Well, I'm embarrassed that I haven't yet updated this blog with travel talk from our Sept.-Oct. trip to New England, but I'm going to jump ahead and tell you a bit about our Thanksgiving trip to Raton, New Mexico.  Randy's folks live there and we are always happy to go and see lots of wildlife.  It is a long two day drive through the Texas Permian Basin to northern New Mexico.  This year we drove through pea soup fog for about an hour before hitting our first stop in Big Spring, Texas....not really a fun experience.  But, the second day of our drive, across the northern most part of New Mexico, we saw a small black hobo bear walking along the railroad tracks.  Yes, I know he is brown in color, but he's still a black bear.  He didn't have his hobo pack with him, but he sure looked like he was ready to hop a train.  We also saw several herds of pronghorn antelope, but they were too far away from the road for photos.

Buck telling his baby to move (which he soon did).

It snowed the night before we left and we drove through frozen roads with heavy wind gusts blowing ice and snow across the road.  Once we got to Texas, the snow was gone but we had wind gusts up to about 50 miles an hour (you should see those tumbleweeds fly in wind like that) and dust storms.  It was a hard driving trip....thank goodness Randy did all the driving!  But what fun time!

This is actually two babies standing side by side--looks like he's sticking his tongue out but it is actually the tip of the second fawn's nose.

Two does watching the neighbor as he pours water in his bird bath.  As soon as he went into the house, they went for a drink.  It is illegal for town people to feed the deer but they can give them water.

One of the babies, born last spring.

Daddy

We are still in the midst of a very long, very dry, very hot summer here in Houston.  However, two bright spots are that the hummingbirds seem to love the hot weather are coming back in droves and so are the butterflies.  I must say that, considering how dry it is here, our Backyard Wildlife Habitat is still filled with flowers, water in the birdbaths, food & shelter and helps draws these lovely creatures to our home.  I always love the hummingbird wars that take place every fall.  We have hummers in the early spring, but they don't seem to arrive in the same numbers as the fall, and don't have as many wars.  If you are not familiar with hummingbird habits, these tiny birds are extremely territorial.  They stake out a feeder or favorite flowering plant and try to keep all the other hummers from entering each territory.  One comes in for a feeding and two, three, four, or more swoop down to chase the "interloper" away.  Now, you must understand that these hummers share two feeders in our backyard and numerous plants, so none are really "interlopers" but they all fight over the feeders.  Occasionally, we are lucky to see them do the hummingbird war dance where two will circle each other, like little helicopters, their bodies flying vertically, feet facing each other.  They start high and circle down to the ground.  When the first one touches the ground with its tail, they both fly off in different directions.  They never seem to hurt each other and we really enjoy watching them.  Right now, we have at least six fighting over the backyard.  I think we have male and female Ruby-Throated....but they move so fast, it is hard to tell.  Plus the females of both the Ruby-Throated and Black-chinned varieties look very similar unless you can see their tail feathers (which I cannot) and the males of both varieties can look similar, depending on how the light is hitting them.  We sometimes get Rufous hummers (the males are brown or copper-colored) but I haven't seen any this fall.  I've tried to get some photos for you.  They are such fast movers, that I had to use Photoshop to sharpen the images.  And I only got the beginning of one war (look closely to see the second hummer above and swooping down on the feeding hummer in the second photo.  One little female posed for me on a butterfly bush but I couldn't get the camera to focus on her....she tried as hard as I did to capture her portrait.  It seems that the more hummers we have, the more territorial and the less afraid of us they become.

Look closely to see the second hummer (I think a female) swooping on top of the feeding male.  She is moving so fast, the camera hardly captured her!

I've been towing the line since my second kneecap repair in June.  I'm finally allowed to bend my knee just a little....it's been extended since March 13 when I suffered that stupid fall in my house that broke my right kneecap, my left ankle and another bone in my right foot.  Who would have ever thought I could get so banged up falling down three steps in my own house!  And, the steps have been in the same place since we moved into this house 15 years ago.....you would think I'd know where they are by now!  Anyway, after the first surgical repair not working, we are in great hopes that this last one (which included a bone graft from my hip area) will be the keeper.  I'm just starting to climb the stairs to the shop and take photos of inventory.  I'll be uploading some new items tomorrow and starting the (very late) Summer Sale which you guys seem to like so much.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of my funny Sheltie, Mandy, enjoying life in a pillow case.  As you might recall (scroll down if you need a reminder), Mandy loves to play dress up.  She should have grown up with a 6 year old girl to dress her daily, but she is stuck with Randy, me, and the rest of the Pack (the Pack doesn't really help with dressing her up).  Randy has discovered a new type of "dress up" with seems to make Mandy quite content.  When we change bedsheets, Randy puts Mandy in one of the pillowcases coming off the bed....and lets her hang around in it.  She loves it!

It's hot as the blazes and drier than it has been since the 1940s but we are having a small tomato and eggplant harvest.  You can see some of our harvest in the accompanying photos.  We are loving the darker purple ones (Black Krim) the best.  Unfortunately that seems to be the favorite of the squirrels also and we've gotten to taste precious few of them.  The small yellow-white tomatoes are White Ghost.  They are a bit strange because they are extremely soft and weird to the touch....but very tasty.  The cherry tomato is Riesentràubè.  Not the most flavorful cherry tomato we've tasted...but that might be because of the dry conditions.  We've had a couple of the varieties Abraham Lincoln and Mortgage Lifter....but those plants have not been big producers and the squirrels have robbed us of most of them.  I have two Oxacan Jewel fruits on the plant.  That is my favorite but the squirrels have gotten all but those last two and I'm watching them closely in hopes we get at least one.  I've cradled the biggest fruit inside of a lingerie washing bag in hopes the squirrels can't see it!  The heaviest harvest has been the bell pepper shaped striped tomato that you see all over the plate.  We don't know what they are because the plant was marked Yellow Pear....the fruit is neither yellow nor pear shaped and I grow Yellow Pear every year so I know these aren't that variety.  We aren't particularly fond of these striped guys.  They look like a bell pepper on the inside also.....empty walls with all of the seeds and jelly surrounding the core.  More flavorful than a store-bought tomato...but not what I want taking up my precious garden space.  One good thing is.....the squirrels don't particularly care for them either!

I'm sorry for all of you non-Southerners because Spring has sprung in Houston.  It's orchid time again in the McClard-Segotta backyard.  This winter was another cold one for us and I'm not sure how much of the garden or the orchids (which spent more than 2 months in the garage) but the lovely vanda to the left bloomed the entire winter in the garage and had 3 active flower spikes when put back outdoors.  (And, yes, this is last year's photograph of the same plant....I'm too lazy to get out there and photograph it again.) 

We will be planting our heirloom tomatoes into the ground this weekend.  We bought the plants one freezing Saturday morning in February on our big "Heirloom Tomato Day" at a local nursery which brings out some tomato farmers once a year to sell to us.  They have been growing in pots and this weekend I'm taking the plunge and planting them in the ground.....and keeping my fingers crossed that forecasts for a warm March in the South are correct!  For all of you jealous people still up to your......in snow and freezing temps, take comfort in the fact that by June, it will be too hot to walk out of our houses!

Don't miss Page 3 (The Pack's page).  It is always everyone's favorite!

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