Sable Antelope

Wildlife World Zoo

 Litchfield Park, Arizona

January 2012

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Ronald Enjoys a Little Sunshine

Tomorrow I'll be traveling to Canton for First Monday Trade Days (held the weekend before the first Monday of each month).  It's a flea market extraordinaire.  If you can't find it in Canton, it probably doesn't exist.  Last month I even spotted this giant Ronald McDonald sitting on a bench looking fora new home!

Pink Slippers

,,, with an errant thread.

I'm All Ears ...

... to hear the latest!

Tucked Among the Brambles

Near Arcadia, Texas

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Military Macaw

Caldwell Zoo

Tyler, Texas

Llama

Llama are becoming popular additions to many East Texas farms and ranches

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The Dugout

Ducks

Caldwell Zoo, Tyler, Texas

Phoenix Zoo

This farm girl had to go to the zoo to take pictures of ducks!  We have a pond but no ducks.  Perhaps TexWis Girl or EG Camera Girl will be able to tell us what kind these are!

Mrs. Zebra to Mr. Zebra ...

... do these stripes make my butt look big?

Mr. Zebra to Mrs. Zebra:  Only when you bend over, dear.

Oops!  Wrong thing to say, Jack!

Cruising the City

This was one of those photos that I was planning to throw away or just toss in the 2012 miscellaneous photo pile.  After all, it was just a driveby shooting that happened to catch, of all dull things, a parking lot and a drive-in bank while visiting in Arizona recently.  Then along came a photo challenge re the sky in landscape photography at The Art of Capturing the Moment (aka The Dusty Cellar Shoots) and I decided what the heck, the only redeeming thing about this picture is a somewhat dramatic sky with ominous clouds and a touch of a contrail, maybe it will find a spot.  I agree, a little citified for a landscape, but cities have land too!  

See the others who have entered the competition HERE.   And, Rebecca, host of The Art of Capturing the Moment, thanks for the guest photographer's tutorial on this subject and for your beautiful photo demonstrating the lesson.

A Lazy Day in Mt. Enterprise, Texas

Now, mind you, I think every day in Mt. Enterprise is probably a lazy day.  I found this old barn just one block from the city center of a sweet little town of 500 people in East Texas.  But it is a hub of activity being the crossroads of two busy US highways.  They recently were the proud recipients of a new Shell station with approximately 20 gasoline pumps, plus several others and overnight parking space for 18-wheelers, and a Whataburger!  Now every little town around wants a Whataburger. (Now, me, I'd rather have a Sonic any day.)  I came through there a couple of weeks ago and the place was literally wrapped up! 

Now back to that barn.  This old barn is obviously not still in use, and I would bet it was built long before those trees started growing around it.  With all those trees, how in the world could a farmer get his tractor and his bales of hay and his animals into the shelter.  And in this part of the country, barns just aren't built in the middle of woods.  I've gone through Mt. Enterprise hundreds of times in my life but never took an extra five minutes to get off the beaten path.  And look what I found when I did!

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Yard Art

You've heard me talk about Canton, Texas, and its First Monday Trade Days, often touted as the world's largest flea market having its origin in the 1800s.  What's interesting about First Monday is it doesn't happen on the first Monday at all!  It happens on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday BEFORE the FIRST MONDAY of each month!  I've explained before how that got started but I'll do it again one of these days for newbies.  This month, with temperatures in the 70s, we saw lots of yard art.  At this particular shop the theme seemed to be the beach, sporting metal artwork of palm trees, crabs, sea turtles, sea horses, and pelicans, all painted in bright colors.

Now I just happen to find pelicans irresistible, so naturally I was drawn to these guys!

32/100 Dogs ~ Lola ~ Giant Texas Long-Haired Chihuahua

When I asked the owner of this beautiful dog if she were a Great Pyrenees, his reply was, "Oh, no, she's a Giant Texas Long-Haired Chihuahua!"  Sent me into a state of giggles!  She belonged to a cowboy and when I remarked that she must have just come from the beauty parlor, his friends who were accompanying him said yes but she looks this well-groomed all the time.

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The Bluebonnets Are Blooming In Texas!

Yes, the bluebonnets on our land started blooming this week, a few weeks earlier than normal, just like all the other bloomers around here.  The redbuds are almost gone, the crabapple has started putting on buds, and the dogwoods will probably pop in the next week to ten days.  The forsythia is in bloom and I found a bud on one of our irises today.  All the pictures on today's post were taken today, Thursday, March 15.  After attempting pictures of bluebonnets I have a newfound respect for photographers who are able to show such beautiful photos of pastures and hills of bluebonnets.  I find them very difficult to photograph.  They're quite small and it's hard to get a lot of definition in a large shot.

 We even have three small patches which have come up in little plots of grass growing in the middle of the driveway through cracks in the asphalt.  If you come to visit, DO NOT DRIVE OVER THEM!  Of course to drive over them, you'd have to get your tires off the pavement and drive in the meadow, and who would do that, so don't worry about it!

