I mentioned last time that I have a jay hanging around who goes to the feeder, gets one sunflower seed and carries it to the metal shelf where he opens it and eats it. He repeats this behavior over and over, occasionally stopping for a drink at the little bird bath. So the pictures in this post are of him doing this.
He clears the feeder whenever he lands on it - all the smaller birds making way for him. I've seen the smaller birds occasionally challenge the redwing blackbird for feeder rights, but never seen them challenge the jay.
I'm spending most of this weekend getting my act together for going to Istanbul on Wednesday. I've been planning my wardrobe and figuring out packing. I've already done everything as far as money, visa, notifying credit cards, upgrading phone service so it works over there, setting up the pet sitter, etc. Now I'm making myself lists of what to remember to take (camera, ipod, etc) and what to remember to do before leaving (water plants, leave note for sitter, etc). Nine days away takes more planning than 3 days, which is mostly what I've been doing lately.
Big family news. My nephew and niece-in-law had their twins yesterday morning around 2:30 am. The twins are 34 weeks, so they're early and in the NICU, but they're doing well. The little girl is breathing room air on her own pretty much. The little boy is requiring some ventilation and surfactant therapy to get his lungs to finish maturing and work well, but both are beautiful. I know, I know. Of course I would say that, but really, they are beautiful babies, which isn't surprising, given their parents. I wish I had taken some pictures of them when I visited yesterday, but I'm still so old school I never consider using my phone to take pictures. Thus this post has all blue jay pictures.
The little boy, Aiden, is just over 4 pounds, 17.5 inches long. The little girl, Addison, is 4 pounds 10 ounces, 17 inches long. How Kellie managed to have both those kids inside her is a mystery. Apparently the twins will stay in the NICU for 2-3 weeks, until they're sure they are growing and putting on weight and everything (lungs mostly) is developed enough.
Kellie and Jason are doing well. It was a c-section birth so Kellie will be moving slowly for a few days, and both were understandably sleep-deprived when I saw them yesterday. I think it's still sinking in for them. I also think it will be hard for them to have to wait the 2-3 weeks to take their babies home. They are definitely excited and proud parents though. And actually, they get to semi-rest for 2+ weeks before becoming totally sleep-deprived while caring for twins. I'm very happy for them.
Also I'm glad if they were going to have them early, they had them before I left for Istanbul, so Lynne didn't have to try to get hold of me there. Although my phone should work just fine. Still I wouldn't have gotten to see them as newborns.
Damn! I just saw a cat catch one of the sparrows. He grabbed it on the ground, took it under the shrub and immediately started eating it. I have such mixed feelings about this. My own cats are too old to catch birds, and of course I don't want my bird feeders to be a place that is a bird delicatessen for cats in the neighborhood. But quite obviously the cat is hungry - a stray neighborhood cat I haven't seen around. He immediately started eating that bird, and he's thin. Still, I know it's happened at least once before because I found a part of a wing when I was cleaning up one day a week or so ago.
I may have to move that feeder. I enjoy watching the birds up close and personal, this close to the house, but there is too much shrubbery close to it for cats to hide and pounce from. That being said, the birds are already back, but none on the ground - all jockeying for position on the feeder itself. And there are a LOT of sparrows here. Decisions, decisions. Well, the feeders will be empty while I'm gone, so maybe both the birds and cats will have moved on by the time I get back from Istanbul. The hummingbird feeder will have enough to last while I'm gone.
Anyway, that's all for today. My next post should have pictures form Istanbul.
A friend of mine called me a bird lady the other day - because I fill the feeders essentially every day and support a horde of small sparrows and finches. I suppose I should be glad she didn't call me a crazy bird lady.
Although I generally do see mostly sparrows, finches and doves, I do sometimes get some of the slightly larger birds. This redwing blackbird in the first picture comes by randomly, and I managed to get a couple shots of him. I also have a couple of bluejays that hang around and are really vocal about it when I'm out there. Jays of course, so that's to be expected. The jay in the picture in this blog has a behavior that seems to be specific to him. He flies to the feeder, takes a single sunflower seed, flies to the metal shelf I have out there, holds the seed in his claw and cracks it with his beak and eats it. I've watched him repeat this over and over and over, but haven't seen any of the other jays doing it. I also have a few brown-headed cowbirds that come by randomly.
The sun is peaking out intermittently today. There was only about a 20% chance of rain today according to the forecast, so imagine my surprise to find it actually raining this morning. It only rained about 20 minutes and I don't know that we even got a measurable amount of rain, but the lawn liked it. I'll take anything I can get, considering how dry it's been here. I'm hoping we get more tomorrow, when I think they're actually forecasting 50% chance. If you look closely at the second picture of the redwing, you can sort of see that he's wet from the rain this morning, since it was raining when I took that picture.
