A story of Stella and her fascination with teeth

Stella was just on my shoulder while I was working on the computer and started to do her weird thing of trying to get at my teeth. She'll do this with strangers too. She'll lean over and stretch and stretchhhhhhhh and reeeeeeach and before you know it she has jacked open your mouth and she's got her head in it. It's disgusting but it's something she feels compelled to do every now and then.  She was just up to her sneaky business of examining teeth when I thought I'd distract her and take a picture. I forgot she hates having her picture taken.

She was very good about having the first picture taken but it doesn't take long before this sort of thing starts to happen. Nope, she does not want her picture taken. No. No. No. No. No. She wants to get back to her dental work.

When Stella was a baby bird, that's when I discovered this weird fascination of hers. One day she was perched on my hand while I was watching TV. What I forgot was that my cat Bert was lying right next to me. Bert was a one in a million cat. The most gentle sweet boy ever. Anyway, commercial break and I looked over and Stella had jacked open Bert's mouth, had her head completely inside it and was busy examining his back molars. Bert, being the unusual cat that he was (and I have no idea how long Stella had her head in there) had this exaggerated expression of confusion, sort of a "please hellllllp me, I don't know what to doooooo" look. I now have to try and keep Stella away from everyone's mouth, especially cats (!) but it's a struggle because she's a very determined bird. Very.

One year I asked Vince what I should get Stella for Christmas and he said, "Her two front teeth."

The turtleheads are in bloom and the question is...

How far can a bumblebee reach inside a turtlehead?

Apparently all the way.

The ninja isn't that far away. He's hanging out on the turtleheads too.

And probably thinking how ridiculously cute that bee looks with its little beehind sticking out.

 

A little turtle drama before 9 am on a Tuesday morning

It was a beautiful morning. I was unaware that something had happened between Michael Ray and Cathy Jean after I had served them their breakfast.

Michael was mad about something because I found him on the deck steps ready to knock over what was left of the petunia. He was mad about something. Mad. There's a cold front coming in tonight so I thought maybe he was thinking he wanted to come indoors a little early.

No. He was mad about something else,  just wanted to let me know. It was up to me to figure out what it was.

So I brought him a fresh homegrown diced tomato, absolutely his favorite thing to eat. Maybe that would put him out of his bad temper. 

"This is deeeeee-lish!"

"Hmmmm....but should I save some for Cathy?"

"Aw heck, she'll never know I got another tomato or two this morning. Heh heh heh."

"I hate him. I hate him. He just walked by and took all my tomato off my plate. All of it. You can't even tell I had a tomato.  I wanted that tomato so bad. I dreamed about that tomato all night and what do I have now? Stupid cubed carrots. I just (sniff) hate him so much."

Well, I figured out what was up and brought Cathy Jean out another tomato. Unfortunately, even though she was on the other side of the yard, it didn't take long for Michael to figure out what was going on. He was over there in no time flat to help her finish it.

Praying mantis

I know this guy thinks he's well camouflaged but those grasshoppers have me hyper-aware of being watched,  and I sensed I was being watched.

I parted the grass to get a better view. He didn't mind. I have to compliment him on his grey matching the grey of the grass and his green matching what's left of the green on the grass. Well done.

Excellent balancing between the grass leaves too. Reminds me of the bamboo fighting scene in "House of Flying Daggers" with him perched invisibly up high just waiting...waiting. He is ninja. I think if we could hear him attack, he would sound just like Bruce Lee.