Bath and beyond

Tonight I had dinner with my brother Greg over at our parents' house. As we enjoyed our pizza, a sparrow landed in Mom's bird fountain and proceeded to avail itself of the service Mom is so kindly providing: a free bath. I took these photos through the glass door, so they're not the greatest. And they're not actually in order of when they were taken, as the sparrow made quite a few dips into the water—I just picked the ones I thought best conveyed the various stages of the bathing process. But I think they're still fun.

I liked how in this one there's that one little drop of water sitting right on top of its head:



Dipping in:



Doing a full-body shimmy shake to get that water everywhere:







I thought this one provided a nice sense of how far the water goes flying when a bird takes a bath:



After dinner, Greg and I took a stroll up into the woods. We'd barely stepped out onto the back porch when he noticed this little brown bat hanging out where the chimney, the wall, and the underside of the eave intersect:



I have no idea what kind of flowers these are (and I did look), but they were growing in various spots alongside the trail up into the woods:





So nice to see green again:





And, of course, no visit to the homestead is complete without at least one picture of Kaylee to close out the post: