Puff...the new bird on the block

Puff, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Once again I'm having to go with feather's for my Friday entry. I spent the weekend and the first part of this week worrying about Trinity who injured both of her front paws while out playing last week. Mia added to the worry because she is a bit of a high stress puppy who got very upset about Trinity, and then ended up sick because of it. They are both much better now and back to their daily routine of chase, wrestle, run, fight over toys. Angel and Eclipse were fine but seem to not want me to point the camera in their direction this week. Every attempt was met with them running away and hiding. Which is fine because it gives Puff a chance to make an appearance here. Please don't make me go through the confession of having such a horrible weakness for sad, pitiful looking fur and feather babies. Puff is the result of me having such a weakness, and the feed store not having the bird food that I wanted for Mango and Honey. Puff was found shoved in between two very large cages filled with other smaller birds in a cage the size of a travel carrier. Dirty water, dirty food, filthy cage, no toys, and just a sad and lonely look. As soon as I stopped and started talking to Puff in the tiny little cage, Puff started talking and chatting up a storm with me. Based on the size, and the less than great ability for flight, Puff is a very young little one. Unlike Mango and Honey though, Puff loves to be held and played with by humans. Since Puff is a bit of a crash lander when it comes to flying right now, you can usually find Puff sitting on a shoulder or walking fearlessly around on pieces of furniture. The fact that Puff is usually hanging out on Mom or Dad seems to keep the cats, and dogs from really wanting to get to close to the new little one. The best thing for me though was finding out that Puff is a great poser. I got quiet a few pictures yesterday of Puff posing while out doing a walk.

I'm going to work very hard this week to see about getting an actual feline picture to post for next week. Wish me much luck with that. If not my Feline & Furball Friday may turn to nothing but Feathers here.
Don't forget to head over to visit Steve and Pickle, and if you want to play along just post your own and leave a link in comments. I will update later with the link over to them. I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Link to Feline, Furball and Feather Friday:

http://sometimesphotoblog.com/2008/07/11/feline-furball-friday-time/

Rain, rain go away!

California sister, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I know that we need rain, and I know that it is time for the monsoon, but couldn't it go away for just like a day? The rain that started Tuesday night is continuing, which means another day of not being able to head out to Huachuca Canyon. I'm glad that I shot so many pictures earlier in the week, but it doesn't change the fact that we want to get out.

Anyway, this is a California Sister butterfly which made up the largest part of the group that we found on the trail sunning. Our best guess was that there had to be a good 40 of these laying out in the sun that morning. Pretty cool to look up a trail and see that many butterflies laying out sunning, which is a huge reason why we all want to get back up there.

I still haven't been able to identify the blue butterfly that I posted the other day. Thank you Steve for the links and I'm going to continue my search through the site to see if I can figure that one out. I hope that everyone is having a good week, and if you have sun today get out of the house and enjoy.

Home bound Wednesday

, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I should really know better than to make plans in advance for just about anything. I told the girls yesterday that we would head back out to Huachuca Canyon this morning, and the monsoon rain that had been building since Sunday finally broke lose last night. It is a good thing that it did finally because I'm not sure just how much more pain my head could stand due to pressure build up, but it has left us with very dark, cloudy skies for today. Without the sunlight I doubt that we would be able to find a cluster of butterflies sunning themselves again today. I think I will just stick with the surprise the girls tactics that seem to work so much better for me. So now our alternate plan is to get some chores done around the here (that would be mostly me getting things done) and go with the old stand by of summer vacation...chilling on the couch watching movies or something good on television. Of course with that choice comes the eating of junk food that was bought over the weekend, because what else goes so well with the whole chill out version of a day? Since a good share of our junk food is chocolate in nature because Daddy isn't around to complain about the smell of it, I think it will be a great day of just chilling out at home.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Wednesday, and finds some time to sit and just chill.

Great morning out

??, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Sweetpea, Little bug and I had a great morning out wandering around in Reservoir Canyon area. It is a great area for finding lots of different birds, but we got a huge surprise when we wandered onto a trail that had tons of butterflies and moths. They were all sunning themselves this morning and walking on the trail had all three of us laughing as we ended up being surrounded by fluttering things. I have managed to identify two of the three different types of butterflies that I photographed except for the one in the picture here. I also have not yet been able to identify the moths that I got pictures of. So if anyone knows what this butterfly is please leave me a comment to tell me. If need be I can also post a picture of it with the wings up so you can see the markings on the other side. The girls and I are going back out again tomorrow morning to the butterfly trail to see about getting a better picture of the Western Tiger Swallowtail. That one did torment me so very much today, I just have to head back out to see about getting a better picture.

I hope that everyone is having a good week, and that there is lots of laughter shared with family.

Arizona Striped Whiptail

P7064087, originally uploaded by torri_g.

One of the other good things about getting out of the house with the camera yesterday is that I have some pictures to be able to post. The girls and I saw about two dozen of these Arizona Striped Whiptails out running around in the canyon yesterday. They are fun to watch, but even more fun to try and photograph. Their color is perfect for blending in with...well with everything in the canyon. The added fun of having all three of the girls with made getting pictures that much more of a challenge. I don't blame the little guys for running, I had two out with me yesterday that just didn't seem to know the meaning of needing to be quiet, and when we wandered into an area where there were a bunch of them sunning themselves...well I'm not sure who was more scared. There was a flurry of running, and some scared screams that broke the quiet of the canyon. Which was kind of sad for me actually because I had just gotten a picture with about six of these guys framed up. After the screams it was nothing more than blurs across the ground. Ah the joys of the missed shot.

I hope that everyone is having a great start to their week, and hopefully we will get back out again today and add to the pictures that can be posted.

