Another Uploaded Picture

Another Uploaded Picture

This picture is of our former home in Sierra Vista, AZ. We had the home built in 1977 and had landscaped the yard with native cacti that we got permits to move from a ranch to our lot. The day we went back to look at our former home we could definitely tell that the cactus had thrived on our former lot. A later owner planted the palm tree behind the territorial design house.

In the background are the Huachuca Mts which includes Ramsey Canyon, a world famous hummingbird scanctuary. There are 35 different species of hummingbirds that winter in Ramsey Canyon. Bird folks from around the world come to Ramsey Canyon to go birding.

My World Tuesday = Four Hummingbirds In Our Yard

My World Tuesday = Four Hummingbirds In Our Yard





We have counted at least four hummingbirds flying around our backyard at the same time. You think hummingbirds are sweet and innocent. Well these four guys (gals?) are fighters. They chase each other away from the feeder. Why they do this Jack and I can't figure out. Especially since we have five feeders in our yard. Why can't they share and play nice? Tomorrow I'll post some videos I took of their fights.

Now please go visit other My World Tuesday memes and find out what's happening around our world.
http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Skywatch Friday = Very Blue Skies and.....

Skywatch Friday = Very Blue Skies and.........
A Short Hummingbird Video Below.
Take A Look.
Then Fly Over To Other Skywatch Friday memes by clicking here:
http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Kentucky Roadtrip Part II

When we arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park we began with a horse-drawn tour around the park where we saw the third largest barn in North America. This park has stables to accommodate hundreds and hundreds of horses for horse events throughout the year. But sometimes they need to set up tents because they sometimes have 15,000 horses at this park for some event. Amazing! Have you ever wondered why sometimes the horse pastures have double fences in close proximity? Those double fences are to keep the love minded stallions from running off on a love chase. It is also why stallion pastures don't have right angle corners but round corners. The stallions can hurt themselves running into a tight right corner.
Clip-clop, clip-clop, here we go. Some nice views I'm giving you bloggers today.
This was a sweet statue of three horses leaping over a tree branch.
There were many activities going on at the same time at the horse park.
This was a lady in her carriage getting ready for the carriage parade that we were able to watch later. This was a miniature horse.

When we started our roadtrip on Friday, September 5'th we drove thru wet and wild West Virginia on interstate #64 which has very little traffic in comparison to other major interstates. We spent the night in Morehead, Kentucky east of Lexington. We got an early start Saturday morning because we wanted to be at the Kentucky Horse Park for the 11:00 A.M. Parade of Breeds. From March 15 - October 31, the Parade of Breeds Show is held twice daily at 11:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. In this photo is a breed from Whales called I believe a cob horse and the rider is in Welsh dress.
Here is a famous Spanish Andalusian horse sporting lots of silver horse gear while the rider has a Spanish flamenco outfit. Behind them is an American quarter horse with the rider in American western wear.
Here is an American Paint breed with rider in Native American attire. Notice the Native American saddle blanket. Beautiful.
In addition the Parade of Breeds Show features each day other participants. The day Jack and I were in attendance there was a parade of horse carriages and riders.
And guess what? Right in the middle of the Parade of Breeds Show I got up close and personal with a little hummingbird that I found at my feet in the bleacher stands. It couldn't fly. It was ill. I don't know if it hurt its wings or it was dehydrated from lack of nectar. Anyway, I almost stepped on it! So I picked it up and moved it out of the traffic flow and told the horse park authorities to get a horse vet quick for a hummingbird! Everyone near us started taking pictures of the poor thing so we did too. I hope the vet helped save the poor thing. It was the very first time I had ever touched a hummingbird.

I knew when we went to the Kentucky Horse Park that we would see info on the most famous and greatest race horse, Man o' War. The first time I saw this statue was in 1972 and it was on a road outside Lexington on a horse farm. The Kentucky Horse Park was created in 1978 from the old Walnut Hill Thoroughbred Breeding Farm which is where I think I saw the statue of Man o' War. Anyway everyone in the state of Kentucky knows about Man o' War.
Here is the statue of Man o' War in the early Saturday morning mist. He is standing tall and proud.
This is another view of the Man o' War statue area. The white chairs were being set up for a wedding ceremony. Horse lovers like to come here to get married by the Man o' War statue. Interesting, huh?
This was a place to measure your stride against some famous horse's strides. It took my Jack 12 steps to match Man o' War's famous 28 foot stride. Next is John Henry at 25 feet and Secretariat at 23 feet.
This was a memorial to Isaac Burns Murphy who lived in Lexington from 1860 to 1896. I believe he was the first black jockey in Kentucky and he had 628 winning races.