 I do much better with closeups of these little lupines than I do with the panoramic shots.

My mother has always wanted some Indian Paintbrush to grow with her bluebonnets.  Thanks to my bloggie buddy TexWis Girl who sent us some paintbrush seeds last fall, we spotted our first paintbrush wildflower today.  So far there's just one and it's not even on the side of the driveway where we planted them, but the seeds are tinier than poppy seeds and probably some were blown across the road by the wind.  TexWis Girl, my mom was overjoyed when I told her about this little flower and showed it to her!

Now back to that little bundle of bluebonnets in the middle of the driveway.  Here is my mom's dog Jubal giving it a little sniff.  I don't think he was investigating the smell but probably deciding whether or not he should pee on it!

Here in Texas we often see cows grazing or calves playing in a field of bluebonnets, but we don't have a fence in this area of our meadow so there are no cows allowed.  But Jubal shows off just how high that clover is that surrounds the bluebonnet patch.  That particular variety is scarlet clover and it has just started opening its buds in the last couple of days.  There is one scarlet clover blooming in the first picture of the bluebonnets and yellow wildflowers.  I think within the next week we'll have a beautiful mixture of scarlet clover, bluebonnets, and hopefully Indian paintbrush.  Jubal and my mom are the same age.  She will be 91 her next birthday and he is 13, which also makes him 91!  They are best friends!

Basketball Practice

Coach Ron seems to be passing on valuable information about the upcoming game on Saturday.  The boy on the far left (my grandson) is catching a quick 40 winks to make up for having played too long the night before on the Xbox.  The next boy to the coach's immediate right has spied something of much more interest off the court.  The next guy is cool, calm, collected, twiddling who knows what in his pockets.  The kid with the Mohawk is texting his girlfriend, "Hey, hot stuff, I'll pick you up at 8 if my mom says I can come over."  Then the dude on the far right is the ultimate jock - he just can't wait to take a long shot toward the basket!  At 8 years old they're still easily distracted.  They didn't even notice that beautiful Arizona sunset in the background!

All the Makings of a Bad Hair Day

The Last of the Hay

Near Martinsville, Texas

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Happiness Is ...

... having your own stick to chew

Galapagos Tortoise

Phoenix Zoo

Get creative and write a caption for this photo!

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I am sorry but I no longer comment on blogs which require word verification.

Color in Canton

Flowers vendors were out in force last weekend at First Monday Trade Days in Canton, Texas.  Texas is experiencing an early spring this year ~ about one month early, in fact, due to our mild winter.  Our bluebonnets actually started blooming this week ~ can't wait until they thicken up and I can take a few photos of them ~ and I actually bought twenty tomato plants today.  I really only wanted six but I went a little crazy.  I figure I can share some with friends and neighbors.  Our tomato crop was crap last summer due to the drought.  We watered them but our water is no substitute for good old-fashioned rain.  That stuff that falls from the sky doesn't have chlorine and all those other chemicals in it!

Flea Market Find

Beaded ostrich boots

Flea market price:  $30

New retail price:   $100 - $500 depending on brand

I didn't recognize the brand of these boots so they are definitely not high-end 

and are probably overpriced at a flea market for $30, especially considering their worn condition.

But I'll bet they look good out on the dance floor!

Blue and Gold Macaws

Did I say something wrong?  Open mouth, insert foot.

As you have probably surmised, I took a LOT of pictures at Wildlife World Zoo and the Phoenix Zoo during my recent trip to Arizona.

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Maid Service

Instead of a French maid's outfit, this "maid" wears a scuba suit and is hooked up to oxygen supply as he (or she, I suppose) vacuums one of the large aquarium tanks at Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium in Litchfield Park, Arizona.

32/100 Dogs ~ Havana ~ Havanese

She looks a little scruffy but her coat was as soft as bunny fur and she was a sweetheart!

Bunny Girl or Bunny Boy?

 

On Friday my friends and I traveled to Canton, Texas, for First Monday Trade Days, 

believed by some to be the world's biggest flea market.  

One of the highlights of the trip is always a visit to Dog Alley, 

where vendors sell almost any every kind of farm animal. 

My friend had decided to buy a new companion for her bunny whose partner died a few months ago.  

She picked this cute little number who is about eight weeks old.

But when you're buying a bunny who will be living with another bunny, 

the big question is always 

WHAT IS THE SEX OF THIS BUNNY?

After a bit of an examination, the proclamation came.

 

Just like any proud father in the delivery room, this guy was all smiles when he announced

IT'S A LITTLE BUCK!

So the bunny got packed in one of those red onion sacks shown in the second photo

and we went home with

A BUNNY IN A BAG!

Camel Kiss

Two camels enjoying a sunny afternoon.  (One is not a baby!)

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Australian Black Swan