Sibling Sunday...only for the brave

P7064118, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Since hubby dear left TDY this morning, I figured that a trip out to Garden Canyon with the girls was in order. It is a good way to kill a couple of hours as we wander around keeping a close eye out for all of the quick crawling things of Arizona and even quicker running things. It also gets the girls minds off of the fact that Daddy is off again for a quick trip this week. The one that enjoys these trips the most...Sweetpea!! My Sweetpea loves getting out into the canyon area. She loves the challenge of figuring out just what is what out there. Spiders, lizards, snakes, birds, and today we think that we may have spotted a mountain lion further up the hill from us. Oh my what perfect fun it all is for my Sweetpea! The added bonus is it gets her mind off of her Daddy leaving, which even at 16 she still is the one that is the most upset about it.

Sweetpea was the true show off today while we were out, giving Binky Sue a hard time about being such a girl and not being willing to climb a tree just because it might mean that her clothes get a little dirty. Giving Little bug a hard time because of her great fear of everything that crawls. Also taking time to give Mom a bit of a hard time about the fact that I can take pictures of all of those creepy things but I won't let her get a lizzard to live in the house. My one and only response is those are things that are supposed to be outside and not in my house! We killed off a couple of the day and had more than our share of laughs while out. Tomorrow we are thinking about heading out to another canyon area on the base to see what else we can find.

I hope that everyone has had a great weekend spent with family, and that there is a good week waiting for all us.

Some times no matter what

flagfireworks-1, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Some times no matter what you do with the camera you just end up with some blur. I had tripod and remote control out for the camera last night and still just couldn't get a non blurred photo. Which is alright really because I still like the main flag picture even with the blur.

We didn't leave the house for the fireworks again this year. Instead we stood out in the front and watched them. Not the super close oh and ah's of being there but enough to get the fireworks fix that we all wanted. It also meant not having to fight with all of the traffic, and worry about how sober is the person in the car next to, in front of, or behind me. After watching the fireworks the girls finished their night off with slices of fruit pizza which I heard was very yummy, and another holiday of 2008 was over.

Lots of photo editing done to this picture. I wish the fireworks would have been going off in the same area as the neighbors flag, but not that difficult of an effect to create with editing. I hope that everyone had a great 4th of July, and that there is a wonderful rest of the weekend for all.

Happy 4th of July!!

4th July, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Happy Birthday America! I wish everyone a great and safe holiday.

Poor Trinity

Binky Sue and Trinity, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Trinity suffered an injury to her front paws this week. Not 100% sure just what happened the thought is possibly pulled and bruised stuff in her paws, and she is doing much better today than yesterday, but there has been a lot of pampering of the poor puppy going on. I have pretty spoiled animals in this house on good days, but when they are feeling less than alright, oh man does it go to a whole different level. I think the picture of Binky Sue sharing the pillow while laying on the couch says it all. I did notice last night that Trinity got far more kisses and hugs good night than anyone else in this house. Nothing wrong with that, everyone including my fur babies need kisses and hugs good night.

This morning puppy Mia is not feeling so great and after having her for almost a year now, I'm sure it is her reaction to stress of her sister Trinity not feeling so good, and therefore not being able to do the things that they do on a daily basis. My question for everyone today is can you think of anything worse than sad puppy dog not feeling good eyes looking at you?

Anyway, it is Friday which means time for Feline and Furball entries. I will post link to Steve and Pickle later in the day when it is up. Until then I hope that everyone has a great and safe 4th of July.

Link over to Steve and Pickle:

http://sometimesphotoblog.com/2008/07/04/feline-and-furball-with-feathers-friday/

Busy day...busy next couple of days

Fluffy Clouds, originally uploaded by torri_g.

We had a beautiful start to the day, and just in general a terrific day here. Crowds for shopping were very small, and errand running went quick and smoothly. My only problem with errand shopping was having to head to the pet store because the feed store just didn't have the food I needed for the birds. Pet store with all three girls with me...yeah not such a great thing. Oh well, we got what we were in need of and yes there was one that we didn't need but we got it anyway. You know...because I just can not deal with sad looking eyes from an animal even if they are bird eyes.
Sweetpea got a pretty good start done to her back to school shopping, 1 pair of pants and 2 shirts that are the exact same except for color. Don't laugh...for Sweetpea that is a huge start, and the fact that she picked them all out on the same day, wow there just aren't really words to describe how HUGE that really is. Sweetpea is not the kind of girl that really cares about clothes, and what she does care about is that they are no where close to fitting tight anywhere on her body, and that there is barely any skin being shown. Have you tried shopping in the juniors department with those limits? If you haven't let me tell you there is nothing fun about it. Colors area huge thing for my Sweetpea too, not really into prints of any kind they should be solid. The shirts should...get ready for this one Grandma...they should breath. Feel of clothes is another huge factor that gets the nose turned up, if it is scratchy in the least bit it will get the look of "OH YUCK!" Common phrases to hear while shopping with her are I need bigger because that will be to tight, I need this color because that one is just to bright, I don't want that one because the material is to rough for my skin, oh I could go on for hours but I won't. We got it started, and will go out again come the middle of the month and try for some more. Sweetpea told me that we need to set the date now so she can get herself ready for it. What a silly baby girl.

We skipped doing lunch out today so that we could go out for dinner, or at least that was the plan earlier in the day. I'm not sure just how out for dinner Burger King counts for, but all of the girls were thrilled with it so that is what matters most. Tomorrow is shopping for food for humans of the house, and several other shopping errands. Thursday is Binky Sue's senior yearbook photo shot day and probably chopping and preparing things for our usual July 4th celebration at home. After today I'm thinking that the week is going to fly by, but tonight I'm just happy that there has been little to no bickering in this house. Alright not total quiet but I have not had to say the words " Can we please stop!"
I hope that everyone had a wonderful day and that tomorrow is yet another good day.