Why I Oughta...

A couple of weeks back, I added a photo of the Holiday Season Disneyland Park map to the collection here on the blog and today, I'm adding the companion Christmas/Holiday Season Disney California Adventure Parks map.  You see Minnie and Mickey in their winter gear in from of a big Christmas tree in the cover photo.  The holiday decorations at DCA are fine, but they're not quite as special as the ones at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  The vintage tinsel-laden decor that they put up in Orlando is the best in any of the parks. The full series of posts showing off various Disney Parks maps including both Tokyo DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland along with some seasonal/special holiday party maps from the Magic Kingdom can be found here .

Back in November of 2017, we installed a heated birdbath out in the backyard near our feeders that are located right outside of our kitchen windows .  This was the same feeder that we had in our house at Elmhurst but was in storage for a couple of years.  It is a heated one that doesn't have a pedestal, so I've set it on a little table.  Then about a year ago, I added a Water Wiggler to make the water move a bit .  Turns out, the Wiggler, while great to keep potential mosquitos from using the bath, made it hard for birds to actually use the bath as anything other than a drinking fountain. Also, earlier this Winter, I came across this upgraded heated bird bath at Wannemakers and thought it would be a nice addition, but ultimately I didn't pull the trigger on it. For this Winter, I decided to just dump the Wiggler and plug in the existing free-standing bath in to keep the water from freezing.  And for the past few months, I've watched a few curious birds check out

Continuing on the recent Disneyland-centric posting journey, here's something we came across:  props from the movie Mary Poppins Returns.  In the photo, you can see both Mary's coat and blue shoes along with the kite and suffragette tail.  This post on the Disney Parks Blog shows all the props including Mary Poppins' bag . A proper kite needs a proper tail, dontcha think? Not from this version of the movie, but still makes me smile every time I hear it.

A week back, I posted a photo of the Christmas-themed pin from Aulani that one of the kids picked out and mentioned that we picked up a few other ones.  Today is the pin featuring 'Olu the Turtle.  He's "A Disney friend of Duffy".  Who is 'Olu the Turtle? And how did he meet Duffy? From the Disney Parks Blog : As Mickey and Duffy sailed the islands on a quest to find the perfect birthday present for ShellieMay, rhythmic sounds of an ‘ukulele called to them over the ocean, leading them to a cozy cove and to ‘Olu, a kindhearted turtle playing happy music.  ‘Olu smiled and shyly greeted Duffy, “I play my ‘ukulele to make songs of love. Want to sing with me?” ‘Olu strummed a beautiful song for his new friends. “That will be the perfect present for ShellieMay!” said Duffy excitedly. Off to the party they went, singing the special song together for their birthday friend. He's exclusively at Aulani in Hawaii, so they have a full suite of 'Olu the Turtle

Having now recently posted about seeing *in real life* the Disneyland Roses in Anaheim and one of the espalier'd trees/shrubs in Fantasyland, I've now think it is worth creating a curated post about all the trees/plants that I've cared enough about in Disney Parks to post about here on the blog.  Consider this my "Growing in Disney Parks" roundup.  Before I get to the posts I've created, in searching about some of the trees, I came across this site: Plants of Disneyland .  Pretty incredible stuff - including a nice look at the Belgian Fence espalier that I posted about last week.    Here's the archives related to plants inside of and around Disney Parks on the blog: 1.  Disneyland Roses .  In a bed near the Disneyland Resort Gateway along Harbor Blvd in Anaheim.  2.  A Belgian Fence Espalier at Disneyland .  Turns out it is made out of Firethorn.    3.  A beautiful Life Oak tree at Epcot in the World Showcase .  4.  There's an inc

Have we talked about Aulani?  A little bit on the blog, right?  Welp, here's a coaster that I added to the [ coaster collection ] here on the blog from the Aulani Resort in Hawaii.   This is the 35th coaster in the collection and follows the most recent addition of #34 from the Lamplight Lounge at Disney's California Adventure .  This is the 12th Disney-related coaster in t he collection - which means more than 1/3rd of them are Disney-themed. The full Disney list includes: 1. The standard one you see in your rooms @ Walt Disney World resort hotels . 2. This black and white one from the original Disneyland Resort Hotel . 3. This *new* Walt Disney World resort hotel version that updates the look of #1 above. 4. One from the Irish pub Raglan Road restaurant in Disney Springs. 5. From inside the Magic Kingdom comes this one from the Skipper Canteen . 6. Right outside the Boardwalk Inn Hotel is where we got this coaster from the Flying Fish restaurant . 7. Back in D

Back in January, I mentioned that we had a big, beautiful Northern Flicker visit our feeders but I was unable to get a useable photo of the bird for the blog.  I posted about it anyway .  Welp, fast-forward a month and guess who's back?!  The Northern Flicker.  And why do I know?  The yellow flight feathers are a tell-tale sign.   Also, the size.  Check out this guy in the photo above and how his body is dominating the suet cage in terms of size.  He's much larger than the other woodpeckers who visit our cages and feeders.  Mark it down, dude.  Northern Flicker.  See the yellow in the photo of him taking off below to confirm: