It was about 2200 hours last night that I realized that I had not writtten a blog for the day. By then I wasn't going to sit and write because I had already turned off my brain for the day.   So today I'll start my day with the blog before I do my other normal routine stuff that doesn't amount to a hill of beans, although, yes, I did make coffee first and have a cup right beside me.

I have a good mixture of guests at the buffet this morning. There are three, maybe  four, cardinals, a handful of sparrows, and house finches and gold finches. Two wrens have been singing to me. A chickadee sits on the birdbath, and of course, the bully gang of starlings is here, but only three of them so far. The hummingbird is darting around the phlox and magic lilies, and the hummingbird feeder. So it is an entertaining morning full of God's creatures and God's blessings. The peace and quiet and tranquil scene is all I need to allow my mind to wander to the enormity and wonder of the world God has created and remind me what a blessing it is to be alive and healthy, (relatively so).

My little nocturnal "special kitty", Mr. Stinker was here again last evening. I was sitting out here around 2300 hours and saw him right outside the door eating the residual seeds and stuff that had been left from the day of birds spilling stuff from the feeders. Yesterday afternoon, I threw a bunch of egg shells out in the flowerbed and I figured that the birds and the skunk would come around and eat them. What doesn't get eaten will be good for the soil, although from the looks of it this morning, a good half of them are gone. This past weekend I threw a half dozen ears of sweet corn out in the yard because it was too far gone to be good eating for us. The next morning those ears were scattered all over the yard and the cobs were mostly stripped. I don't now if it was the skunk or the raccoons. Generally if something is carried away, it is the raccoons that do it. Every once in awhile I'll have to go looking for one of my suet feeders because the raccoons have knocked it outside of the tree and carried it away.

I managed to get all of the grass and weeds cleaned up around my mailbox yesterday. I should go out there and spray some round up on the. Area now and kill any residual roots. It was really looking bad.  I just don't get out there like I should and I have a thousand excuses for why. it, the bottom line is that I have gotten lazy and fat and I need to change my ways. Oh, I do a pretty good job of staying after it but I find it a lot easier to say "tomorrow" these days. I have a hard time breathing when I get busy out there in the heat and humidity and I give in to that far too easily.

It is the 2nd of August already. Kids will be going back to school soon and summer vacations will be over. However, I think I told you we are planning a vacation out to the Black Hills and the Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons at the end of September. I'm very excited about that. I sent off for some South Dakota vacation guides and stuff and have been getting stuff from them via email. I'm very excited that I will finally get to see the annual Buffalo round up; although I suspect it is going to be a zoo. They say as many as 15,000 people show up for that three day weekend and event. But I'll still get my "bucket list" item checked off.

OK, that is it for today. Time to just sit and enjoy my morning for awhile. The butterflies are here flitting from flower to flower. The wren continues to serenade me and the starlings are still having a knockdown rumble out there. Life goes on and God continues to shower me with blessings. Peace.