SLIGHTLY SQUIRRELLY AND SOMEWHAT FOR THE BIRDS

Yes, Virginia, the Dreaded Dome Of Heat is bad … but it does come with some good, too!

MISSOURI HOME GROWN TOMATOES — Ripe, juicy and RED in the stores!

Nothing can compare with tomatoes that haven’t been picked in a green state and shipped in from out-of-state or even country. I ate one for my breakfast on Monday as my morning fruit sliced on buttered whole wheat toast as a TOMATO SANDWICH. Pure heaven!

However, the rest of the Dreaded Dome Of Heat was pure sweat and swelter! Though the weather wizards say the dome cracked at 7:oo this evening. We’ll see tomorrow. When the run of 100+ days began a couple of weeks ago I started putting out a pan of water for all the critters that visit my yard. I was even nice enough to use ice water. And I filled the pan three times a day. After a couple of days every time I opened the back door, a flock of sundry birds would fly over a take their places in the trees.

And their drinking fountain was totally integrated, too. Like the sparrows, chickadees and robins in this photo.

Yes, some of them took a bath in their drinking fountain … and a couple even gargled with it like this show-off.

The cardinals and doves showed up, too. But this colorful character … was a no-show at the watering hole!

We don’t have any yellow finches in the neighborhood.  I took his picture at my niece’s birthday party in west county.

But I was surprised when a group of squirrels showed up for a drink, and they shared the pan with the birds. I ran and got my camera to take the picture, but when I opened the door they all scurried up the tree.

Or stopped to nibble on the stale corn bread I had crumbled for the birds.

I sort of felt like I was helping out Mother Nature  like a good son would. Well, a slightly squirrelly son.

(Technical note — most of the photos used in this post were shot through the sun porch windows that really needed to be washed. So the photos might be a bit fuzzy. Also birds seem to be in constant motion and refuse to watch the birdie when you take a picture.)