Backyard Cardinals

 

The bird guides don't say anything about cardinals liking cat food.

But they do.

At least the ones in our backyard are big fans.

 

Even though the cats lurk nearby, the cardinals find plenty of opportunities to swoop in for tasty treats.

 

According to Cornell's Bird Lab, Northern Cardinals eat mainly seeds and fruit, supplemented with insects. Common fruits and seeds include dogwood, wild grape, buckwheat, grasses, sedges, mulberry, hackberry, blackberry, sumac, tulip-tree, and corn.

 

See? No cat food listed.

 

We've had four or five pairs who have provided a splash of color to our backyard landscape during the drab and dreary winter days.

 

However, the bird references were accurate about the cardinals' behavior.

 

They like to hop through low branches and forage on or near the ground. Cardinals commonly sing and preen from a high branch of a shrub. 

 

The distinctive crest can be raised and pointed when agitated or lowered and barely visible while resting. You typically see cardinals moving around in pairs during the breeding season, but in fall and winter they can form fairly large flocks of a dozen to several dozen birds. ...They fly somewhat reluctantly on their short, round wings, taking short trips between thickets while foraging. Pairs may stay together throughout winter, but up to 20 percent of pairs split up by the next season. 

From All About Birds, The Cornell Lab

They also like our backyard fence.

During one of my pandemic cleaning binges, I unearthed an old book that belonged to Randy. "Birds: A Child's First Book about Our Most Familiar Birds" was a Christmas gift back in 1959 from his Grandma Ritts. The book was published by Golden Press in 1958. It was written by Jane Werner Watson and beautifully illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.

Even though it claims to have our most familiar birds, it almost disappointed me. But I finally found a small illustration of a cardinal on the title page, along with a robin - another frequent flyer to our yard. 

 

The copyright page says:

In this first book, a sense of the joy and wonder of birds is created for every child through Eloise Wilkin's sensitive illustrations and Jane Werner Watson's informative text. The songbirds in the trees, the waders of the seashore and river, plovers and pigeons - over 25 birds have been simply described and vividly pictured in a way that every child will enjoy.

 

I'm sure children did enjoy it, though Randy doesn't have a lot of childhood memories of the book. But the vintage illustrations definitely captured my attention. 

 The book has joined some of my bird photography and knicknacks in my spring decor.

Jane Werner was one of the original editors of the Little Golden Books series, which were published by Western Publishing in conjunction with Simon and Schuster. She wrote some 150 books in the Little Golden Books series. According to Penguin Books, many of Werner's titles were illustrated by the great children’s illustrators of the mid-20th century. Some of her bestselling titles include The Fuzzy Duckling (illustrated by Martin and Alice Provensen), Animal Friends (illustrated by Garth Williams), and My Little Golden Book About God, The Christmas Story, and Wonders of Nature (all illustrated by Eloise Wilkin). 

 

Eloise Wilkin also was the illustrator of the bird book. Wikipedia says that many of the books she illustrated became classics of American children's literature. I certainly can agree with that. Jane Werner Watson called her friend Eloise Wilkin "the soul of Little Golden Books." 

Her watercolor and colored pencil illustrations are known for their glowing depiction of babies, toddlers, and their parents in idyllic rural and domestic settings.

Wilkin won a drawing contest for New York schoolchildren at age 11 and graduated from the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute. Soon after college graduation, Eloise and friend Joan Esley opened an art studio in Rochester, NY, but struggling to find work, the pair moved to New York City, where Century Company gave Eloise her first book to illustrate, The Shining Hours. Many of her early illustrations were for school books.

In 1944, Wilkin signed an exclusive contract with original Little Golden Books publisher Simon & Schuster, requiring her to illustrate three books each year^. She often used her children and grandchildren and their friends as models for her illustrations. A devout Christian, Wilkin frequently illustrated religious picture books including several compilations of prayers for children. I realized that one of our other vintage Little Golden Books, Prayers for Children, was also illustrated by Wilkin.

Want more? Here's a blog post that had some illustration from Prayers for Children.

Fair to Middlin'

You just never know.

My photo of Vlad the Amur Leopard at the Manhattan (KS) Zoo won grand champion in the open class division at the Stafford County Fair last week.

