Around the Garden and Nobbies Urn

Howdy all,

I took the above picture for you to see mom...you wanted to see Mr. Nobbies urn...it is a nice marble urn...i attached his collar a chicken wishbone, a few feathers and a clump of nobbies fur....
You can see the nice rock cairn that Patti made.

Today I did what i have been doing around here lately and that is working around the garden.
So i took a video...its rather long so i had to make four videos....and it may be boring...but ha...just don't watch them all...
I figured Adele would love to see what her pups are up to during the day...
And although it looks like i just sat and looked at birds most of the day....I did actually do some work..ha.

Pittsboro, Hillsbourgh and Carboro....

Howdy all,

Yesterday Adele, Jeff and me...and I? anyway.... we went on a car tour through a few towns north of here in the Raleigh-Durham area. Adele and I liked the town of Hillsboro...small quaint town center...a few very nice restaurants...a nice co-op and sweet old homes...some nice old estates as well. Plenty of open spaces around to make if feel as though you are in the country...close to Durham and Raleigh..... The top three pictures were taken at an estate that we did a little walk around...dreaming about living there and having all that land....

The restaurant Adele wanted to go to was closed so we went to Tupelos. Adele and I shared a nice salad and a sandwich that had fried green tomatoes and lettuce and bacon. Jeff has Jambalaya. It was all Yummy...

The bottom picture was taken in Carrboro..which a college town...close to Chapel Hill...
Adele wants to steal this old cement lady and put her in the garden....

We did a quick drive thru Pittsboro, which is another sweet little town that I like. It has a food co-op....a few nice restaurants and funky little homes, some old...some just run down.

thats all....today is overcast again...which is good...need rain....Jeff went for a bird walk this morning and saw and photographed the Prothonotory warbler. He will take me in the next few days so that hopefully i can see it too.

The first picture is the one jeff took with his little digital camera...the second one i found on the internet...

Some Birding Walks in North Carolina

Howdy all...

First before I get into our birding walks....I want to say to my sister Lori...that I am glad her gallbladder surgery went well and I hope you are out of pain soon...Poor Lori...she went to the hospital in terrible pain....I have been told gallbladder pain is the worse....I can only compare it to my kidney stones which was pretty horrible too...
So get well soon Lori..
Please everyone....stay healthy for a while....my little heart cant take anymore sadness....

So.... Jeff and I have been going on some theraputic birding walks...
A few days ago we saw our first Ovenbird.

That is not me holding it....just found the picture on the internet.
We went to Raven Rock state park.
The park was about 35 to 40 minutes from Adele and Craigys home. We followed a small creek through the woods to the river and the rock that the park takes its name from. We were there birding pretty much all day....saw this sweet little bird that is hermit thrush like in coloring ..but tiny...very strong song for a tiny little bird.

Oh ...just now went outside and saw a lifer for me... a yellow throated vireo..
This is an exciting time to be here...the migrants are coming thru....cant wait to see the Blue grosbeak and Indigo Buntings again...they usually come to the feeder.

Anyway here are a few pictures of Raven rock...Yesterday we went for a birding walk in Weymouth woods. It was the day of Pattis Memorial in California...so we decided we would go on this hike in honor of her love of birding and her great birding skills. Patti was with us as we saw our first Broad winged Hawk. A Lifer for us...
They were banding birds as well...so we got to see some close up views of a few birds. Jeff wanted to see the prothonotary warbler....so he went off trail...i didn't join him because i didn't want to deal with the ticks....he came back with over fifty ticks...yuck...and he didn't find the bird he was looking for. This time of year it is best to stay on the trails in North Carolina.

We did get great views of the Red cockaded woodpecker, and endangered species, that lives in just a few areas around here...and the Prairie warbler a bright yellow bird...we also got a close up view when it was being banded...see the yellow head below.

So thats all for now...today is overcast, which is nice for the garden here....maybe I will stay in and read today...or if it gets nice go out and do some gardening.

a migrant....Black throated blue warbler

Goodbye sweet Mr. Nobbie

Howdy all,

Our Mr. Nobbie was put to sleep on Wednesday.....Our sweet little fur boy has no more pain...

