join em!
For those of you who are not aware, I live in Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains. From our home it takes about 45 minutes to be smack dab in the middle of Rocky Mountain National Park. While there one can enjoy wildlife in abundance. However, when one lives in Colorado one doesn't need to visit a national forest to catch a glimpse of a variety of critters. We are proof of that. I might just as well hang a sign "Mi Casa Su Casa" on the trees in our yard as a welcome for all the local varmint. Before you start imagining that we live in the country, let me set the record straight. Our house was plunked down in the middle of suburbia. I offer the following photographic evidence to support my claim...
If one looks very closely at the photo below you will see two beady little eyes peering out from the tree. They belong to a juvenile delinquent raccoon. His four homies are situated higher in the tree. Their nightly visits facilitated the battening down of the doggie door into our house...
We came home from church one day to find Mr. Fox in our backyard. He seemed perfectly content to wile away the Sunday afternoon sunning himself and lazying around on our grass. It wasn't until we started taking pictures that he decided to skedaddle...
Speaking of juvenile delinquents, we have a squirrel in our backyard that can only be described as an adolescent thug. His name is Chuzzlewit. Our relationship developed several years ago when he was a wee lad. He would occasionally pilfer our bird feeder. I enjoyed his antics when he was a toddler...
I realize now that I became an enabler because as he grew he became more and more aggressive in his seed scavenging. Our relationship became a bit one-sided at that point in time...
When he started strong arming the bird feeders and bringing them up into the trees for easy access, I checked the bird seed to make sure it wasn't laced with steroids. The seed checked out just fine, but he was obviously getting a stash of 'roids from some unsavory character in the hood.
All this brings me to the real reason for this post. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. For my mantle this Christmas I decided to decorate it as an "Ode to our Critters." Here's what I came up with...
I purchased these adorable natural fiber-like woodland creatures from Pottery Barn and the birdies from Crate&Barrel.
Again a big THANK YOU to all those who voted for my blog in the first round of voting for Top Blog of 2010 at The Blog Guidebook. I appreciate it so much! The voting for this contest is going to progress weekly, with 5 blogs being voted off each week until all but one are eliminated. So, I'll be asking for your help throughout the coming weeks -- even if you've voted previously! The second week of voting has commenced, so if you have a minute can you hop over to The Blog Guidebook for another round of voting? The voting takes place on the right sidebar of the blog. Go here to vote!
Blue Cricket Designs - Creative Mantel Link Up Party!
