This is the strange visitor who interrupted us this morning!  It appears to be a red-tailed hawk.  We live in town so you can just imagine the excitement around here when my daughter spotted this large bird in our backyard!  I'm surprised he didn't take off because of all the yelling!  Everyone had to report to our schoolroom, STAT!  Daddy got the camera and a few pictures.  Then, we got to see him fly a few times and he seemed to be carrying his breakfast in his talons.  Bluesky (2nd youngest son) is VERY interested in birds of prey and animal rehabilitation, so this was like an early Christmas present for him! 

I am amazed at how good God is!  We have now had visits from a mallard couple, a pheasant, an opposum, and many lovely songbirds.  And we live in town!!!  This is such a blessing since we spent hours each week in the mountains before our move from WV, and we do miss it soooooo much.  God seems to know what we need!  And just when we need it, too!  What a wonderful educational opportunity we had this morning researching about and identifying this bird!

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My daughter and I (with the assistance of the baby!) just picked two large bowlfuls of elderberries from the bush in our yard!  They look like little purple jewels!  We had visions of pints of jam and muffins and bottles of cordial for Christmas gifts.  Then, I read my Ball Book about elderberries!    WE ONLY PICKED ENOUGH FOR 3 PINTS OF JAM!!!!  They are little jewels.  Very little jewels!  I hope we are able to pick more so we have enough for gifts and for ourselves, too! 

Last night, my dear husband found a large ( I mean, large) bug on the floor in our den.  It was too big and interesting looking to squish so I caught it under a glass jar. (Don't worry!  I used my bug jar and won't be sending out any bug/elderberry jam to you for Christmas this year!  ) My 2nd son- L was soooo excited!  We put screen over the top of the jar and he's been busy watching our new insect pet!  Not that it is doing much.  We identified it as a cicada.  See it here www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu  We now are immersed in everything cicada- listening for them, reading about them, looking for shells that the nymphs left behind.  So far, L's found two shells- one last week.  He is so excited about sketching his cicada into his nature notebook.  Now, if only I can get big sis to sketch it!  Or look at it without screaming, "EEEWWWW!"

Hope you are all enjoying God's world around you!

~mel+4

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 This rabbit was lounging in our yard during one of the hottest days last week during the midwest hot streak!  It actually almost fell asleep right in front of us!  My husband who is an avid outdoorsman said he had never seen anything like it.  But my kids are convinced that this is the same rabbit that had babies in our hostas by our side porch last summer.  We actually got to see her nurse the babies!  It was quite something!  This year she had babies by the back fence- too far from the house for us to enjoy!    But it very well may be the same rabbit- she certainly was comfortable on that nice, cool clover even though it was almost 100 degrees!

Hope you all fared as well as she did in the heat!

Blessings!

~mel+4

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