A Little Bandit Stole My Heart......

Well I just couldn't be more excited!  I feel so much better and thank you to all of you for your most kindest of well wishes. The weather is still raining and cold, but we have great big nice windows to look out of and this week the RV goes in to get all well too.  Oh... is this why I am excited? Well partly, I am excited because I got a picture of something. Something I wanted all last year while we were here but the little stinker out foxed me all the time. I guess he heard I had been sick because yesterday I was sitting at the table and whalah there he was pretty as a picture hanging on the tree looking at me. So here is my first picture out the window...Barbara this one is for you. 

Yes, I know, the clarity could be better but...I got a Pileated Woodpecker.  How thrilling for me anyway. Now some of you may be going hooo humm.  What can I say I get excited over little things.  :)

And I am not done. Oh no the creatures are ascending upon us like the animals did to Noah and the Ark. Not really but it sounded good.  Art sees this one for me....

It was right at sundown and there she was. Standing right beside the camper just back in the woods a little. She just mosied around eating new leaves and shoots coming up out of  the ground.

She wasn't very big I'm guessing a year old, maybe.  She is darker here as the sun didn't bleach her out as much.  Isn't she adorable??

 It was just our week I guess for animals.  Art just about gave me a heart attack when this girl appeared out the window.  "Tam, a turkey."  And NO not that softly.  Well all was going well; she was laying down on her side dusting herself in a mole's run when here comes Bill, another host on his golf cart and scared her.  Thanks Bill way to go!!!! He knows I'm just kidding! 

Look at her! Off she goes in a dead heat behind the bathhouse. She looks more like a Roadrunner at this point, but hey I gotta turkey!

Okay I'll give you a break from the animals for a minute.  I shared with you a few blogs back the other camp hosts sights but at that time 2 of them weren't here yet. So now I want to show you where they live....

This is where Harold and Nancy the beach mangers live.  It wasn't very pretty and sunny out when I took these but can you believe the photo on the right is what they see out their back window.  Not too shabby is it? They have a gorgeous view of Lake Monroe from their site.

This is Glen and Casey's site on Bluegill.  He also is employed by the Forest Service. 

Guess what returned to us this week. I guess others have seen them in the park but he was a first for us.  I was so excited I was doing my hummingbird dance....

This picture I had a little fun with can you tell?  He was sitting in the tree and as you can tell he was puffed up some as it was cold out.  Since the photo quality wasn't that good I decided to try this different editing option.

The work here at the park has really slacked off as much of it is done.  So that gives us more time for walks and taking the golf cart out looking for photo opportunities.  While we were riding on the golf cart Friday I told Art that I wished I had discovered this love for photography earlier in my life.  He asked why and I said, "because I look at the world differently now."  I take the time to look at the area I am in and I look at it at different angles. I don't want to rush at what I'm doing for fear I might miss something.  I guess in my older age I appreciate the world that I am living in and enjoying the beauty of it far more than in my younger years.  I know I never knew a flower had so much detail as before, or that a tree looks different when you stand directly under it and look up at the sky, or that you need a vast amount of patience when waiting for a turkey or deer to come walking out of the forest.  And I know from proof in these next few pictures that I 'notice' what is going around in my world from the ground all the way up into the trees.  All the time we were here last year we heard they were here but I never got one picture of them.  I am so glad I did not for I am awarded this year by this amazing set of pictures.  How marvelous to witness this act of nature.....

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this....I have seen it before when I was a little girl growing up in the woods but not with a camera in my hand ready to get a picture.

She definitely saw us watching her but she never hurried, she went slow and steady up the tree with this precious little bundle in her mouth. 

You could just feel her sense of relief when she deposited that little bundle in his new home.  As a mom I could sympathize with how much she wanted her little one safe.  She stole my heart.

We just sat in the cart a ways off and waited and remained very quiet as not to alarm her.  And you know the thing that really puzzles me is Cooper and Effie do not bark at wildlife. They will bark their heads off at a person but a deer or squirrel runs across our path...nothing.  Which is good, for me and I'm glad so it didn't scare the mama raccoon.

It wasn't long before this little bandit of a face appeared in the hole.  "Are you still there?"  You could only imagine that was what she wanted to yell at us. 

Woody said there was no way he was being left out of the blog so he came and lit on the tree right outside our trailer window too.  I tell you with all the rain we have been getting I may have thought the animals knew something we didn't as much as we saw of them.  But wait...I'll bet the bird seed and corn I put out had something to do with it. 

And I hope you are not tired of butterflies because this plant is a magnet.  I told Art you are probably wondering if I am sticking fake ones in the plant to get these pictures ha ha...

There were five on here at one time.  These are Western Tiger Swallowtails, they are so pretty and colorful.

When I was a little girl and grew up where I did it was really much like where were are now. I was surrounded by woods and creeks. And one thing we had many of were these little ground squirrels. My Mom loved them and always nicknamed them Freddy.  Here is our little Freddy at Hardin Ridge.

I guess I will end here tonight.  I am tired and need to turn in as we have to pack up and leave tomorrow morning. We are leaving a day early in order to go by our house and unload the fridge and our clothes and then get up early Tues morning and take it to the dealership. Here is crossing our fingers they have it fixed and ready for us to return in a hurry.  Freddy, Woody and all our animal buddies will miss us, and I expect the hand outs we are giving too. Truth be told I will miss them.

So from Hardin Ridge take care everyone.