Murder?

 🐾    There was a murder committed in my house last night. When we got up this morning we found the victim robber/thief) laying dead in the living room floor. We never heard anything when the victim entered the house, (or maybe he/she was already here when we went to bed) or when the murder occurred. How could the murderer be so quiet we wondered. Or murderers.⚠
      We had four suspects to the dastardly deed. When we questioned them none of the four suspects would admit to anything. They just sat by the victim and stared at him and then at us. It was as if they were saying "See what I did." They seemed so proud of what they had done. But not one of them would admit to anything. In fact it was as if all four were claiming that they were the one to do the dirty undertaking, ,so that none of them would get in trouble for doing it. On discussing it we were sure they all four had a hand (paw/tooth) in the feat. But as to which one gave the final coup de grace? Well, no one was talking. (or meowing)
    It wasn't as if it was a really sad event. No one was crying or grieving over the victim. He hadn't been that well liked. In fact he hadn't been liked at all. Not him or any of his relatives. We were un-decided as to how he got into the house. Did he sneak in the door when it was opened? It might have been easy for him then especially if it was dark outside. Or was he under the house and able to climb up one of the plumbing pipes and squeeze through the flooring under one of the sinks. That is the only way we can find that he could have got into the house.
     Any way the victim was dead and a funeral was in order. A plastic bag would do for a coffin, followed by a trip to the trash can. While that was going on the four suspects watched with interest. They seemed to be trying to understand why we were not more enthused over their kill. One even reached up and pulled on the sack as it was being taken out to the trash.
    I have to admit I was kind of proud of them. Especially when I remembered that they had probably tried to tell me the robber was in the house. It had been about midnight when I needed to make a trip to the bathroom and I heard a little noise in the laundry room. I turned on the light. The four suspects were sitting around the door to the closet where the hotwater heater is. Every few seconds one would move up a few steps and look under the door which has about a one inch gap under it. I opened the door but couldn't seen anything and was to tired to find a flashlight for a better look. Instead I closed the door, told the suspects to behave their selves and went back to bed.
    I guess they continued to keep watch and when the little thief decided to chance coming out of the closet they all attached him. Or did just one attach him? Or did they take turns attaching him? And how long did they play with him both before they killed him and afterward?
    As I am sure you have guessed by now the victim was a mouse and the suspects were my four cats. I am puzzled by the fact that they were able to chase a mouse around the house and finally kill it and not wake myself or my husband. They did it with very little noise and without causing any damage to any thing that happened to be sitting on tables, cabinets, or bookcases.
   I am just glad they did get rid of the little monster and that they didn't put him in one of our shoes. Putting toys in our shoes is a favorite pass time. I remember finding a large (about 8 inches long and a good inch wide) centipede in one of my shoes when we lived in New Mexico. Thank goodness it was dead when I felt it under my foot when I slipped the shoe on.
    This is the second mouse we have had in the house here. Lee was able to catch the other one under a bucket and took it outside to meet a timely death. (Does that make him a murderer, too.)
   I had wondered why Ziva, our dog, hadn't waken us up when the cats were chasing the mouse. Or did she help them? I remember her killing a few injured mice, rats, and rabbits after our outdoor cat had brought them into the yard and dropped them right in front of her. Sure makes you wonder what our pets are thinking of when they do some thing like that.
    Later that morning I took Ziva for a walk. Suddenly she stopped and backed up a step. There in front of us was a black rat snake about three feet long. As with most people my first thought was what could I use to kill it with. Then I remembered what snakes mostly eat is mice and rats. As the snake worked its way into the brush at the edge of our yard I wished it well and told it to find lots of mice to munch on.🐁🐍🐈

 

Flower Photos

So I may have put some of these on before but I am in love with these tulip trees. Plus I know the flowers will be gone soon.

All of the good flowers are so high up I couldn't get a photo looking down into the flower. And the ones that I found on the ground were to far gone. Any way you can almost see the inside of this one.

this is a couple of the flowers on the clematis that I bought last week. I had always wanted one and they just won't grow in New Mexico. I tried but they refused in that hot, dry weather. 

 Close ups of honeysuckle blossoms. In the morning the sweet smell is almost over powering it is so strong.

 Wild flower found by the road while walking Ziva.

I have been pleasently suprised that there is a clump of some sort of yucca in our yard. The neighbors have some, too. I didn't know there was any kind of yucca that would live in this much wet. I think the ones we had back in New Mexico would rot with this much water. Have been looking yuccas up but can't find this one, or at least that it is this one for sure. There are several different types of yuccas and some kind or another can be found over most of the Americas. 

Iris

I love iris. They are a delightful flower. I don't think there is anything that is easier to take care of than iris. So when I saw a couple of the strap like leaves of iris in the yard I was glad and waited impatiently for them to bloom and see what color they were. Iris come in many, many color. The orginal color seems to have been a purple color. But now there is hundreds of colors from pure white all the way to black. Blues and purples are the most common and what i expected to see when these opened as a nice blues is what I have seen the most of in our neighborhood. Instead i saw this lovely two toned flowers - dark purple on the lower leaves and a creamy peach on the upper ones. Both of the two clumps in my yard are the same color. Now I am having thoughts of making an iris bed somewhere in the yard. I need some other colors to go with these. I recently saw a double petaled iris in a flower catalog. It almost looked like a rose. It is very tempting to get one. (Sigh)

Blooming Now

I have discovered several flowers and trees blooming now. I lived in Idaho as a teenagers and there were wild blackberries there but I didn't remember the being so pretty. I do hope that I get to eat a few of the berries when they come on, but I am sure the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, and other wildlife will get most of them.

 I have seen honeysuckle everywhere I have lived but not growing wild as it does here. Honeysuckle grows and covers everything around here but is still pretty and smells so good.

Not sure what this bush is. I was planted by the previous owner. It is thick with leaves and has tiny, little green flowers hid in the leaves.

There are 3 nice size roses by the front porch and 3 that are struggling to survive in the yard. I will try to help them. 2 of the ones by the porch are red and one is pick. As to the color of the others we will have to wait and see.

This is another tree in our yard. Again I am not sure what it is. It is quite large with medium size leaves that have suddenly put on these tiny, fuzzy little blossoms. They don't look like much but still I would like to know what kind of tree it is. 

Tulip Tree

I found a new tree in our neighborhood. One I was not familiar with. It's the tulip tree. I guess people that live in Kentucky and this area of the U. S. know about them. I had heard of them but never seen one until I moved here. And even then I didn't know what it was until they started blooming this week. I knew we had several oak trees in our yard and assumed this other big tree in the back was another oak as the bark looked like an oak. And when it started to leave out the leaves did have almost an oak leaf look to them. But the other day while walking the dog down the road by our place I noticed strange orange and yellow petals on the ground. I looked all around that area and couldn't figure out where they came from. Later that evening taking another walk I happened to look up and saw saw these beautiful tulip shaped flowers high in a tree we had thought was an oak tree. I knew what it was as I had read about them but was it ever a surprise. Now that we knew what we were looking for we discovered several tulip trees behind our property and a lot more down the road from us. I took lots of photos of them and was sure glad to have a good zoom on my camera as most of the flowers are way over my head. Because of the color of the flowers they don't show up that much and almost look like a different kind of leaf on the tree until you learn to see them.

 We figure this big tulip tree in our yard, which is the only one actually on our property is about 40 feet tall and must be quite old considering the size of the trunk.

The base of the tulip tree is about 3 to 4 feet across and has a Virginia creeper (I think) growing up it.

this is a good view of the leaves and a flower bud.