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Crazy Squirrel

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Earlier today I was upstairs and I happened to look out the window at my garden. Much to my surprise and amusement I saw a grey squirrel running around doing some strange stuff.

You see, yesterday evening I was cleaning out our freezer and I found some disgusting frost bitten hamburger buns. Instead of just throwing them in the garbage I decided to crumble up the bread and threw it on the lawn in the backyard for the birds or whatever else was out there to discover.

I had actually expected the bread pieces to be gone this morning since there are raccoons in the area – but it seems they haven’t been coming into our yard as much as they used to, so most of the bread was still scattered across the lawn this morning.

So, anyway, I was upstairs watching this grey squirrel. He’d run into the backyard and carefully select the piece of bread he wanted. Why he chose one over the other I’m not sure, but he was being selective.

He’d take a piece of bread, run through the back garden flower bed and climb the short fence. From there he’d jump onto the curved wooden trellis we have had clematis vines growing on. In front of that trellis we have this huge ugly silver wire that supports the tall wooden electric pole in our neighbors backyard. I grow a honeysuckle vine on this eye sore of a wire and it disguises it somewhat.

Well, the squirrel climbed up and stuffed his piece of bread between this wire and the the entwined honeysuckle vine. He then climbed down to select another piece of bread and repeated the procedure.

I guess he was storing his bread for later. Like a bird or another squirrel wouldn’t find his stock pile?

Later in the day I saw the same squirrel in the garden. There was still some bread left and he was back to selecting his favorite pieces but this time I think he was storing them in the Rose of Sharon tree or the fence behind it. I couldn’t see clearly, but the branches were sure moving around a lot. I suspected he was stuffing them in the crock of a branch.

What a crazy squirrel. Have you ever seen a squirrel do anything like this? I’m certainly used to them digging little holes in my garden beds to store bread, nuts, peach pits and so on, but I’ve never seen one stuff bread between vines or branches!






Cork flooring – beautiful and an eco-friendly choice for your home

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Are you thinking about replacing the flooring in your home? Perhaps tearing out your wall to wall carpeting and putting down a beautiful wooden floor?

That certainly seems to be the trend these days. I can even say that my own home has no carpeted floors. We tore them out when we first moved in because we both have allergies to dust mites, cats and dogs and the former home owners had had a cat. We were also lucky enough to discover that the flooring beneath the carpeting was in fairly good shape and only needed a little bit of work in order to regain it’s former beauty.

If we’d found that we had to replace the current flooring we might have chosen to go with cork. I’ve actually thought of replacing the not so nice looking laminated fake wood flooring that’s in our kitchen with cork flooring.

Have you ever thought of using cork flooring? It’s durable and comes in many different styles and colors from natural honey tones to red, green, chocolate, black and many other shades. Have a look at three different types I’ve selected to show you:

bamboo-natural_hb.jpg stone-cream_hb.jpg mediterranean.jpg

The first image is a natural bamboo style cork flooring, while the second cork flooring image is called Stone Cream (both by Valencia) and it almost looks like marble doesn’t it? The last image is called Mediterranean (by DaVinci) and it has a rich red tone to it.

You could easily purchase a style and color of Cork Flooring to suit any room in your home.

As someone who tries to live green the idea of using an easily renewable product such as cork flooring in my home is appealing.

When cork is collected for use in the creation of flooring and other products no trees are cut down. No. Instead, the bark is peeled from parts of the tree without harming the tree at all. New bark grows back within nine to ten years and is ready to be harvested once again.

See how environmentally friendly cork flooring really is? No trees are cut down or harmed at all. The fact that the trees remain in place and standing likely means that the delicate eco-systems that live in an around the trees probably have very little disruption.

Floormall.com carries several cork flooring lines made by some of the top manufactures in the business. Valencia, Da Vinci, Natural Cork, Wicanders, and APC cork floors are featured cork flooring manufacturers at the Floormall.com. I believe the majority of the cork flooring styles sold at the Floormall.com website are glue-less joint systems, which means they should be easy to install in your home.

If cork flooring sounds like it might be a great choice for your home visit the floormall.com. You can talk to a live service representative 7 days a week/ 24 hours a day if you have questions.

Have you ever thought of using a professional landscaper?

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I know that many of you who read this blog have lovely gardens that you’ve worked on for years. Others are just starting out and some of you would eventually love to have a beautiful yard, but you’re still trying to figure out how you’d like your landscaping to look.

Have you ever thought of contacting a professional landscaping company? The company that I’m writing about today is called Leisure Landscapes and they service the Triangle area of North Carolina.

I’ve written about landscaping in past articles. Some people contact a landscaper and are provided with landscape design ideas that they can then either approve and have the landscaping company begin work on their yard, other people pay to have a landscape designer come to their home, provide design ideas that would work with their layout and their gardening zone and then begin the design projects themselves. In the last case they’ve just payed the landscape company for an opinion and design ideas.

Most landscaping companies provide a variety of services such as the installation of patios, walks and walls, landscape lighting, gardens, fountains, decks and arbors. Many will also install fences, lawns, irrigation systems, ponds and even plant small to large trees on your properties. I believe most landscaping companies also offer a maintenance service to keep your newly landscaped yard looking lovely. Certainly Leisure Landscapes provides all of these services and more.

Do think about contacting a landscaping company if you want to revamp your property and create something special.

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