It was an extraordinary morning just yesterday, with an abundance of wildlife in the early morning fog. I didn’t get photos of the five deer that were grazing in the meadow, as they went into the forest before the camera could boot up. Fog is a frequent morning visitor here, and I love how it delineates the layers of hills across the valley and the mountain ridge in the distance. Photo taken from our veranda.
Mere moments after I shut the camera back down, My Sweet Babboo said there were three foxes coming towards the house. I jumped up to get the camera again, but they were moving fast. The foxes were gorgeous, with long legs, silky coats, fluffy tails, and beautiful faces. This photo was snapped with the zoom lens looking between the railing on the veranda from inside the house. I took several, but this was the only one even close to being in focus.
I’ve been trying to get a shot of a bird in its natural environment, and managed to get this cardinal in a tree. I’ll have to save it for the State Fair contest next year.
I got lucky one day, and already had the camera ready when the hummingbird showed up. It is next to impossible to get a clear photo of her.
She often hovers in front of the kitchen window before darting away. This day, she was most interested in the torenias.
Oliver is still coming around, but not daily. He shows up every few days for a nibble. I know, I am a soft touch.
I have a new Quilt of Valor on the frame and will get to it today. I’ll show you the wonderful embroidery and the unique construction soon.
For my new readers from the Villages in Florida, welcome! I had a ball doing the live intro for your Tea Time Quilt Along, and I can’t wait to see all your blocks!
Take care, have a great Labor Day weekend! What are your plans for this week?
From My Carolina Home 
Thanks for the pics. You have a beautiful view. Are the foxes new or have you seen them before. That’s a cute picture of Oliver!
Oliver sure is one spoiled little squirrel. We have lots of squirrels in my area and they are endlessly busy. I enjoy watching them too. Great job photographing All the activity!
I love your view of the mountains with the fog hovering over. We both share the sightings of lots of wildlife. Happy Wednesday, Carole!
Give me the mountains any day.Beautiful view you have.
Those foxes are beauties!!! I love the QOV quilt you’re quilting and can’t wait to see a close-up!
Your view is just amazing, Carole! Love that photo! My DH is always trying to get photos of the hummingbirds – they are tricky – but isn’t it neat to see them feeding on the flowers? We’re hoping to get into our mountains this week, too – maybe tomorrow.
Your view of the mountains looks like a Japanese woodblock print…so beautiful and mysterious…
We have long-awaited rains here today–feels good to see it…instead of just dry gray clouds…
hugs julierose
Always a wonderful way to start my day with photo’s of your country side and wild life. Blue ribbon on the cardinal photo! The QOV is gorgeous. Looking forward to the close up. Thanks for the reminder on labor day 🙂 Enjoy!
Hope this comment comes through- I had one earlier that didn’t connect. Your photography is beautiful, and Oliver is quite entertaining. The QOV- just wonderful! You offer Zoom lectures? Will let our program chair know if so.
Ooo, your wildlife shots are so gorgeous as are the mountains!! Love the QOV..I have one that I’ve begun cutting but it’s moving slow.
Carole, I am helping out with my grands during their learn at home days and showed the 8 YO twin boys the pictures of your wildlife! They loved seeing the bears, turkeys and foxes, and are especially enamored with Oliver! Now they want to come to your house and visit him! LOL Gorgeous view of the mountains! Thanks for sharing. We are logging into class now! Have a great day. One more week and they will be in school learning full time and not just Thursday and Friday and online learning the other three days. I have always admired teachers, but now have a new respect for them!!
Wow! What a collection of visitors…..loved the foxes. I get deer and wild turkeys but not the others. Thank you for sharing! The QOV looks great!
Such beautiful photos of your visitors. The QOV is lovely too.
Thank you for the wildlife pictures. These post are my favorite.
Can’t wait to see the embroidery! Wonderful design. Love seeing the “visitors”. We have deer and cardinals but the foxes stay pretty much on the other side of town. (Better eats I’m sure!) But your photos are amazing!!!! Landscape crew just took out 14 mulberry trees (they are awful) but now I’m wondering if I will lose my Cardinals. Might need to plant some sunflowers next year.
Thanks for sharing!.
You have such wonderful views. Have you ever considered doing a landscape quilt of your view??
I have a hummingbird feeder just outside my sewing window, I have an Asian lily that has shed its bloom. They sit on that little branch which is just a foot or two from the feeder. Somedays I do not get much done but watch the hummingbirds.
Lovely view,when we lived above a lake with the big mountain on the other side, the colours were always changing, and winer time gave us those glorious bright pinks on cold evenings. The foxes, I can see them asleep with that big bushy tail curled over their face.
