clear sky overhead with stars from horizon to horizon.  Two hours later when we head out for our walk we had a heavy cloud cover sitting on some of the distant mountain tops.  By 10 a.m. the mountains were free of clouds & we had clearing skies with warming sunshine.  But it didn’t last.  Clouds rolled in by mid afternoon, temps dropped & we ended up inside with the heater going for the rest of the day:((

 

Porch furniture all back out, RV vents, windows, & door open again, chairs & tables back on the cement patio & the shed doors open once more.  Bird feeders filled & we were good to go for another day.  Go where I didn’t know but ready to go anyway.

FROM A DISTANCE WE THOUGHT THIS CACTUS HAD A BLOOM, BUT……………
Deer Park Lodge’s owner will be in England for a week beginning today so the calls have been forwarded to Kelly & she will be taking the reigns until Kirsten returns.  Didn’t take long for reservation inquiries to come in today & I once again heard that familiar warm & charming professionally friendly voice as Kelly once again eased right back into her familiar driver’s seat:))

Our house has an ‘L’ shape to it at it’s southwest corner.  Every time I look at that area I see a nice little sunroom built on there.  A sunroom would serve a very practical purpose in the winter time.  With no central heating such as a furnace our house remains on the cold side.  We only have 2 small windows facing south & that’s not much room for the warm southern sun to slip it’s warming rays into the house.  Just for fun I measured it out this morning & the room would be 15 x18 feet with the longer wall facing facing south.  With big windows it would for sure be the warmest room in the house during winter.  It would look out onto our quiet back yard & nearby bird feeders.  Interior entrance door would be through our dining room with a second door leading outside onto a west facing cement sidewalk & 16 x 17 foot concrete patio.  It’s all a dream of course but we all know where our dreams can sometimes lead us.  If I was a handy person I would already have added this to our house for sure……And then there is my old weathered wooden gate & Spanish arch idea between the house & garden shed.  Okay, Okay, that’s enough Sunday morning dreaming out of this guy for now.  Back to reality…………………..

A SUNROOM COULD FIT NICELY FROM THAT WINDOW AT RIGHT OVER TO THAT CORNER BESIDE THE WHITE DOOR AT LEFT
 
YEP, LOOKS LIKE A MIGHTY FINE PLACE FOR A SUNROOM ALRIGHT
And here’s a little tip for photographing birds around your bird feeder.  I have noticed for some time now bird’s around feeder’s have flight patterns.  Many birds coming into the feeder do not come from a long distance directly to the feeder itself.  They will often come in & land in a tree near by first.  They will watch the feeder making sure there are no threats.  When they feel safe they fly the last short distance from their branch to the feeder.  Birds will often use that same spot on a branch to stop for a few seconds before flying in.  Sit & watch your feeder & try to determine where that favorite spot in the tree is where birds are first landing.  Take your camera whether hand held or on a tripod & pre- focus on that spot.  Now if you are on Auto Focus, switch it off.  As long as you don’t move your camera position all you have to do is wait for a bird or birds to fly into that pre-focused zone.  ‘Click-Click-Click’  With a bit of practice & concentration you can anticipate the birds movements & catch them in flight coming into or out of the pre-focused site.  Try it, this is much easier than trying to chase small birds around in flight with your camera:))

  

After traveling for who knows how many years without a tow car SASSY just got herself a toad.  Raining? No problem just leave the Harley parked & take the toad.  Temperatures below freezing?  No problem just leave the Harley parked & take the toad.  Ahhhhhhh, what a life eh:))
 
  

Sharon over at THE ODD ESSAY had a comment question in which she asked, “I see you have "Live Feed" (or something similar) way down on the right hand column... it's pretty neat! Looks like a fun thing to have”.  Not sure but I think she might be referring to FEEDJIT.  This is a live traffic feed showing in ‘real time’ people clicking on our Blog site & where they are coming from.  From an icon on my desktop it also shows me what photos people find interesting & click on.  Also tells me from who’s blog site they came to ours from & who’s blog site they are going to next.  Tells me from what Country visitors have arrived as well.  Not that it’s important to me but Feedjit also tells what browser & operating system visitors have.  Also states the date & time of each visit.  As an example, in the last 5 minutes visitors have clicked on our blog from Penticton BC, Blossom TX, Ft Lauderdale FLA, Hayward CA, Las Vegas Nevada, Franklin Tennessee, Houston TX, Oakland Ca, Parker AZ, Dayton Ohio, Birmingham Alabama, Herbert Saskatchewan, Paradise Valley AZ, Columbus Georgia, Chandler AZ, Tyler TX, Phoenix AZ, Kitchener Ontario, etc. etc.  You may or may not have noticed a trend here but stats also show American visits to our site outnumber Canadian visitors to our site by about 10 to 1.  It’s not often I look at our statistics but with Sharon’s question this morning it was kind of fun to have a look at a few of them again.

WHILE TAKING SOME BIRD PHOTOS THIS AFTERNOON THIS LITTLE BUTTERFLY CAME ALONG & LANDED ON A BLOOMING FLOWER PLANT BESIDE WHERE I WAS SITTING
GROANER’S CORNER:(( Few people know that the late Mr. Maxwell, founder of Maxwell House Coffee, was a veteran skydiver and RVer. Near his hometown, it was common to find Mr. Maxwell at the airport in his Avion Fifth Wheel, relaxing and visiting with his many friends as he waited for his next jump. One fateful day, however, something went terribly wrong, and his parachute failed to open. His friends and employees were horrified, to stay the least, at the demise of this very kind and gentle man. And so when it came to preparing his epitaph, they had no problem finding the words: "Mr. Maxwell . . . Good to the last drop."