...After three months of many vets....reiki...lotions and potions...
All the Kings Horses and All the Kings Men couldn't put poor Nobbie together again...

Nobbie rallied several times in the three months...He seemed to respond well to the Reiki....
but then became worse again....We were hoping the Reiki person was correct about her feeling that nobbie just has a bad tooth infection...but she was wrong....

He had a few nice days sitting outside here in North Carolina before getting sicker....His left eye filled with blood....He had some blood in his ear as well.

I could tell he couldn't see very well. He also had was in some pain ...I gave him arnica montana and that made him sleep....

Monday ..We went to another vet...a holistic one, who said he indeed had cancer... he also recently went blind...she felt he also had gastritis....and if he could rallied we could address what else was going on. We went home and I started the pill regime, feeding with a syringe and cleaning his eyes and ears....He was also in more pain...i would give him his remedy and it seemed he would feel better for a while. Wednesday I could tell nobbie had enough...he didn't want to take the pills and would gag them up...he was very disoriented....I knew it was time to say goodbye...

We took him to the vet Adele uses for her pets...She was very nice....she shaved nobbie where she was going to put the needle in and said his skin was not pink...that it was yellowish...which meant his system was shutting down....

He went to sleep very easily and we held him and kissed him goodbye...

I have to say that I am in many ways very relieved......it was very stressful taking care of this sick little furboy and seeing him in pain..... I miss my sweet little noblet.

Last night he came to visit me in my dreams and walked around the bed and rubbed his face on me.....

This past week has been a very sad one for Jeff and I and each day it is filled with tears....
I miss my Noblet and I miss My dear friend Patti....
They were both sweet souls....

In Honor of our dear Friend....Patti Masuda

Howdy all,
We received very sad news yesterday.

As most of you know we have friends we have met Rving...and you have heard me blog about and you have seen pictures of our friends Geno and Patti Masuda.
Geno informed us yesterday that Patti passed away in the morning. Either a stroke or heart attact. So she did not suffer, thank goodness. She had cold or flu symptoms for a few days prior was all..so this was most tragic. She had been caring for her mother who had just received a hip replacement.

Patti would have been 60 years old this year and Geno and Patti would have celebrated thier 40th wedding anniversary.
Our hearts go out to Geno, his world will be so different without her.

Patti was such a sweet, wonderful person...we loved her dearly....
She loved Birding, Wildflowers ..she was a computer wiz and she was excellent at Identification of birds and flowers... and a wealth of knowledge.....

We met Patti and Geno when we started our full time Motorhome travels....we were staying at Catalina state park in Arizona....we went on a Friday morning birding walk ..they were there .. ...and we were sucked into the birding world by their enthusiasm...We have been friends and travel mates ever since. They showed us around the birding hotspots in the south west and California.....and turned us on to some wonderful places.

So I have been working on this all morning into the afternoon with buckets and buckets of tears...and as i type this they keep flowing....

We will miss Patti tremendously...

So heres to you....our Angel Patti....
We Love You!


I pulled up some videos from the past ...Some great times we all had together.

Here is a link to a blog of a friend of Patti and Genos ...beautifully written and poignant
http://jaymather.blogspot.com/2008/04/with-life-comes-loss.html

Anza Borrego

Playing with our Friends

Last Day In Morro Bay

wine and birding

Patti showed me how to make these...thanks Patti

Uncle Vics Boat.....

Howdy all,

We left Florida Monday morning and we are now one hour away from our destination....Adele and Craig's in Carthage.

We had a nice two weeks visiting Uncle Vic and Aunt Norma...and cousins Janice and Joe and their family's. We also got to spend some time with our friends Steve and Anita.
Didn't go to the beach ...except for 10 minutes with uncle Vic...checking to see if the fisherman were catching anything...which they weren't.

Nobbie seems to be improving...or at least feeling better...he purrs much more and wants to be petted. We have an appt set up with a Holistic type vet to see if he needs teeth extractions....so we shall see. At least he seems more comfortable.

Below is a video of Uncle Vic's boat being repaired...Joe is working on the engine in the video...Jeff lent a hand....and two of Vic's neighbors were there as well.