Or - Jackie, Get Your Gun!!
This blog is a hodgepodge...it goes from the Wal-Mart Garden Center to our park and all the way out to Lake Stevens to get a shotgun. It was a busy day and a beautiful one, too.
Let's start off, as many of our tales do, with a trip to Wal-Mart. Hey, it's our store and we don't really care how the other shoppers dress...it is sometimes amusing and sometimes very, very strange. But it is our store and that's where we shop.
And their Garden Center...it is something else.
When we were walking in they had fall flower displays outside the main doors and that got me started and then Carol and I found an excuse to wander around the Garden Center. It was worth it.
Cabbage plants used as a gardening decoration.
Close-ups constantly surprise me with the hidden beauty in these flowers.
Hola?
Some real Autumn colors. Look at all that is going on here from the subtle colors in the center to the ring of yellow flowers inside the flower.
Just a nice composition.
Cone flowers...the thing was, these were in the trash. Yeah, they were throwing these and a bunch more out.
And these happy fellas, NOT in the trash.
Seriously good stuff from Mother Nature.
Couldn't see this while I was there but the close-ups, they really show new worlds.
Hahaha, we did get our shopping done. But, honestly, a trip to the Garden Center is like a trip through an arboretum. Just cool.
Afterwards, armed with our Double Chocolate Muffins, we headed to our park just to enjoy a muffin and the day.
It was a beautiful morning...clear, crisp, clean and the sun was out.
We got to the park and sat down to enjoy our Double Chocolate Muffins...one of our favorite treats. Then Carol spotted this guy resting on one of the yardarms of a small boat in the Trailer Park Marina.
It's a Kingfisher!!
A Belted Kingfisher!!
There are roughly 90 species of kingfisher. All have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs and stubby tails. Most species have bright plumage with little differences between the sexes.
They consume a wide range of prey as well as fish, usually caught by swooping down from a perch. While kingfishers are usually thought to live near rivers and eat fish, most of the kingfisher species in the world live away from water and eat small invertebrates. Like other members of their order, they nest in cavities, usually tunnels dug into the natural or artificial banks in the ground.
The Belted Kingfisher lives on fish.
From the yardarm, he flew on over to the fence separating the park from the airfield. This is a male. The female Belted Kingfisher has a rust colored band around her belly.
And while I was trying to sneak up and get a closer picture of the kingfisher, these guys took off and I was lucky enough to grab a shot of them flying away. You can't tell it from this picture but it really was a nice day...plenty of blue sky.
While I was out by the lake trying to get the kingfisher, Carol was busy texting with her sister. Important stuff, I'm sure.
These kids and their electronic toys.
See, it's not that bad. Really, it was a glorious morning. I only wish we had brought along a lunch and the radio.
Clouds coming in from the south from Renton way.
The Purina Chow plane taking off on Lake Washington.
It is SO cool to see these planes taking off and landing.
By this time I had wandered back to the picnic table and helped Carol finish off the last of the Double Chocolate Muffins (Hahaha, I just like saying that, too). There was a couple that were running their dogs and they were looking up, above us.
Naturally, being human, I turned and looked up in the direction they were looking. I didn't see a doggone thing. I walked out a little further and looked up again...still nothing.
Not Carol, she walked on over and they told her what they were looking at. I had to walk out a bit further before I finally saw it.
A Great Blue Heron sitting up near the top of the tree we were sitting under.
Just sitting up there and enjoying the day.
I was glad I walked out as shortly after I shot this, he took wing and headed off. How cool was that to see this bird just sitting out in the top of a tree? Totally cool!!
A shot to give you an idea of how great this morning was.
It was something else.
Oh, and we saw a dead fish bobbing in the water...Carol thinks it was a salmon so tomorrow we're heading to the Cedar River to see if the salmon are running. I'm thinking it's still too early but we'll find out. Then, after that, we'll head on over to Coulon Park.
It never slows down...this madcap pace of ours.
Life in the fast lane, y'all!!
We finally got back, unloaded all the groceries and enjoyed the afternoon.
I've had my Dad's shotgun for a long time and wanted to pass it along to one of his Grandkids. It'd gotten rusty, it had gotten a lot rusty and so I asked a friend if he could clean it up as I was worried the bore would be pitted.
He said he had a friend that worked on old weapons and he'd see if he could clean it up. And he would.
Well, he cleaned it and then some. He worked over the whole thing and the stock and all. He spent some time on it. And it was finally done so I called Justin, my nephew, and told him about it and he's going to keep the shotgun for me. Justin is a gun enthusiast and I know it'll be in good hands with him.
So Carol and I were waiting for him to show up so we could go and get the shotgun. So of course, I took a selfie.
Who wouldn't?
Waiting For Justin Selfie!!
Ryan is in the National Guard and was at drill this weekend. That explains the BDUs.
But, there it is!! The shotgun was made in the 1880s in Belgium. Somehow it made its way to America and into my Granddads hands. My Dad used it to go hunting rabbits and such as a way to supplement the family diet during the early years of the Depression.
The story goes that my Dad was returning from a hunt with the shotgun riding on his shoulder when a rabbit jumped up in front of him. He just naturally grabbed the gun with both hands and swung it and cracked the grip hitting the rabbit. So the wooden grip is not original...someone carved out a replacement for it and that explains the slight difference in color between the wooden grip and the stock.
Still, it looked good and I was glad to finally get it back to where it should have been.
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| Justin, Ryan, the shotgun and me |
And it was good to see Ryan and Justin again.
A good day with lots going on. Wal-Mart, flowers, parks, birds, nephews, National Guard and guns. Life is full and, y'know, it is good.
Life is very good.
Hooah!!
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