...Morning show

Thanks for enjoying the race car blip yesterday! It was so much fun doing a totally different (for me) kind of photography and my hubs loved the pictures. As a small bit of history, my wedding gift to him was a 3-day racing school because I thought that would be way cooler than a watch! Then, when he turned 40 a few years later, I gave him an advanced racing school which resulted in him getting a racing license. He bought into a race team in about 2003 and has been racing since then whenever he can. This half-day school was really about perfecting how to skid and how to out-brake the other guys. In racing, the winners are the ones who know how to brake -- that's what wins races. Crazy, right?

I posted a selection of shots from yesterday's racing school at my blipfolio, so if you'd care to have a look, click HERE

We got up early this morning for our 3 hour drive home and as I stood outside the inn door, I watched a group of starlings flit in and out of a dilapidated martin "condo," one that no self-respecting martin use since the roof is partially gone. The starlings, however seemed to love it. This isn't the best of shots, but the morning light, the spread wings and the spectacular birdsong were more than I could resist.

I came home to discover that "something" had raided my patio feeders and a suet cage in the trees. Steel shepherds crooks were bent totally down to the ground and bird feeders were laying open and empty. This would all suggest racoons since a bear would have simply smashed the feeders to get the seeds. Still, one doesn't want racoons swarming the house, so the few feeders I've been leaving up will come in at night. I made repairs to my tail-prop suet feeder and rehung in from a higher branch, but my guess is that it will be down again tomorrow. If so, I'll have to bring it in for the season. There are enough bugs now that the 'peckers should have no problem with food, and I'll put suet feeders on the deck during the day. Damn, it sure irritates me that I've got nighttime critters, though. And I really don't care for raccoons since they are meaner than junk yard dogs and, in our area, prone to carry rabies. Stay tuned...

Hoping you all have/had a great Tuesday! Looking forward to getting caught up with journals and comments now that I'm home. And (drum roll) getting ready for a girl's weekend with Around the World and Back and our friend Kura!! Woot woot!

EDIT: Thanks ArtistAnnie for suggesting that I crop this photo - I just did and I think it looks MUCH better!!