A Girls Night Out............

Tonight my daughter and I decided to invite a few close friends and have a "Girls Night Out". Something we rarely get a chance to do.

                                                    

The Olive Garden was the restaurant of our choice.  They serve mostly Italian Food.

        

                                                                        
  We met Sarah and Tommi . Sarah is the 17 year old granddaughter of Tommi.  Than there is Terri, Kimberly and yours truly.

                                                                    
Sarah loves her grandmother very much, can't you tell. Tommi is a very special lady.And she loves Sarah just as much. She was a little taken by Sarah's kiss in the restaurant.

Being the typical 17 year old, Sarah loves to be funny. And we enjoy her antics. She had us laughing all through the meal.

And she really does have a serious side to her.!! lol

Terri and Kimberly  have been friends for many years. And getting together with her tonight was special. They always had a good laugh together and still do. but because of their schedules now, they do not get together as much as they would like.
                                                                             

                         

  

Terri was like my third daughter. Can't believe the girls are now women and have daughters of their own  . My where does the time go.!?!?!?!?

We all decided to do the soup and salad and bread sticks tonight for our dinner. This is the minestrone soup that I chose for my soup.

                                                      
   
Their famous warm bread sticks that went with the soup and salad.  They were yummy.  The waitress gave us a sample of their wine for that evening.  We washed it down with iced tea or water. lol

                                                
 This is the dish my daughter tried.  She said it was pretty good.  But the best part was the dessert. Kimberly and I  split a slice of chocolate layer cake. Which I forgot to take a picture of. And I should have, it would have made your mouth drool!  :-)

                                                                    
This is the area we sat in. Our table was in the corner of this room.  For a Sunday night it was pretty crowded. We figured it wouldn't be that many people eating out on a Sunday night. But I don't think that applies any more. People eat out all the time, no matter what the day is!!!

It was nice to ~Take the Time~ with these special ladies. Each unique in their own ways. We had a very enjoyable evening together. And hopefully it will not be so long the next time till we get together again.

                                                                  
                       
                               The evening ended with this beautiful sunset on our way home.

                     Hope everyone has a great upcoming week. Stay safe and take care.

                                                                           Hugs, Eileen

                                                       

          


                                                                                           

My Black Butterfly.......

Quite a few posts ago, I had put a blog post on of what the Black Butterfly meant to me. I have been waiting for the right time, to get some more pictures to share with you.  And today was the day.
After I posted the blog on the Hummingbirds this morning, I saw a huge Black Butterfly flying around our Butterfly bush. At first I wasn't sure if it was a Butterfly, Hummingbird or a small bird.
So I went out on the deck and to my joy it was my "Black Butterfly"

So I am just going to share some of the pictures I took of him. Wasn't planning on putting on another post this soon in one day, but I couldn't resist. Hope you enjoy them.

Notice the detailed coloring on the underside of his wings. Completely different from the top side of him.

A side view of him.

                                                            

                                                                              

                         

                                                                        


Guess I better stay in off the deck, or I will wear my camera out, not to mention my pointer finger.
Hope you enjoyed seeing what I saw today.
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                                                                            Hugs
                                                                              

                                                                                    


      





                                                                                                       

My Passion for the Beautiful Hummingbird.....

Today, I decided to ~Take the time~  and share my passion for the amazing , beautiful
                                                                Hummingbird
My Special joy each day during the late Spring and Summer season is to sit on our deck and enjoy the Hummingbirds as they feed from our feeders and flowers in the yard.  We also have  a forest  like setting in our yard with a lot of Pine trees. The Hummingbirds like to roost and nest in them.

As I share some of my pictures that I have taken I will print some information under the pictures that I found on  "About. com"   about the Hummingbird.

                                                                

          There are more than 325 Hummingbird species in the world.  Only 8 species regularly breed in the United States, though up to 2 dozen species my visit the country.

A Hummingbird must consume approximately 1/2 of it's weight in sugar daily and the average feeds 5 to 8 times per hour.  Plants, feeders and insects provide food for them. 

 

Their wings beat between 50 and 200 flaps per second depending on the direction of flight and air conditions. Their maximum forward flight speed is 30 miles per hour.  Though the birds can reach up to 60 miles per hour in a dive.

 

They have 1,000 to 1,500 feathers, the fewest number of any bird species in the world.

                                                                
  The average Ruby-throated Hummingbird weighs 3 grams.  In comparison, a nickel weighs 4.5 grams.

                                                            
  Hummingbirds cannot walk or hop though their feet can be used to scoot sideways while they are perched.      

                                                     
 The Hummingbirds heart rate is more than 1,200 beats per minute.
It takes  them an average of 250 breaths per minute.

  
They do not suck nectar through  their long bills. They lick it with fringed fork tongues.  

                                                                                       

The Hummingbirds lay the smallest eggs of all Birds.  They measure less than 1/2 inch length but may represent as much as 10% of the mother's weight at the time the eggs are laid.    


It always amazes me how these little birds survive among all the larger birds of prey. But they do. And they will go after larger birds if they or their nests are threatened.  We see this many a time when observing them.