Oh my! The foxes are beauties! I love the look of fog in the mornings. Somewhere I read the farmer’s almanac says for every day of fog in August, it’s indicative of days of snowfall. Don’t know it that bears any truth at all, but I love capturing it, especially from above like you have.
I can’t get good photos of the wildlife, flowers, ore my quilts using my smartphone. I’d love to get a camera (all of mine are old and not very good), but I’m afraid I’m too old to learn how to use the digital ones. We’re waiting on some rain, so I should get outside and do a little clean up.
Pat
Wonderful creature captures Carole!
Jenna
Hello Carole, Your pictures are all so fabulous and lovely today! Our Daddy Fox is the only one that is this color, the Mamma and all of her 4 babies, this year at least, are all mainly a silvery grey. They mainly only come up after it is dark, yet we have such a fun time watching them play and even hunting. Our deer have not been coming around very often since the summer months, we did see the orphaned twins about 3 days ago. So at least we know they did make it through these months! Your bird pictures are especially beautiful. We are missing watching the varieties of birds right now also. Because of the drought that our area has been in for the past years, we opt to only water as needed now to keep the florals alive. Especially since the garden was a flop, we did the same thing last year and everything survived just fine. This fall when it actually does cool down a good friend of ours is going to come and help me do a complete make over of all of the flower beds and each one has to be refurbished with extra nutrients and new soil even. That is going to be so much work, yet such fun at the same time. Actually, it even makes me think about ordering some of the new varieties that I have been wanting. Just so you know, you are a great influence on keeping my interest in my flower beds thriving. So thank you for always sharing your photos and the information that you do. It is just refreshing and fun to see what you do and read what other followers do also. It is going to be in the hundreds all week long, again, they are predicting…so I took Mr. Shakes in yesterday for a short cut. He looked so handsome for about an hour, then he went around to take care of business and came back covered in dirt!! I could not help but laugh at him. He was grinning big time. Honestly, he does smile. LOL. Well, I went and got all talkative once again. Thank you for sharing your great post today! Have a fantastic day!
I love the look of misty mountains too, so other worldly, I always think.
Lovely nature photos too.
Beautiful pictures and I love the quilt, enjoy your quilting!
Interesting that you mentioned The Villages as I have several friends who live there. You also had me with the QOV.
Love the photos of your views and visitors. Oh, I have an aunt who lives in THe Villages – don’t think she quilts.
Lovely to see all the visiting wildlife. Do you see foxes often? And do they do much damage?
Oh Oliver! My husband likes to leave extra bird seed on the deck for our squirrels–we can watch them from where we sit at our computers during work from home. He has started filling up a old jar with seed for them. Most of the squirrels will wait until there is loose seed around the jar but we have one, we’ve named it Sammi, who will eat out of the jar. We love watching for Sammi squirrel.
What a wonderful view to wake up to and see how it changes from one day to the next. I find it so interesting to watch the wildlife from your porch. There is a fellow I follow on you tube who does beautiful photography and has presented several lessons on line that might interest you, as he has a love of bird photography. His name is David Abel and here is a link to his “lesson one” https://youtu.be/a8zZkWo2Qkc . He is an interesting person and did several lessons and one might give you the info you seek to get those hummingbirds to look like they are standing still . 🙂
Thanks, this may help some others who need that information. My problem is having the camera ready to shoot when the hummingbird comes by. By the time it boots up, the bird is long gone. If I had all day to focus on one spot and wait for it to come by, I might get better photos. But they come at random times and move too fast to get good focusing.
Wonderful wildlife! I think that phot of Ms. HUmmingbird with her face in the flower is really a unique shot, my favorite today. I started teaching on Monday, and amazed at how much more efficient I can be with limited time, or maybe it’s partly the cooler temps as well! Hoping to spend Saturday sewing a variety of things…catch up odds and ends mostly, but I would love it if we could take a hike in the Hills. DH is feeling better this week than he has since April, so I’m hoping we can celebrate just a little. 🙂
WOW, your photography skills are stupendous!! I love these pictures.
I love red foxes, we have them too.
Life is somewhat getting back to “normal” here in Northern Virginia. You just can’t keep people down here… It feels great just getting out and saying hi to people and seeing beloved doggies having to cope with humans in masks.
Thanks for taking these pretty shots and sharing. I have been busy, and mostly lazy
The QOV quilt is beautiful
What great nature you have out there. I do love how the best nature shots often happen just after you put your camera down! I have seen in solo foxes in our yard but never a pack. That must have been exciting to see! That Quilt of Valor is beautifully made. Thank you for pushing through with your camera shots because I love seeing what’s showing up in your world.