Monkey Business!

We have several monkeys at our house, so I thought I would introduce some. This is Chelsea, Riley's Build a Bear workshop monkey. She is a much loved family member.

Here are the Woody Twins. They like to hang out on the apple tree out front. I like to climb the apple tree too, so that's cool.

These are the Orangutans. The big one is a Skoodlez and they claim his name is Tearemazoo. We just call him Tea. The baby is a darling little one made by artist Zelodius L. Morton. She just arrived today, but Michells is much taken with the darling little girl. Be are calling her Beatrice or Bea for short.

And of course there is Original Evil Purse Monkey. He brought along some of his friends from Michelle's purse, the cell phone case and the little Hello Kitty disguised as a Monkey charm. So see we don't just do Bears here.

It's a beautiful day, get ready to garden!

It's a beautiful day, the lawn has been mown, it's time to get ready to start gardening! Michelle has bought me this beautiful garden bench with drawers, cupboards, and of course....

gardening tools! I've got trowels, weeders, clippers, saws, pots, and a watering can. Everything I need to get started.

In the meantime, enjoy our beautiful tulips, which are just starting to bloom!

Ashleigh's Rocking new Guitar

Michelle decided I needed music lessons like Doug & Riley take. Well, Riley takes voice lessons & really my voice isn't great, so I decided to play guitar like Doug. Michelle used some of her Blankie Bear money & bought me a 1967 Fender Mustang! Soon I'll be able to rock with the best of them!

Ashleigh visits Mingus Park

Here is the entrance to Mingus Park. It's a very pretty little park in Coos Bay, named after a doctor who did a lot of good in the area "back in the day".

The park is full of ducks, geese, pigeons, and seagulls. Here are three male Mallard ducks.

This goose is much more friendly than the ducks & comes right over to us. Maybe he thinks we have bread for him?

Sometimes during the summer you can see Western (or Pacific) Pond Turtles basking here on the branches that are down by the water. This is the only species of turtle native to the area, and they are endangered. Michelle has counted up to 8 basking on the pond in previous years, but she's pretty sure there's more. It's too early in the year for them to be out of hibernation.

Here is the Choshi Bridge. It is on the South end of Michelle's favorite part of the park-the Japanese Garden. Let's go check it out.

Here is the Koi pond. There's no Koi in it right now, but during the summer you can see them swimming around. They're really pretty.

I've decided I need a little rest & this Bonsai inspired pine is just the perfect comfy place to relax for a couple of minutes.

Here is the other pond in the Japanese garden. This one will be teeming with frogs, water skippers, and little minnows in about 6 weeks. It's very pretty & peaceful.

Here's a Pussy Willow tree that is in the process of blooming & putting out pussy willows.

Here is a view of the bridge from the other side. We're heading out of the Japanese gardens & back out into the main park.

This is a great old tree. The moss makes this another comfy place to take a little break.

Here are some Wood Ducks fleeing from us, sigh...they are Michelle's favorites, but they're more squitterish than the rest of the water fowl here. I like that when they quack it's really just a little squeak.

This was our companion today, Dr. Merkus. He has a collar & Michelle called the owners. He lives nearby & is an escape artist who likes to come to the park & socialize. He followed us all around the ponds today & then decided to hang in the playground area with the kids. His owners were going to come get him soon.

And this is the "big" kid playground area. There is also another one specifically for the little kids just around the corner of this one. So we lucked out & it's a really pretty day out today. The rain is supposed to be back tomorrow.

Ashleigh finds the Spring Fairies!

It was a beautiful, if slightly windy, day today, so Baby Easter Bunny & I decided to go for a walk & try to find more signs of Spring...What we found instead is amazing! Spring Fairies! They help wake up the plants after winter, so they know to start growing again! This Spring Fairy is in charge of trees. Here she is helping the apple tree wake up...check out all the buds!

This fairy is responsible for helping the flowers wake up. We found her on the lawn waking up the daisies. I really like daisies, Michelle says when we've got more daisies awake, we'll make some daisy chain necklaces to wear.

This fairy is responsible for waking up the bulbs, like this grape hyacinth. She generally get an earlier start than the rest of the fairies, cuz spring is when lots of bulbs like to wake up best. But she did tell me that she'll take a short vacation & then be back in the summer for the dahlias and some of the other summer bulbs.

It's so nice out on the lawn this time of year...

Introducing Hitty Hitomi

Here, I'm introducing myself to Hitty Hitomi. Isn't she just a lovely Hitty? I love her kimono, very elegant.

While Hitty Hitomi says goodbye to Hitty Colleen, Hitty Maureen O'Hara, and Bitty Hitty Mab, I wander over and check out her collection of China. She has a lovely set.

Now, for some lovely tea and conversation. I really enjoyed my time with Hitty Hitomi & predict that we will be great friends!

Ashleigh visits the Elk & the Coast

Here we are at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing area just East of Reedsport...as you can see the weather is not great today & elk are scarce on the ground.

Here is Riley & Cieira standing in front of a huge poster of an elk...it also tells some information on them.

Here is the welcome tile at the entrance to the little viewing building. There's lots of other wildlife besides elk here, there are duck, geese, frogs, various & assorted non-water birds, insects...

You can see some ducks splashing around here in the background...they're the little black dots.

And, we found some elk...they're way back by the tree line & look like hay clumps in this picture. Also, more ducks frolicking.

Then we went to Winchester Bay. This is the view of the getty from the lighthouse.

Look at the white caps...

And here's the Umpqua River Lighthouse. It's also part of the Coast Guard station here.

Here are Riley, Cieira, and I in front of the lighthouse & the informational sign about it. Today is the first day of Spring Break, so of course it's raining. But, Michelle says we live on the Oregon coast, if we wait for nice weather to do anything, we'd never do anything!

There's a whale watching station across the street from the lighthouse, but this is the wrong time of the year to see whales migrating...there might be Orcas out there though.