Fish, sunflowers, kids and bugs

Today was a day of birthday parties.
First, Geoff and the girls went up to a 2nd cousin's 2nd birthday party, then picked me up and we all went to another birthday party. This one was for Aidan, the oldest child of our friends, Mike and Kim. Aidan is 4 now. Time flies.
And Kim puts me to shame in the "kid's birthday" department.
The theme was The Sea...
She made:

Fish made of pears, blueberries, mandarin oranges and a slice of almond for the fin.

And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into fish shapes.
And the creme de la creme:

A scuba diver cake. Hershey's Hugs for hair, and candy for the eyes, nose and mouth. Complete with goggles and snorkel.
Good grief.



Their dog, Russell, is recovering from surgery...Aside from a dental procedure, he also had a wart removed from his side, and a benign cyst removed from his penis.
OW.
I am going to let that soak in for a minute.
I'm not a guy, but....DAMN.


While waiting for Geoff to pick me up (my car is broken again. DAMN), I sat in the shade and watched the birds.

I adore chipping sparrows. I don't know if they are all like this, but ours are almost tame...they don't mind when we walk out the door, and we can get closer to them than any other feeder bird.
The sun was making the goldfinches even more golden than usual. They were glowing.




I watered the plants in the front, and enjoyed the fuzzy heads of the past-prime clematis:



Then I turned to our sunflower patch.


This patch started accidentally. This is where the feeders used to be, and during a spell when I really wasn't weeding thoroughly, some sunflowers began to grow. So I put a fence around them so it looks like we did it on purpose.
And now I have a spot of happiness every time I walk out the front door.


I couldn't stop taking pictures of them..they were glowing with the same fire as the goldfinches.

And then I noticed all the bugs that were coming out after the watering...

A stink bug? Assassin bug? Whatever. I treated him with the utmost respect. Because they look like little armored cars full of attitude.



A skipper came to noodle around the flowers...20 times bigger than himself. Don't the flowers look soft enough to sleep on?


This one made my day.
Orange, blue and just a touch of red, a stained glass bug. A bug made of burnt blue steel.
Oh, yeah.

UPDATE:
Junior has gone to his new home in Illinois. I wanted to have one last goodbye, but he was gone before I could get over to RAPTOR. Be a good owl, Junior. They will love you.



Our gray screech owl is in home care right now, due to a foot infection. Our best screech owl for programs...calm, always ready to put up the ear tufts so I can demonstrate how well they blend into tree bark...hope she gets better soon...I have "Harry Potter" programs coming up and they want all of our owls there!