another mishmash
I watched a family of turkeys chicks grow this summer. The young chicks are so vulnerable, not alert, slow, can’t fly and no means of defense. The hen softly clucks when the family is moving through the woods and meadows so the chicks can keep track of her. But the soft clucks are also signals to predators for meals-on-wheels. This year’s family started with eight chicks, but lost three early on. The remaining five are doing fine.
I read a lot of fiction in many genres. I enjoy books with strong women lead characters, so occasionally I’ll read books such as Patricia Cornwell’s Dr. Kay Scarpetta series. I just finished, Unnatural Exposure. Then there’s Elizebeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody archeology series set in Egypt in the early 1900s. What a strong, feisty character. It is best to work through the series from the first book, rather than read them randomly.
JD Robb’s Lieutenant Eve Dallas series. Must start with the first book. Dallas and Rourke butting heads. And how Peabody (yes, another one) developed into her own.
Early one morning, just light enough to see where I was stepping, I walked into the back yard to distribute cracked corn and scratch grain for those who stop by for breakfast. There was a young doe out there, only a few months old. She came within 4’ of me. If I held out the bowls a couple feet, I would not have been surprised if she nudged them. I wasn’t trying to get close to her, I was just walking along and she came to me from the side. First chuckle of the day.
I came across the idea of planting a tree with ashes from an urn. There are also biodegradable urns. Kind of a way to come back to life. Nice idea.
One morning a small, puffy hummingbird flew up to the feeder. Normal. But the bird did not know how to access the sugar water. Not normal. It tried sipping rain water on top. Hovered underneath sipping leakage drops. Flew along the seam between the two bottom halves. No success. The bird came back a short time later to try again. As luck would have it, anther hummingbird flew close and hovered. Ah, here we go. Not so. The first bird chased the second bird away. It’s not as if he was guarding his sugar water. A month later, I thought I recognized the body of a particular bird. It was sippin’ through the slots. Then backed off and hovered under the feeder to sip leakage drops and along the seam for an inch or so. Glad he figured it out.
As you all know, if something startles mourning and white doves, they take to the air, in mass. Not so with Montezuma quail. They run away, instead of fly off. I have yet to see one fly. Cute.
Completed the sixth Nikoli sudoku book, Genius Level. I solved every puzzle, so it can not truly be genius level puzzles, but many of the over 300 were tough. Nikoli has not yet come out with another level above this, so I purchased another Genius. It’s not as if I’m going to remember any. I certainly enjoy sitting down with a puzzle most days. Gives me a break. My mind can not focus on anything else while engrossed with solving a puzzle.
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
GRANDMA!
Wait! Wait!
STOP the funeral!
The ball is in your court. Pick it up and go.
These are in your Pre-Urn days—make the most of them.
July sixty minutes sixty years—3200 minutes
July Triple 18—upper: 3000; core: 2850; legs: 2925
Table of Contents
RVwest article ‘Following a Free Spirit’
RVwest article ‘The Space Between the Places’
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