There must have been a large flock of doves up in the pecan trees today. Those trees are very tall, very wide, and filled with zillions of leaves and pecan pods, so I couldn't see one dove, but I heard an entire symphony of them this morning. They were so loud that the coo-ing caught the attention of Mickey and Gatsby, our two outside cats. Both of them were sitting by the porch railing... four little cat eyes staring at those trees. Possibly, the cats were able to see the doves, but I never did find them. The coo-ing sounds were peaceful and very pretty... but then along came a wood-pecker and that broke up the little dove party.
Texas has a 'dove season,' meaning that big brave hunters can go off into the woods and shoot all the doves they can. Why they insist on doing this, I have no idea, but I think dove season is over now, so it's nice to know there are doves left up in the trees.
The 'downtown' area of our little town here is filled with scarecrows in all sorts of costumes.... most of them are sitting on small hay bales in front of the stores and shops along the main streets of town. They do this every year, and I believe there's some sort of contest where people can vote for the most creative displays. After the rains we had last week, most of the scarecrows look water-logged and sad, and some of the paint has washed away.
There's another town close by that has an annual Scarecrow Festival, which is one of the biggest events sponsored by that particular town. This year's festival was cancelled because of all the pouring-down rain that we had recently. Such a shame, really, because that town doesn't have all that much going for it all year long. Between their Scarecrow Festival and their July 4th Parade (featuring the Kids' Marching Kazoo Band), about the only other attraction there is the quiet and peacefulness of their very few main streets. And I do believe the residents of that town like it that way.
I've used up nearly two of the new cans of wasp spray that my husband recently bought. My aim is improving with those cans..... I don't waste so much of the spray when it first shoots out of the can, and I can usually destroy a wasp nest in the first 20 seconds. I've also learned that I don't really have to empty an entire can on one little nest.
Today, however, I wasn't after wasps...... the nests I found were filled with yellow-jackets, which may have been what stung me a couple of weeks ago. (And here I was, blaming it on a bee.) The yellow-jackets are smaller than the bees, and seem to be more aggressive in defending their territory. If you walk too close to a shrub or a bush that's home to a nest of yellow-jackets, then you're going to get stung just because you're walking there. And if you're pushing a lawn-mower, you're really going to get stung because I don't think the yellow-jackets like all of that noise.
There are days when I stand out in the driveway and look over at this house and I wonder if it would be possible to build a glass dome all around it... to keep out the scorpions, spiders, wasps, bees, yellow-jackets, and of course, the snakes.
We don't seem to have a problem anymore with the lizards and geckos because Mickey Kitty has been eating every one of those he finds. Now when I open up a can of what used to be Mickey's favorite Fancy Feast cat food, he looks down at the dish, then up at me, and I know damn well he's thinking "Don't they make this stuff with lizard meat?"
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