The Kentucky Horse Park, the only place in America where you can experience all the horse breeds of the world in one place. The Kentucky Horse Park is at 4089 Irons Works Parkway in Lexington, Kentucky. All you folks in Ohio need to drive down #75 and visit this very interesting horse place.
Around the entrance gates to the park are many beautiful horse statues. Here you can see statues of some foals romping. Jack told me that when he was romping around on his Missouri farm that he had a five-gaited horse named Pet. Jack could make Pet do a walk, trot, rack, cantor and gallop. Jack said he always liked the rack the best because it was the smoothest ride. Jack said his folks had bought the horse at an auction and were unaware that it was a former show horse until their neighbor one day exclaimed "Oh, there is that show horse, Cherie'!"
At the cross way of the entrance path are statues of two very famous horses, Man o' War and Secretariat. In this photo you see Secretariat, the last triple crown winner.
Here is another view of the same statue: Secretariat, jockey and stableman.

These statues are life size so are really realistic and powerful. Look how the artist has portrayed the horses muscles and look how the stableman is trying to control the horse. Very lifelike.
The thoroughbred strides. This plaque explains that winning horses have gigantic strides or a large heart. Secretariat's stride was substantial but Man of War's was the longest at 28 feet. And John Henry had a very, very large heart. Now take a long stride down to the next photo.

This statue of the horse and rider jumping a hurdle near the creek was so realistic that I had to look twice to see if it was a statue or a real horse and rider.
There are two large museums at the Kentucky Horse Park. Here is the entrance lobby to the American Saddlebred Museum. The other large museum is the International Museum of the Horse.
This is the show ring next door to the Hall of Champions Barn where you can get up and personal with former winning racing horses and see many breeds of horses from around the world.

Whew, I'm finally finished writing this blog post. I think this is the longest blog post with the most photos that I have ever done. Hope I didn't bore you but hope you enjoyed your virtual tour of the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. It definitely is worth a drive to go visit this horse park.

Now I need to go grab a cup of coffee. See ya tomorrow for more info on Kentucky and the NARFE Convention that we attended at the Galt House in Louisville.

Now You See Him, Now You Don't

This little guy moves fast and my camera moves slow, so I'm surprised that I even got these photos of a little hummingbird at one of my feeders. You will need to click on the photos to really see anything here. The last photo----he's gone---to the backside of the yellow feeder. He moved to the backside because a bee was bothering him. You can see the little bee at the red plastic blossom.
Final comment: if you look to the right and click on the Label Hummingbirds and go to the August 15, 2007 blog post, you can read what I wrote about the four hummingbirds who frequented the feeders last summer. Last year the hummingbirds were so unique that I gave them each a name: Hummer, Humms, Helter Skelter and Hip Hop. The two I have this summer are so alike that I can't tell them apart, so no name yet.

Hummingbird Personalities

We have two hummingbird feeders and four hummingbirds who are frequenting the food stations.
I've learned this summer by watching them that hummingbirds have personalities. I've named our four hummingbirds according to their personalities:
Hummer, the all American good hummingbird.
Humms, the zen female hummingbird who is my favorite.
Hip Hop, the hummingbird that flies like a little bunny going hop, hip, hop near the ground.
Helter Skelter, the hummingbird from Hell.

Well, you ask, how do tell their gender? I don't know. But I think Humms acts like a girl. She likes to sit on the rose trellis near the feeder and just contemplate life in my flower garden. She is like in a tranquil zen state. But then along comes Helter Skelter, the little bully, and he knocks her off her meditation pedestal by dive bombing her. I can just picture Humms saying to herself: these guys are so juvenile! When are they going to grow up?

Hummer is the biggest drinker. When he comes to the feeder attached to my breakfast room window I can see his little mouth (beak?) gulping down the sugar water and his little wings are beating so fast that I can see the illusion of four wings: two going up and two going down.

Hip Hop is the funniest flyer. He skims the ground in a series of hip hops instead of helicopter moves that most hummingbirds use.

Helter Skelter is just plain mean. I can't think of anything good to say about him. He hides in the shrubs and trees and then does sneak attacks on the other birds at the feeder and poor Humms on her rose trellis perch.

Two of these hummingbirds like to fly together in a vertical rocket formation. They look like the Air Force Blue Angels doing tricks in the air. They will fly straight up in the air---higher than our two story house. Then they break formation and fly off in a dive in two different directions. What a sight to see.