A Garden Visitor

We were having a cookout last night to celebrate a friend being in the country for the first time in 8 years (he lives in Thailand.)  We were sitting back with some other mutual friends after the cookout and enjoying the company and the evening.

After dinner conversation came to a halt as eight grown adults stopped to look at a baby rabbit explore the grass.  The cuteness factor won out.

We have a lot of rabbits in the yard and the yards around us.  Something I have noticed is a lack of squirrels. Every place else we're lived, I've always seen plenty of squirrels - and the dogs have loved chasing them out of the yard(s.)  But here we don't seem to see them very often.  Which is OK with the dogs since our current crowd are mostly seniors (ranging in age from 8,10,15,to 17.)  The only one who chases anything (one of the two who is not blind) chases birds.  She even started barking at a plane once as it appeared over the horizon at the top of the hill in back.

Fortunately for the rabbit population, our dogs don't seem too interested in them either.

We also have a couple of chipmunks out back.  I saw them for the first time last week. I heard them first and looked over in time to see two of them running down the pole at the top of the chain link fence.

While I'm talking about the kids, let me share a picture that one of them snuck into last night.

That's Truman at the bottom right.  He was trying to check out the buffet before we all had a chance to get to it.  I love the tongue hanging out!  We had Baltimore pit beef, steamed shrimp, hot dogs, seafood salad, vegetable pasta salad, deviled eggs, watermelon,and roasted vegetables.  Dessert was strawberry shortcake, homemade ice cream, and Berger cookies. Several bottles of Far Eastern Shore wine, a couple types of beer, and sodas rounded out the menu.

Did I mention that I'm hoping to include cooking, gardening, and the dogs in this blog?  I hit on all three today.