Monday, September 3, 2018

Night Sounds

They start hooting early in the morning, long before the crack dawn. Often I am awake to hear them. Soon it will be time to get up and the hooters have gone to roost, the Chanticleer begins his morning crow around 4:00AM, and I try to snooze through his morning pronouncements. We tend to relate to our surroundings by the sounds that we hear everyday, and sometimes those sounds go unnoticed, like the freight trains that regularly pass through our tiny town on the Colorado plains or the roar of the semi trucks as they rumble through town on the highway that runs parallel to the train tracks. We hear the sirens regularly, able to recognize the different between the ambulances that from the south or the fire trucks that come from the west, and the Flight for Life helicopter that comes from the south flying low over the Garden Spot as it finds a place to land.

In the fall, we hear the sounds of school just down the road from us. If the patio door is open we can hear the cheerleaders and the pep band and crowd cheering on the Highland Huskies football team, punctuated by the game's announcer over the PA system. I like those Friday night sounds.

Most of the sounds we just live with, becoming oblivious to them until visitors comment on the how they heard every train that passed through town while they tried to sleep.

But the owls. We hear the owls more often now. They have been making regular visits to the Garden Spot, thus I devote this week Mosaic to them.


I generally spend most of evenings downstairs working on the dollhouse or sewing while the Head Gardener retires to the bedroom early. Lately he has been hearing a odd screeching sounds which prompt him to go outside to listen so that he can figure out what the sound is. Now with the pup that needs to be house trained thus requiring evening walks, the HG is a outside later in the evening. He came in excited the other evening to tell me that the Great Horned Owl was sitting on the trellis by the koi pond; I grabbed my camera and tired to get a good shot, but it was past sundown, so the exposer was not the greatest. I watched the owl for a while, and knowing that I was there, soon it flew away. The HG was amazed that he was able to walk Brody around the yard and right past the owl and it stayed put. While we easily recognized the hoo hoo, it took a while to realize that they also screech back forth. If we hear one near by and we wait and listen  we will hear one across the field answer. 

Here is a closely cropped photo of the owl on the trellis. Later it returned and we watched sit pond side taking drinks. I stood on the patio watching and he knew that I was there--he'd swivel his head around--as owls do--take a good look at me then go back to drinking. It was so exciting to watch him.



Another night, the HG called me upstairs to let me know the the owl was perched on the barn cupola and you can see my results are not very good in the early night fall. Still I got photos. 

We love the owls, mysterious and elusive that they are. The HG built a large nesting box for them and hauled high up into the pine tree by the swing set where the owls often light, so we are hopeful that next spring they might decide that it will be a good place to nest. 


Meet Hank



There is one very happy little girl in the family this week. She was surprised with a new horse, Hank, a thirteen year old Morgan that spent a good many years as a trail horse at a Boy Scout camp. He will become a very spoiled boy with his girl, Ellie. I went over to watch the girls ride Saturday--no devices, no cell phones, no iPads--just girls with their horses.


Her shirt says, "Believe in something wonderful," and her smile says it all.


Mariah isn't too happy with her new stall mate--a gelding? What kind of creature is that? Ellie's other other horse, Honey, has new home in the hills with the other grandparents where she will take on the job of teaching their new colt how to be a horse.


As much as I enjoy photographing the critters here, I love photographing the girls and their horses.


Front, back, sideways--any way.

 Hale to Kale (the flowering kind)


Lily had to take a shot. This might have been a really good shot had it been in focus. She was aiming for the kale but missed.


Fresh from the Garden 

No kale of any kind in my garden. Add an onion and some cilantro and we've got a good, fresh salsa.


Brody Report


Two weeks after we brought a timid, scared puppy home, Brody is warming up and figuring things out. He has now met four of the five grandchildren, and while Jacob now 15 isn't quite a child, he wasn't too sure of the new person in the house, but it didn't take long for him to realize that what we have know since day one, he's a cool kid and fun to play with. What pup doesn't like a bit of rough housing and then a nice place to chill?


Well, nice to visit with you. That ends the week's report on what's happening at the Garden Spot. Life is interesting and fun with surprises every day. I am so glad that you stopped by to visit. I'll see you over at Maggie's for Mosaic Monday--I think I'll hit the deadline today.

If you have nothing better to do, check out Ann's Dollhouse Dreams. I have so much going on over there. One dollhouse is about finished and I have begun a new one and have another in the box ready to begin. Lily talked me into ordering a kit for her. 

I have changed the format for the dollhouse blog. Please leave me comment to let me know how you like it. I'm not sure I do. It does have a cleaner, more modern look, but it eliminates all of the gadgets on the side menu and hides them behind icons that you click on. Do we like that? Should take I the Garden Spot there? Let me know. I value your opinions. 

Have a great week. 




8 comments:

  1. I'm anxious to visit your dollhouse blog! LOVE seeing these photos. We hear owls but I have never seen one in the wild! WOW! Enjoy your afternoon sweet friend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A lovely post, Ann. Sometimes, when we are in bed at night, we hear owls through our open window. It's such a soft, evocative sound. Once in awhile we catch glimpses of owls flying from tree to tree on our walk through the woods in the evenings.
    The girls look very happy on their horses. Have a wonderful week.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When we retire for the night we often hear owls hoo hoo ing in the tall trees I the garden behind the house. Sometimes the Senior Partner receives a "fly past" from a low flying owl when walking Fleur in the lanes. Brody looks like a lovely little chap, how lovely for you all. Thanks for joining MM again this week, take care.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice post, especially about the night sounds, how exciting to notice a Great Horned Owl. As always I love horse and dog photos. Great that your granddaughters all love horseriding and that Brody has found a new friend.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ann - wow, wow, wow! We get a lot of critters around here, but I have yet to see any owls. So glad you have this majestic creature near you and willing to be seen/photographed! My daughter and I both rode horses at different points in time - it brings joy to my heart just to see the girls and their four-legged friends!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello, you are lucky to have the owl visiting your yard. I think it may love your owl box too. I have heard the Barred owl in my yard one time, mostly they are in the woods nearby. Love the granddaughters with the horses, they look happy. Brody is adorable. Salsa sounds yummy. Enjoy your day and week ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Such a lovely post, the way you described everything I was there!
    Don't you just love salsa … I do!

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hello, I went by to say hello, since I've been disconnected from everything for a long time. As always I love your work. That I still think that they are not chapucillas, but great works. A kiss.
    หนังออนไลน์

    ReplyDelete

Back in the Swing of Things

 Well, hello friends. My only post for the year was in March when I declared, "I'm Back." I really didn't go any place; I ...