The Dandelion that Turned Too Many Pages

Mama is hosting a Wildflowers in Winter theme on her blog. I have written a story so that I can participate too. I hope you like it! You can see what others are posting by taking a look at her blog.

The Dandelion that Turned Too Many Pages
By Forest Zoo

Once upon a time there was a dandelion. On New Year’s Morning the little dandelion realized that it was the first of January. So he walked over to his calendar and turned what he thought was a page. Soon he decided to take a nap. He was supposed to take a nap for a few months, but said to himself, “I don’t want to sleep for that long. I want to take a nap for one or two days instead.’

So he snuggled down in his downy pillow. In a few days he woke up and looked at his calendar. He said, “That’s odd. It says it is May. “

His best friend, Billy the Busy Honey Bee, turned the pages of his calendar every month through out spring, hoping that Dandelion would bloom when he saw the page that said May. He bloomed only when the pages said April, May, June, or July. If they didn’t say that, he just went to sleep, until they did say that again.

But when he woke from his nap, the calendar did say May, so he decided to bloom. He said to himself that he must have taken a lot longer nap then he thought he would. So he sent up his lovely yellow flower, Then he noticed that none of his dandelion friends were blooming. He said, “That’s odd, because they usually bloom at the same time. He didn’t see Billy the Honey Bee flying around. He felt the air temperature. It was way colder then it was supposed to be in May. He thought that it might have been an extra long winter and that it hadn’t warmed up yet. Maybe Billy was somewhere else today. But Billy had hundreds of more friends. At least one was flying around in April and May searching for fruit tree blossoms, or dandelions. He scratched his head.
“HMM. That’s odd.” He had never not seen Billy the Bee out, and he had lived for at least five years. He was one of the oldest Dandelions around. He was much older then all the bees in the whole hive.

Before long he felt something oh, so very cold on his bright yellow blossom. He shivered. He shivered again. Right away another fluffy white cold thing land on his blossom. Then another and another followed. They kept falling and falling out of the sky. He wondered what was wrong. Everything was different. Before long everything was white and oh, oh, so cold. He was shivering , shaking and shivering his dandelion teeth. He was now starting to be afraid. He wonder what was happening. He had never experienced this before. He was dumbfounded and didn’t know what to do. He knew that he didn’t get help soon, he was going to die.

“What was that?” It looked something like his friend the fly. He lived up in the sky. The fly looked down at the poor little dandelion. “Why are you out now. It is January 3. It is too cold for flowers. Why don’t you go back to bed and wait for spring?”

But the flower protested. “But my calendar says it is May. Oh, I remember, it was New Year’s Day. Maybe I turned too many pages. Maybe I should go back to bed.

So he went back to bed and slept until Billy the Bee came and turned the page to April, and woke him up.

The End.

Birds on the Deck

Last week I put some sunflower seeds out on deck railing for the birds. Oregon Juncos came and ate it because there was about 2 inches of snow covering the ground. I kept putting little bits of seed out for them, then I put some right down on the deck, and they came and ate there. It was a new thing for the birds to be so close to the house. They were very cautious, but soon more more birds came. There were house finches. They are not ground feeders, so they were very scared. Mom was very happy to get a picture of the house finch because they usually fly away. Then some white crown sparrows (mature and immature) came and took over. I thought they looked pretty, but the house finches were the prettiest because they have a red breast. Every bird really liked the seeds oh, so much.

Sunday was the day it snowed 8 inches. It started out raining and freezing rain. They had fun slipping around on the deck trying to find seeds. Then it started to snow. The snow flakes didn't stick at first, but when they started to stick they really stuck and piled up. Before for long the birds had to dig for their food. They walked over a place where they thought there was seeds, they tried to dig up the seeds with their feet. Only occasionally did one get a seed or two. They got tired of digging so they flew over to the other feeder, under the eves of the house. They don't like it as much. Most of the birds went over to my green feeder hanging from the tree. They like that one better, even though it isn't sheltered.

Sometimes you would see a slate colored juno. They weren't as common as most of the birds on the deck, but they came. Occasionally a morning dove came and scooped up a few seeds. A flicker flew down and pecked at a seed. Even sometimes a goldfinch would come fluttering down and eat a seed, but they liked the thistle feeder the best. They all thought I was a very hospitable man to give them so many seeds. There were so many birds I couldn't count them. No one knows how many birds there were. The birds ate the seeds so fast I had to keep putting them out. The snow is melting, but even now the birds are still coming to eat seeds on the deck.

The Big Snow

Yesterday, it snowed. The flakes were giant, about 1/2" by 1/2". We got two inches and then we went out to play. We went down the hill, and sledded on the hill. Then we went and saw the snow in the creek. We snow in our sled and pulled it up and down the stream. Then we went back up the hill, because we were cold. After a while, we went outside again. By then we had five inches. We went sliding and playing. We decided to build a snow fort, but then we gave up. Then we went inside. We ate our supper, and then we outside. It was eight inches deep now! It was dark when we went out. We played for a while then we went in. We had bedtime stories and went to bed.

