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These are screenshots from an Audubon Osprey cam. The background I duplicated and blurred the top one and then erased the part over the Osprey.(I could have done a better job of that) I then used the same circle to cut out the head shots from other screenshots so they would all be the same size and placed them all over the place. Font for name is French Script MT.

Here's a tropical fish I had in my 5 gallon home aquarium 2 years ago. You can only house one Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta) at a time as they would tear each other apart. In this photo, he was expanding his body and flaring his gills out to meet the threat of my finger. LOL This little guy lost his life by jumping into the filter mechanism. They are very interesting and responsive pets, considering they are fish, and I became quite attached to all of them. RIP Wolfie. 😔

The swallows are aerial acrobats, I never tire watching them. As for the ground squirrels, they never cease to make me laugh. Mind you they weren't amuzed to have jam on their faces and feet. They would rub their faces in the grass to get it off, then lick the jam of the blades of grass, once they had washed themselves. I decided to place a spoonful of jam on top of the jar for them. Such great enterainment all around, when one is prepared to look for it. Plus it is free.

Week twenty five, fledged North America Robin siblings.

Week Twenty two, male barn swallow. Fox cub, around 13-15 weeks old.

I got to playing with the USA States shared by Daniel Hess. I did a bunch of stuff to it including adding Hawaii and Alaska at the bottom and then put it on top of an American flag. Then I got it into my head to create a July 4 celebration using it. The background paper is from Creative Fabrica The text is Microsoft Himalaya from who knows where.

I'm still stuck on vectors which I find fascinating. My latest little creature is an owl. The patterns are from FF, the feathers around the face are a'dozi feather brushes. Feathers on body, chest and wings are from feathers from CF made into patterns. Eyes and feet are from Canva.

Susan, it is the tongue, just prior to lapping up a mouthful of jam. They are hilariously entertaining. Unfortunately, as much as I'd love to post far more shots, the campus isn't a photographic site, plus resizing down is time consuming. You will have to wait for when I create layouts, where I can add multiple photos.

WOW and WOW...and WOW again! You have been busy. Incredible shots. Barn swallows are so cool aren't they. When the horses would stir up insects in the long grasses , the barn swallows would be out with their fantastic flying feats, just like little fighter jets. LOVE the ground squirrel. Such an opportunist. Gave me a good laugh. That must be so fun to watch their antics.

Week twenty six. Nestling tree swallows waiting for their parents to come with food. I took this shot along with many others of them, even being fed late this afternoon.

I made a couple of layouts for friends after they sent me some pix of things going on in their lives. Which tells you not much is going on in mine! 😁

Thank you Corrie, photos can speak volumes. Not only about the subject, but also the photographer.The fox cub is one of three out in the crop. I have photos of them playing while mum sits and watches over them. As for the ground squirrels, I wish I could tell them apart but I can't. Choosing a weekly photo is difficult, it would be easier to post them all if it was possible.

@ Sue Thomas Your photos for the weeks of June are spectacular and some made me laugh! Your love of nature is so apparent in this photos, even more then in a layout because here it is all about the animal in the photo!

That's why, being a cat lover, I'm involved with TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return) to keep the feral population down. We're trying to avoid kill shelters so we set up a sanctuary for those ferals that can't be returned to the neighborhood or domesticated. We do foster all the kittens we rescue. My Brandy One is now in foster as she's too young to be spayed and returned. Meanwhile, I have Brandy Two who showed up for meals and will soon be trapped and sent to foster.

week twenty four, ground squirrel helping himself to the Robins and Orioles blueberry jam. I have run of my own jam. I have to wait until the new season of Bluberries come into the shops.

Week 26 Half way there and I'm still going. Nice to be almost caught up. the background is from Riley B Graphics at Creative Fabrica, along with the fonts Aesthetic Violet Slant and Aesthetic Pattern Sans. Changed the magnet out for a button. Not sure I'll keep doing the button, but it was what I wanted to do for the next 13 weeks. I had to go really thick on the face of the button or it cut the '7' off and looked weird. Also I made it huge so I had to take a chance on doubling or tripling the settings from the video. It's really good practice though to do a button, so I might do them even if they arent great to look at and they are white on a white playing card. Plus the cards themselves were so uneven on the actual deck.

Week 25 Working in colors that are quite bright for me. The background is a gradient that added a gaussian blur to the max and repeated it several times. Then i added a texture ("blinds" I think) and then added another texture on top of that (Texture>striation). I used the same gradient on the ring of the magnet and in the text (week 25).

Here is my Wild Cat Calendar for July 2024. The month and year are in Babilonia font. Everything else is in Agency. Someone posted this story and two photos on my Facebook feed a few weeks ago. I have posted the larger version in the Files section at the top of our Scrapbooking with Paintshop Pro group there.

Week 26 A marigold flower (calendula officinalis) catching the sun.

Week 26 - I had a surprise visitor. On June 25th, the rescue came, and we managed to trap 4 of my outside cats so they could be vet checked, neutered and vaccinated. Among them was the young, female tortoiseshell I call Brandy. I had hoped to get her as she is too thin and young to be out on her own. When the rescue evaluated her, they decided to put her in foster care as she seems to be a good candidate to become a house-pet. The other 3 (all males) were returned to me on June 27th and when released scattered to the far winds! Hopefully, I opened the door early the following morning, to see if any of the returned crew would show up for breakfast. And there was the big black male I called Batman and also little female tortoiseshell Brandy! Say, what?? Did she escape? Turns out, Brandy has a doppelganger... Truly identical twin... I may have been feeding both all along and not realized there were two!! Actually, I am really pleased as I was fond of Brandy and don't feel like I've lost her to foster. Her sister is a very good replacement. We won't be trapping again for a while based on 1) not triggering the cats so soon after the last go round and 2) the vet is at the local Animal Rights Alliance (T.A.R.A.) and will only take 6 at a time and we have to get in line for appointments. My feature this week is Brandy - Number 2.

Week-26, we are already half way through 2024. Where is the time gone, or do I sound a bit old now....... After all the rain of the last weeks this week the sun did its utmost best to let us forget that and not only we but the plants enjoyed it too. I have taken the opportunity to shoot a lot of photos from the plants on my small patio. The gardencenter we usually visit often has a rack with small free plants that are no longer good enough to sell but if you take care of them they most of the time perform later on. This petunia was looking dreary and didn't like all the rain but, look what a couple of warm, sunny days did to it.

Although I curse out the mess underfoot that the Canada Geese leave under my dead cherry tree, now that they've migrated, I miss them. This was last week and now they're all gone for the summer.

Donna you did a lot of work on this one, not only the vectors but especially the different patterns to "fill" your owl!

Anne, I had several over about a 2–3-year span and one way or another, through accident, ignorance or just bad luck, I lost them too soon, also. My granddaughter has had one for going on 5 years now and I don't know how she does it! It may be the genetics of the fish she bought compared to what is offered at my local Petco.

I gotta ask? is that the tongue sticking out or a berry. Because if that the tongue, I might just lose it...😅🤣😂 PS why does tongue have to be spelled so weird...tung would be so much better.

Who would have thought that lions like a foot massage!

Oh, this makes me feel so happy! They are so darned cute! thank you.

What you are doing is incredible. we humans created the feral cat populations so we should also take care of them. And you are doing just that. I don't know of feral ones in my area, mine are all neighbour hood cats with collars or I know who owns them. So I tend to put my donation dollars to disadvantaged animals in need. It's hard to educate people that cats are not wild animals who need to roam. Nor, do I get into discussions with people like that anymore. Unless it's only to say, your cat will likely die a horrible death at the mouth of a coyote or tires of a car, can you live with that? It sounds cruel but you can't talk to people who don't want to change, and I dont need that kind of drama anymore. Thank goodness for you and animal groups that take on educating people.

I thought this was a cute font. It is a freebie from Creative Fabrica today (Cute-Cloud-71533108) the cloudy sky background is mine.

I have also read about the cat predation of birds. It's really quite sad people still let cats out to run freely. You don't see people letting their dogs out to run freely. Bird window strikes is another bird killer. It's amazing we have any birds left with those two strikes against them. I have Acopian Bird Savers (strings hanging outside in front of the window) on the windows I've have bird strikes and have had only 1 strike (pigeon) in the 5 yrs they have been up. Just yesterday I saw it work in action. the young magpies were in the yard all day and one flew straight at the window and then did it mid air halt right before the strings and went straight up to the roof. (NOTE: if you want more info google Acopian Bird Savers or check out https://www.birdsavers.com/ I used velcro to attach the ones I made (they give instructions if you want to make your own) to my vinyl window frames so I could take them off if I needed to change the parachute cord.

oh, such sweet faces. Beautiful shot and great light.