It wasn't even on my initial list of potential fair entries. During the year, I make notes about photos I might enter at the county fair or use for a family birthday calendar project. (Type A, anyone?!)

 

I'd quickly snapped it during a freezing cold day when we celebrated Kinley's 6th birthday at the zoo. At the time, we just wanted Vlad to pick the enrichment box the party-goers had created so we could go back to the warm building!

The up-close photo of Vlad ended up in a collage in the birthday post. But, as I was looking through photos I'd taken in the past year, I decided Vlad was more unusual than the cattle and kitties I normally photograph. What's another three bucks to print another 8 x 10? (And, I had a 60 percent discount!)

The "eyes" (Vlad's eyes, that is) had it, the photography superintendent later told me, and the judge selected it as Grand Champion. 

And it just goes to show you: Judging in one person's opinion on one day. I heard that from my parents whether it was before 4-H foods judging or a league music festival.

I'm sure there were people who looked at the purple ribbon by Vlad's photo and wondered "Why that one?" If you handed ballots to fairgoers and asked them to choose their favorite, I'm convinced that a few photos would garner more votes than others. But it certainly wouldn't be a unanimous decision.

For me, it's just fun to enter. Evidently, old habits die hard.

I've been exhibiting things at county fairs since I was 10 years old. I was a fourth grader and a member of the Lincoln Bluebirds 4-H Club. My only project my first year was "Snacks and Little Lunches," a foods and nutrition project. According to my meticulous record book, my first fair netted a blue ribbon on cookies and red ribbons on both my cupcakes and brownies.
If my 4-H story is to be believed, I had a "lot of fun." In fact, several times, I had "a lot of fun." Perhaps my descriptive writing had not yet been developed.

But, at any rate, I evidently did have "a lot of fun." Here we are ... um ... several years later, and I'm still entering exhibits at a county fair.

Even though I love to cook and bake, photography is the exhibit area I choose these days. However, I'm still connected to 4-H foods all these years later, too, since I'm 4-H foods superintendent and have been for more than 20 years.

All 4-H entries get a ribbon. But in open class divisions at the Stafford County Fair, only the 1st, 2nd and 3rd photos are selected in each class. Classes are divided into color and black and white divisions. Some of the classes were nature, people, landscape, agriculture, computer-manipulated, action, humor and human interest.

I ended up with four blues, three reds and five whites. About half of my entries didn't get ribbons at all.

This one got a blue. I took it during our trip to South Dakota last September when Randy's brother was sick. It was taken at a stream we discovered just off the highway, but the light was perfect at the time.

Another blue: I took this one at the Kansas State University greenhouses during a tour for Kansas Master Farmer/Master Farm Homemakers last March.

This computer-manipulated image got a blue. I loved the F. Scott Fitzgerald quote and used the image for an Ag Day blog post about farm wife partners.

This one, which I titled "Don't Eat With Your Mouth Full," got a red in the humor class. I snapped the photo of one of our feeder calves as we were waiting for the veterinarian to arrive last November.

This one got a red, too. Brooke was my "action" model during a playground stop during our spring break trip to Hays.

Another amateur photographer friend asked me if I had a favorite photo I'd entered this year. This one I took at the Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis, S.D., was definitely one of my favorites. The black and white version got a 3rd place ribbon.

The color version didn't place at all. (Obviously, I couldn't decide which I liked better, so I entered both B/W and color and let the judge decide.)

The painted lady butterfly on roadside sunflowers got a 3rd-place ribbon, too. It's an image I've put on notecards since taking the photo last September.

This computer-manipulated image also got a red ribbon. I used a poem written by May Williams Ward in 1927. For a time, she lived in Belpre - a tiny town in the county to our west. Her husband was a manager at the grain elevator there, so her poems that feature Kansas landscapes are my favorites. I used this for a blog illustration.

My little hide-and-seek calf earned me another white ribbon.

This photo I took at our church last December was my black and white computer-manipulated entry. Part of the edits were done with the camera before I ever downloaded the image. It got a 3rd place ribbon, too.

This photo of Randy was one of my favorite entries. I took it last October when I took supper to the field and he was filling the wheat drill. I liked it enough that I made a 16- by 20-inch canvas that represents autumn in my "Seasons" display in our living room. However, the judge only gave it a 3rd place. I also entered it in the Stafford County Economic Development contest in the "commerce" category and got an "honorable mention" ... and a little prize money.

