Trying to keep it in line

I have been having a hard time keeping my ducks in a row due to extended work hours. Extended work hours is the nice way of saying mandatory overtime. If I wrote what I really thought about mandatory overtime, this post would need to be censored.

While I try to keep my animals and life in line, a mama mallard showed up at the neighbor's pond with quite a handful to deal with herself. Two years ago she had a nest full of eggs by the pond's edge. Even though I diligently kept my dogs away from it, a wild predator raided it.

I was both happy and a little stressed about the ducklings' appearance. While I was overjoyed that they had hatched, I now had to be ever vigilant make sure the dogs avoided the feathered family. 

I was already trying to make sure Sadie doesn't eat a frog.

The frogs are very good at avoiding her. It doesn't hurt that she's not very good at hunting them either.

While I try to keep the dogs in line and on the path for the most part, they did manage to spook the neighborhood fawn. The dogs got cursed at and the fawn was big enough and fast enough to have gotten a very large lead on them.

I have a love-hate relationship with spring baby season.
​I love seeing the little ones. However, making sure the dogs aren't chasing the tiny ones can be a bit overwhelming at times and doesn't make my nature walk very relaxing. 

I  have enough trouble trying to keep three dogs and two goats together for a walk. I haven't ever attempted bringing the six cats along for a trek, well, because it would be like herding cats. I can't get them all together when they are confined to the house.

Although, I did try to take Lil' Bit on a walk in a special "cat backpack" that included a window and all. However, Bits' motion sickness got the best of him and he threw up with less than an acre under our belts. I should have known from other car sickness episodes that Bits doesn't like moving unless it's under his own power. 

Nonetheless, some things did line up for me.

My flowers are coming along. The ever striking gazanias never fail to disappointed with their striped blossoms.

Some dirt leftover from a garage excavation has lead to a hill of foxglove flowers.

I have been enjoying all the colors and textures their blooms provide. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the bees like them too.

Other flower photos were aided by some mood lighting. A shaft of sunlight one evening just beautifully backlit some flea-bane that was growing in the flower garden.

Colorful blossoms meant some butterfly visitors as well. The swallowtails have been feeding.

I was able to capture a hummingbird clearwing moth feeding on flowers. That one didn't line up so well. It kind of turned out to be a fuzzy butt shot.

I was thrilled to capture a viceroy butterfly. It wasn't as good of a photo as I would have liked it to be, but the orange winged-one was up in a tree.

However, a blue-headed vireo was polite enough to pose for a photo. It was very vocal the whole photo shoot. I don't know if it was a protest or if it was making fun of my large beach hat I wear to keep the bugs away.

Other photos that seemed to line up were a female hummingbird perched on the feeder. They usually hide from me on the other side.

A red squirrel that was on its usually perch upside down on the bird feeder.

At the neighbor's pond, a bluet damselfly was still long enough for a photo.

Although, I did have a chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly cast a shadow on a least skipper butterfly that I was trying to photograph.

Several wood satyr butterflies have been sighted. I was photographing one with its wings open. However, it seemed like every time the shutter snapped, it snapped its wings shut.

While some things line up and some things don't (namely Kennedy and Kyle), I will always try to make a straight line toward nature. It might be difficult to do as I try to maintain the shifting line between work-life balance.

​However, that's just the nature of things 'round here.