A Testimony of the Grace & Goodness of God!

It's all Olan Mills fault really. This family;

Plus this family:
Equals this event:Plus this:

Equals this:
Now we're down to this:
And occasionally we get to do this:
Al Kogler, thank you for being brave enough to marry me 15 years ago. You are the best thing to ever happen to me in this life.I thank God for you every day.
I love you!
Let's go for another 15 or so, Okay?

Marbleous!

Al and I have been adventuring around western Colorado a bit and visited the town of Marble, which we've driven by plenty, but never actually stopped at. Have you been there? As you get closer to town, you begin seeing large chunks of marble strewn here and there. Looking particularly lovely in the fall.

Marble, just randomly hanging out along along the road.
We stopped at a little historical site and enjoyed more of the stony goodness.
An up close shot of the texture on this big stone above. Saw marks?A big yard of marble and yes it's real. All these beauties had numbers on them.
What a lovely old house/office/shed made of marble.
A handsome man.
And this: Beautiful grass highlighted against sunny marble.Delightful.

Avian Architecture Review and Book Giveway!

The cedars of Lebanon get plenty of rain - The Lord's own trees, which he planted. There the birds build their nests; the storks nest in the fir trees...
(The Good News Bible, Psalm 104)

Many thanks to Princeton University Press for the opportunity to review and give away a copy of this book! More on that at the bottom of this post.

Avian Architecture, How Birds Design, Engineer & Build by Peter Goodfellow

What a wonderful read this has been!

Birds from all over the world are used in this book, but there are plenty of familiar North American birds included as well.

Each chapter begins with a general overview of the nest type, then has a "Blueprint" section that goes into more structural detail on how the various types of those nests are built. Then the chapter covers Materials and Features of the specific nest type, along with a Technique section showing how it's done, finally culminating in several fascinating species specific Case Studies.

The detail and effort some of these birds put into their nest for only one season completely amazes me.

I loved reading about how some of our more common birds - orioles and meadowlarks for instance, go about constructing their homes. It never ceases to entertain me when I find orioles nests constructed with all sorts of colorful material, "using tens of thousands of stitches and rapid shuttle movements." Really? They do that? I'll have to pay closer attention.

Have you ever watched an Oriole build a nest? I haven't. I highly recommend this interesting, well written book. I think you'll learn something and enjoy the fine photographs and artwork as well.

Now, after reading this book, I may find myself looking not only for birds, but for their nests.

** September Bird Book Giveaway **
Compliments of Princeton University Press

Answer this question, below in the comments, (making sure I have your contact info):

What was the most interesting nesting behavior you've ever seen?

Comments must be posted here on this blog, by Monday October 2, at 6:00 PM Mountain time. If you must sign in as anonymous - I need your name or a way to contact you.

Speaking of which - does anyone know Carol Wong? She was a winner of a previous giveaway and I have no way to contact her.

Winner will be chosen by a random thing picker.

Now, I'll be heading off to Ouray, Colorado this weekend to celebrate my 15th wedding anniversary with my hot, rockin', worship leader husband.
Just sayin'.

What Are The Chances Of This?

I was finally able to purchase some Colorado Red flagstone for my pathway near my Prairie Jungle. We had a wonderful rain here the last two days which moistened the chip path perfectly. I took my small trusty, Troy-bilt Tiller to the path to loosen it up. Raked it back, and began laying rock. As I removed the rocks from the pallet, I turned over this rock below:

Nothing special, eh? But look what was laying on the rocks I just pulled this one off of! This is no joke:

Al didn't believe me at first, but I showed him where it came from, can you see it?
So now I have this cool bird rock I've got to save and do something cool with.

Birding Walk This Saturday At Lon Hagler SWA

Hello everyone!

This Saturday at 8:00 a.m.

Directions: From Loveland, go west on 14th street SW to County Road 21, then 3/4 miles south (left) to County Road 16E ,then 1 1/2 miles west (left) to the entrance. Look for my red XTerra.

Also, mark your calendar for Octobers (Saturday the 22nd) Bird Walk at Lake Estes! We will meet at the KMart parking lot at 7:30, carpool for those who wish to and depart promptly at 7:45. Please be prepared to give your driver a few dollars in cash towards gas. RSVP required for this trip.

We will be birding the Matthews-Reeser Bird Sanctuary and also the area below the dam if we have time. Please, dress for the weather!

Our Beautiful English Budgies (Parakeets)

We are off to a new start with some gorgeous English Budgies from an internationally known breeder. Let me introduce you to them!

Here is the first pair. A lovely Yellow-face Gray Pied male and a beautiful Cinnamon Sky female.

Here is a beautiful pair - violet male and a light green normal female.

Another nice pair - Yellow-face Sky Pied male with a Golden Face Sky Female - I know she's green, but that's another story.

I will be setting these pairs up for breeding and may have a few babies available in the coming months. Please contact me to get on the list if you are interested.

This is one of my 1/2 American Parakeet, 1/2 English Budgie babies - Shadow. She is a Gray Spangle.