I also used my photos for my two entries in the Stafford County Fair's Arts and Crafts department. I entered two books in the online scrapbooking class. Though I don't think that's a particularly accurate description of what the books are, it's the category that fits.

 

 The book I made for Randy for Christmas last year got the blue ribbon.

So many times these days, the photos we take on our cameras or phones never get printed.

I use my photos for blog posts, so I do edit photos and use them.

But the books put the photos in a more accessible form.

A book I made for Kinley and Brooke after a spring break trip was 3rd in the online scrapbooking class. 

Sometimes, I write blog posts about adventures with the girls in rhyme. Later, I put the rhymes and photos in books and give a copy to each of the girls (and keep one for myself, of course).

Since I'm not a quilter or seamstress, maybe these books will provide a legacy of sorts.

I never bring in enough prize money to cover the cost of photo mats, enlargements, book production, etc. So why do it?

People have been experiencing fairs since the days of the Roman empire (At least that's what Wikipedia - the authority of all things - told me). I suppose there's a little rush to being chosen "best" at something, satisfying that little kernel of competitiveness in the human spirit.

But I truly think it's about helping to make sure fairs last another 2,000 years. Fairs give people an excuse to come together, to visit with people they don't see everyday.

It brings volunteers together to work on something that's bigger than what any one person could accomplish on their own.

It's about being part of a community. I'll give that a purple ribbon any day. 

So Many Books, So Little Time

My sister, Lisa, and I share some reading time.

So many books, so little time.

I saw someone with that slogan emblazoned on their sweatshirt several years ago. It could be my theme song. You know the old TV show, Cheers? In the theme song, Cheers is a place "where everyone knows your name." I don't have any bars that fit that description, but the Hutchinson Public Library checkout desk personnel definitely know my name. I usually have books "on hold" there.

If I were independently wealthy, I might buy my favorite authors' books the minute they are published. But, alas, since I am not, I am a frequent flyer at my library.

These days, I'm not usually at the library on Sundays. But back in 1979 and 1980, I was there almost every Sunday afternoon. I was a reporter at The Hutchinson News back then, and I lived by myself in a one-bedroom apartment on 7th Street, just a couple blocks south of the library at 9th and Main.

Sundays were my loneliest day of the week. I missed going to church with my family and having Sunday dinner together. Though I got involved with a Sunday School class, sang in the choir and became part of the church family at Hutchinson's First United Methodist Church, Sunday afternoon stretched out in front of me. Most weeks, I'd head off to the library after lunch.

(me and Lisa in November 1959. Lisa always says I taught her to read. She was a year behind me in school, but she sat right beside me as I learned to read. By the time she was in first grade, she was an old pro.)

It almost seemed like my home away from home. I can't remember a time when I wasn't a library patron. My mom took us to the old library at the Pratt County Courthouse from the time we could toddle in on our own steam.

It was exciting when the new library was built in Pratt. There was a whole room of children's books where I discovered Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew. I still love mysteries and thrillers today, and I have to believe those days of uncovering clues with them had to have laid an early groundwork for this love affair that's lasted all of my life.

On Sunday, I read an article in The Wichita Eagle, encouraging parents to read at least 1,000 books to their child by the time he or she is ready for kindergarten. Ironically, I had a dozen children's books in the backseat of the car at the time! I'd spent the past week babysitting Kinley and Brooke. It's become my custom to stop at the Hutchinson Public Library and select books from their extensive children's department. I usually settle on 12, since it's easy to remember how many need to go back into my plastic library sack at the end of our time together. 

July 2016: Brooke reading "Count On It," the rhyming farm counting book I wrote and illustrated for Kinley & her.

This time, Brooke's favorite was "Encore for Eleanor." I brought it the last time, too, and they both liked it so much that I picked it up again. It has too many words for a 2 year old, but Brooke "reads" it with me the same way every time. During this trip, she showed her personality when she added a new fictional destination as Eleanor is trucked from her job at the circus to a zoo. Instead, Brooke insisted Eleanor was off to the "pizza place." Brooke would laugh, turn the page and show that Eleanor had arrived at the zoo instead.