I really like the snow. It is really fun to play in the snow. It was the deepest snow in four years. It was fun to sled on the hill and do things with the sled in the snow. The snow was so deep I could even go sliding down the patio steps. Once I even went sliding down the hill, and I had to go climbing back up the hill in the eight inches of snow. It was very hard. The snow was so deep you could even bury yourself in it. I thought the snowflakes were the biggest ones ones I had ever seen. One even seemed to be about 1 inch across. Later, the flakes started getting smaller and smaller. Then we had small flakes for the rest of the day. The weather report says we are supposed to get snow, snow, snow. I'm very excited about the snow and can't wait to play in it again.

We scattered some seed for the little birds and they came and ate it. I might write about them sometime.

My Pet Butterflies

Last summer I found some caterpillars. I put them in my terrarium. I forgot all about them until a few weeks latter when I found a chrysalis in my under the window sill above the terrarium. A few days latter I found a chrysalis in my terrarium. It was puzzling how one got out and one stayed in, but I guess it wasn't very hard for a clever little caterpillar. Then I forgot about the chrysalises until sometime just before Christmas when I saw a butterfly in my terrarium. I was puzzled because it had hatched in the winter. It had snowed just a few days before, so I couldn't let it outside because of the cold. It would probably die immediately, so I left it inside. Before long it took a liking to the Christmas tree. It liked the bright lights and thought they were flowers. It lived a few weeks, and then it died. You can see a photo of it on the Christmas tree on my mom's blog.

After another month had passed, I was doing school and looked over at the window sill. I saw a little tiny butterfly, about 1/8 of a centimeter wide and 1 centimeter long. I thought it was immature and dead. But after school I looked at the window sill. I saw a butterfly that was newly hatched and drying it's wings. Mama took a picture of it, and you can can see it at the top of this post. After a few hours it flew away. I checked on it. It wanted to land on the hot lamps so many times, I was afraid it would burn up, but it had another fate. My cat CeCe liked to chase things. One day when the butterfly was resting by a warm window sill, CeCe attacked her. She tore off part of the wings and butterfly couldn't fly and after a little while it died. It was an European Cabbage Butterfly.

Here are some interesting facts about the European Cabbage Butterfly. It was introduced accidentally in the 1860's near Montreal, Canada. It's caterpillar likes to eat cabbage and broccoli and other plants in the cabbage family. It's wing span is 1 1/8" to 2". Wings are yellowish white with a few black dots. The caterpillar is green and 1 3/8" long. You can find it all over North America.

My Tree Frogs

Last year in March, my friend (a girl) gave me a frog. It was a pacific tree frog. I loved him. I thought he was so much fun. His name was Jay.

Then one day when I was playing outside I found a frog. I thought he was the cutest frog on earth. I decided to name him Swimmy. I took him inside and put him in my terrarium with my other frog. They had a good time together. After a few more days, I was out playing again and I found a frog. He looked almost exactly like Swimmy, but I thought he was a little fatter. I thought his stomach looked like a bathtub, so I called him Tubby. I had fun with Tubby and Swimmy and Jay. I made them a tree loft in the terrarium, and I put a rock and some moss in there too. The frogs liked hiding under it and sitting on it, as you can see in the picture at the top of the page, with my blog title. The frogs liked swimming too. Swimmy and Tubby seemed to like it the best, because Jay was a little bigger them them. Swimmy is the one on top, the other one is Tubby. (Jay isn't in the picture, so you can only guess what he looks like. I didn't take any pictures of Jay.)

Sometimes the frogs sat on each other. I thought that was funny. Sometimes they chased each other. It looked like they were playing tag. Sometimes they got tired and just sat there. Most of the time they were playing. They loved to play. They would climb the wall or swing on the screen ceiling. They put their fingers in the holes and climbed around upside down or swung. They were so much fun. I really liked them.

But then I had to let the free because I thought they would be happier outside. I kept them for just about a month.

CeCe my kitten

I have a little kitten. Her name is CeCe. She is nice. She is a Siamese cat and she likes to play a lot. Sometimes she likes to sit in your lap and purr. Sometimes she likes to explore. She is a cute little tan kitten, but her paws are black. It looks like she accidently dipped her face in chocolate. She was born at our friend's sometime in August. We we were at their house shortly after she was born. I knew she was a nice kitten and that I would like her. She could hardly mew, but she was cute. She fit in the palm of my hand. She was very soft and small. The first time I held her her eyes weren't even open.

We went and picked her up several weeks later. Then she looked quite different. She was a big kitten that could not only walk, but run. She went and hid under the porch. We had quite a time getting her out. She was never brave enough to go that far again, because she was still a timid little kitten. She would run and pounce on leaves. They made a crackling noise. She would then jump backwards and arch her back.

When we took her home she slept in my lap. She was so scared when we got home, and she was very hungry. She ate her supper, and walked back in a corner and fell asleep. The next morning, when we got up we ran to see how she was doing. She wasn't shy anymore. She was exploring. I got a rope and swung it around and she batted at it. Then I hung it up and she played and played with it without stopping. Then she went to sleep.

Now she is bigger. Here eyes are blue. She is very soft. I like CeCe.