One morning as I sat in my kitchen and did not have my camera with me at that moment, I glanced out the slider and saw a Catbird  sitting on the deck railing. He had his head cocked to one side and was watching the Hummingbird eating from the feeder. HE was very intent on watching what they were doing.  After the Hummingbird flew away, the Catbird went over to the feeder and tried to put his beak down in the hole. It was so funny. I am thinking maybe he was trying to get the ants that frequent the feeder along with the bees.
 

                                                                                                                           

There are usually tons of them crawling around on the feeders. Well, whatever his reason, he was fun to watch  UNTIL   the Hummingbird  came back to eat.  Well, that big old mean Catbird chased the Hummingbird away.  I was not happy with him. My husband and I both ran out and chased him away.  NO ONE FOOLS WITH MY HUMMERS!!! 

My husband decided to put more suet out for the birds,  hoping that would deter him or any other larger birds from coming around.  After reading about the Hummingbirds on the site, I see that they can stand up for themselves with the bigger birds. But at that point I did not know that, and all I wanted to do was protect my babies.

When we fill the feeders we put 3 parts boiling water with 1 part sugar. We let it sit until it cools and than fill the feeders.  What we have left over we keep in the refrigerator  as it has sugar in it. ( I almost wrote icebox) That is what we called them when younger. I have to correct myself when talking to the girls when I ask them to get something out of the icebox.  IT is like" Nana" it is a refrigerator. Oh, yes, times do change. I will tell them the story about how they used to bring chunks of ice to the homes and put it in the icebox to keep our food cool.. I am sure their eyes will just roll in their heads.!!
hee hee


Hope everyone is keeping cool. And enjoying their week. Is there a special type of bird that you enjoy watching?  I have many,but the Hummingbird  is my favorite.

                                                                   
                                                                 Hugs  Eileen           

Part 2 of Weekend at Sister-In-Laws

This will be the second part to my last post on the weekend at my Sister-In- Law"s home.

The weather was extremely hot, in the 100 plus degrees.  Which seems to be following a pattern for most of the United States.

We all welcome any type of rain to help with the crops that are floundering from all the dryness and extreme heat. The Southern States of Maryland are usually providing produce for the rest of the state. Mostly corn,different melons, stringbeans, tomatoes, etc.  It was so dry and dusty there. Corn was brown before it even produced. Stringbeans were not growing. A lot of the vegetables were small in size and had marks on them.

While down there we had a storm each night that came across the water. It was so exciting to see how the clouds formed and see the wind pick up and blow across the waters.  It can be scary also, as there was a water spout reported one night on the bay. Which is a tornado over water.  Yipes!!

We ~ Took the time~ to take some pictures each night of the sky as the storms came into the area.  They did not last long and therefore did not provide the amount of rains that we need.

I would like to share them with you.  It is not the same as being there, but thought you might like seeing some of the skies that came before and after the storms.

                       Don't be fooled by the  blue space  in the sky. You can see the darkness forming to the left of the picture. The clouds were building up with  moisture. But isn't it beautiful?

   

We were mesmerized by the colors and how fast the clouds were changing. What would be in store for us ?

                          

You can  look up at the sky  and watch the whirling and twirling of the clouds. Hearing thunder in the distance and some lightening bolts.  The thunder usually comes first at a distance, than it moves into the area with a big sonic Boooooooooommmmmmmmmmm!!! Sometimes it almost knocks your socks off of your feet.!!!   :-O

Yup, it is getting darker and darker and the wind is picking up. This storm, had alot of lightening . Not as much rain as we had hoped.

   My Sister-In Law's property is surrounded on three sides of water. So we just turned around to each area to see how the clouds were changing .

    

  That storm was not as bad as we thought it might be. It did provide us with some extraordinary color and sounds though.
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Now this thunder storm the next night was really a little scary when it came up. I am going to show you some pictures in order of the storm coming across the creek. You can see in the distance the rain slowly coming toward us. The color of the water is changing as it is moving forward.

Notice the mist as it is bringing more rain. It changes the look of the horizon . The water is becoming more choppy.

Okay, now we are completely covered in rain and mist. If you look closely you can see the white caps forming on the water.

 

At this point we are hoping no one is out in their boats while this storm is coming in.  Two girls in canoes were out earlier and hopefully they had gotten to shore safely.! The fishing boats seem to do okay in smaller storms like this.

The storm lasted for about an hour. we couldn't stand outside much longer to take pictures as the camera and we were quite wet. But for us it was excitement seeing something like this. If you do not live on the water, it is a show that can be an experience!!
 

A few  hours after the storm passed , the two girls came back all in one piece. they live in the area and know just what to do. Sometimes you have warnings of an upcoming storm and other times they just come up out of no where. That is when they are most dangerous.

               

  

A few nights if it was an early evening storm and it passed, it gave us a gorgeous night sky. 

Storms can be exciting and interesting to watch. But this is not always true. As we know for many people effected by all the terrible ones that have been  happening in different states.
Always keep safe during a storm and find a safe shelter to stay until it is over.  These storms were pretty to watch. But we made sure we were out of harm's way during them.

Hope everyone has a wonderful evening. Have a good night and a good morrow'
                                                                          hugs