Brooke reading to her baby: July 2016

Because the girls liked Bill Peet's Eleanor book so much, I also selected a couple more of his titles. Kinley liked the rhyming "Smokey" and "The Luckiest One of All." But Kinley's favorite this time was one I remember from childhood, "Katy No Pocket," which was published in 1961 and illustrated by H.A. Rey, who also drew the Curious George books. They also both loved "DW's Library Card," which talks about checking out books at the library.

Kinley in August 2014, reading Go, Dog, Go! to me. It was also a favorite of her Mommy's.

In the Wichita Eagle article, it says repeating books counts, too, since children love and learn through repetition. In the five days I was with them, I'm guessing we read the equivalent of 40 books (and I think I'm being conservative). When I linked the article to Facebook, their daddy reminded me that they read two books a night before bedtime, not counting books read during other times of the day, so 5-year-old Kinley reached the 1,000-book mark long ago (and honestly, I think Brooke probably has, too).

February 2016

I hope they'll remember those times reading with Grandma. One of my favorite childhood memories is  my mom reading the "Little House on the Prairie" books to us. One by one, she checked them out of the Pratt library and read the whole series, with all of us crowded together on the living room couch. Later, I read them again for myself - more than once.

(Darci, me and Lisa with our books:  I have no idea why Lisa and I are in our robes outside)

I carried on the reading and library tradition with Jill & Brent. Randy & I read to them long before they could actually comprehend the words. We visited both the Stafford and Hutchinson libraries and carted home armfuls of books. Both of them still love reading today.

If you're an adult looking for a reading challenge, Eagle reporter Suzanne Perez Tobias has issued one for 2017. Adults are challenged to read one book a month from a list of 12 categories, including a favorite book from childhood, a memoir, a book by a Kansas author or one set in Kansas, and a book with a blue cover.

As I was putting yet another book on hold on the Hutchinson Public Library's site, I clicked on a link that listed their 10 most popular books for checkout during 2016. Five of the top ten were children’s picture books, and another three were children's fiction books, making 7 of the top 10 children's literature. Even in this world of Kindles and tablets, people are still finding it valuable to nestle a child on a lap and open traditional books. That is good news indeed!

Simple Stories of American Living

I thought it was time for a rerun of this blog post from 2011. A wrap-up of our 2015 wheat harvest, which we finished on Wednesday afternoon (YAY!) is coming next week. Happy 4th to all!

One of the treasures I found at my Grandma and Grandpa Neelly's house was a little book called We Love America: Simple Stories of American Living.

This isn't a book I remember my Grandma reading to us, but I loved the illustrations so I brought it home anyway.
On the inside cover, it says:

Janis Neelly from Your Sunday School Teacher

It's Grandma Neelly's handwriting, so it was really to my mom from her mom masquerading as her Sunday School teacher. (We moms are always wearing multiple hats, aren't we?)

This book has joined my other patriotic decorations from Flag Day to the 4th of July (and probably beyond, since there's not another holiday coming up right away).

Instead of it just sitting there and looking pretty, I picked it up the other day. And it truly does reflect simpler times, a time when it was cool to be patriotic.
The book "visits" different children and tells about their homes - everything from the "big city" to an "Indian pueblo."

It tells about life on the farm (you can click on the photos and they'll come up bigger so you can read the text):
And life on a ranch:

Things on the farm and the ranch are a little different these days. Hayrack rides are something we do at fall celebrations, not to bring the hay in. Around here, the cattle are rounded up with 4-wheelers, not horses.

Leisure time is spent differently also:
Kids today are much more likely to listen to their ipods instead of a radio or "watch" their music on MTV or CMT or youtube. Having a taffy pull or making candy from scratch is something a few of us may do at Christmas time, but it's not on most people's radar for "family fun."

And while the illustrations and the words make me nostalgic and cause me to reflect on days gone by, I love the ability to type the book's copyright "MCMXLI" into a search engine on the internet and discover it was 1941. (Yes, I could have searched the inner recesses of my mind for the Roman numeral knowledge I had in elementary school, but this was easier - and faster.)

As we celebrate the 4th of July today, it wouldn't hurt to take this sentiment to heart:

Happy 4th of July everyone!