My goodness, there must be loads of them, if your crew is only a small one. On average cats will kill over one hundred million birds a year in Canada. Domestic and feral cats aren't native to any ecosystem. Not only on birds but other native wildlife. It has been estimated that cats in Australia kills an average of one million birds per day. About three hundred and seventy seven million per year. Same, for the UK. The numbers are staggering world wide. Although they make wonderful pets for some people, they threaten birds and other wildlife and disrupt ecosystems. Rarely, I will get a stray tom cat from the neighbours, as they will travel long distances. I trap and dispose of them, cruel as that may sound to some. At least numbers are trying to be controlled in your area. It is a controversial issue. Here is a shot of one of my Red winged Blackbird's (male) on a cattail. I haven't noticed any fledgelings yet.

I took the opportunity to get out and clean off my front porch which was coated with straw from the cat cabin which I have now relocated to my patio. I brought the plant that I just acquired at the garden center, from the patio to brighten up the porch. The porch is where I've been feeding the community cats twice a day. You can see Brandy 2 in the lower left corner of this shot from my overhead porch-cam, thinking she can stalk the birds. They were having none of it! LOL

They are very aware of threats and spook at everthing! We have cats and hawks galore and the ferals were here long before I was. There are several very large colonies in the neighborhood. My little crew of 7 or 8 is just a sampling. Here's an overhead porch-cam shot of Brandy on the lower far left trying to stalk birds. She's still too young to neuter and goes around chasing squirrels, birds and bugs but is only successful with bugs, so far! 😉

Cool photo you took with your phone, better than I can take. You must have a body of water close by, as typically they like marshes, with cattails, sedges and bulrushes, nesting close to the ground. I'd be concerned for their safety from the ferel cats you feed.. They flock with the grackles during migration.

I might as well post this for July 7 - Week 26. I saw this little girl near my patio and was impressed with the feather pattern and general attitude. Looked it up and discovered a juvenile female Red-Winged Blackbird. They DO have attitude and I have quite a few here at my feeders. The males clash with the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who tends to think he alone owns the suet feeder. She stays mostly on the ground.

Thank you so much Corrie. That means a lot to me, as I always admire your choice of color in your layouts.

It looks like the lion is getting a foot TICKLE to me. Another great calendar page as usual. I love seeing them each month.

Ann in turn I didn't know this. I used the translation of the Dutch word "luis" or plural "luizen" and found louse or plural lice. It are those little greenish basterds that leave a sticky surface on the plants and ants love them! When you notice them in the garden than you are sure to see ants feasting on them. We use the word "luizen" also when there is a lice infestation in the hair of schoolkids. It seems that lice is a more generic word for a small and wingless parasitic insect on man, animals and plants , while aphids is only used for plants. At least according to my old and trusted Webster's New World Dictionary.

Thank you! For a while petunias were considered old fashioned but they are back in full swing. I always liked them and have them almost every year, but they are prone to lice.

Sometimes it takes several attempts at drawing around the image to get the effect I am looking for. Also I will edit the mask after I have run the script.

Week 24, I hope it's not a bore and it leaves you wanting more. (that's is for rhyming Sunday) Can you believe I even found a gradient that mimics the cup. I've always liked this cup, it's a keeper. I used the slipped in effect. I sure like it. Carole, how do you come up with this stuff? I hope you keep it up. And I also used a texture on it, and the frame outline and the 2024 text.

Chippie considers him/herself quite photogenic!

Week 25 Strawberries and lots of them – I’m picking them every day now as are the blackbirds!

This photo sums up the week we had, rain, more rain, heavy rain, a downpour, drizzle, showers (always when I'm out and about!). All this can last a full day and when we were lucky there has been a few dry spells too. On the bright side of this most plants look lush and green, but the bigger flowers droop. Everywhere there are broken branches from the trees and leaves are flying around or lie in the gutter. The forecast for the coming week gives a couple of dry days with high temperatures; we go from 17C to 28C in three days.................. Hopefully July will turn out better, the school holidays are starting.

I am not surprised to see your Betta fish. Do you still have one? I had one well a few different ones in one of the two gallon tanks. I did not have a lot of luck with them because I could not find a way to heat the small tank and I keep my house pretty cool in the winter. I finally gave up on it because I didn't want to kill any more Bettas.

OMG! I love Chippie. He/She is the most photogenic chipmunk I ever did see. I gotta tell you, nature is one emotional up and down. Today I went grocery shopping and came out of my detached garage (when I got home) and saw a magpie feather. I was so happy, I bent down to pick it up and saw right behind the back wheel of the travel trailer was a squirrel tail...and nothing else. I was sad. Neighbours kitty is a bad boy.