I refilled the hummingbird feeder this morning too. It wasn't empty. It's a big feeder and with only two little hummingbirds, it doesn't deplete very fast, but I refill it whenever I notice gunk growing in it. So they should be happy humming campers.
*laughing* Okay, maybe I am a bird lady. Going through two bird feeders full of seed every day though . . . the little guys are going to be hungry the 9 days I'm gone this month. I'm not going to ask my pet sitter to fill them. I'd prefer she stay focused on the cat-kids.
There are only two things that I haven't done now to get ready for my trip to Istanbul. One is call my credit card companies and let them know not to block my charges over there. Or to try to convince them not to block charges anyway. I did this when I went to Austria, and one of the credit card companies still blocked my charges. Frustrating.
The other thing is to plan my wardrobe, so I can begin planning my packing - what suitcases to take, how much room I'll need, etc. Everything else is done. Tickets, passport & visa, hotel confirmation, some money exchanged, international service on my phone, meeting registration confirmation. I'll probably find something else I need to do, but it's coming together nicely.
Anyway, I guess that's about all today. There's a little bird out there with a dark smudge on his breast. I wonder what he is . . .
Have I mentioned that I'm just not that fond of getting older? I have? Let me just mention it again then. Just as my knee is finally healing up, I pulled my lower back out somehow when exercising on Thursday. Yesterday when I got up it was sore and I had trouble bending, but I didn't let that stop me from my planned shopping. I still went even though driving was painful and I had to move the seat way forward so I didn't have to reach for either the wheel or pedals. I slept badly last night and this morning when I got up, there was no position that I could get into that didn't hurt. Lying down, standing, sitting, walking - nothing gave me any relief. And going between those positions - doesn't bear talking about. I nearly couldn't feed the cats.
So I took a painkiller on an empty stomach. Not my smartest move ever. At that point I was in pain, nauseated, light-headed and sweaty. I didn't think that painkiller would be that strong since it was an old one prescribed in 2003. I expected it to just have enough strength to take the edge off the pain, not to make me sick and dizzy. Maybe taking it with the INH was what caused that reaction because I usually don't have trouble with those things. Although granted I usually don't take them on an empty stomach.
Anyway, I got into my recliner with a heating pad behind my back and waited. After about an hour I felt human again. The rest of the day hasn't been too bad. I'm fairly mobile when I need to be, although I need to sit in my softest recliner when I'm sitting. No hard chairs. Plus I slept about 3 hours this afternoon, to make up for the lack of sleep last night. I'm hoping my back will let me get some mostly uninterrupted sleep tonight.
Okay, enough health complaints. As you can see from the picture, the squirrel randomly decides that the red bird feeder is his exclusive property. Little devil. He was out there a couple times today, displacing the birds. He's acquired a serious taste for sunflower seeds.
I thought I'd also post a picture of the two hanging baskets out there. The spider plant isn't thriving as well as the wandering jew, but it's slowly gaining ground and looking healthy rather than looking like a brown-tipped plant refugee from a war. The wandering jew is VERY happy out there as you can see.
The shopping I took a day off work to do yesterday was to find a cocktail dress that fits me for my up-coming trips. Plus I stopped at a bank where I can order foreign currency and ordered some Turkish Lira. I'll need it upon arrival for taxi fare and I try only to exchange money at an airport as a last resort. They usually have seriously bad exchange rates. Then I went grocery shopping. So I got all my shopping in, but did aggravate my back doing it. I was going to run some errands this morning, but that didn't happen. Oh well, they'll keep.
The cat-kids like it when I lay around the house doing not much. They tend to get more attention, more treats and get to go outside more. So they're not unhappy that I'm not very mobile today. The trick is to get them to let me read or use my computer while they're taking up my lap. I'm typing this post using one of my small travel laptops in my lap sitting in my recliner currently.
I got a free lawn fertilizing yesterday morning. While I was drinking coffee waiting for the stores to open, I let Zoe out into the back yard. Suddenly she came flying back in. I looked out there and there was a guy fertilizing my lawn. I thought - that's weird - because usually my lawn service comes on Thursday and it was Friday. So I went and looked out the front and the service truck was not from my lawn service. I opened the front door and pulled the service invoice that he had left on the door and it was for my neighbor's address! So I stopped him as he was starting a weed treatment and told him he had the wrong house. You can imagine his comments. I felt sorry for him, but he was really not paying attention. The house numbers in this neighborhood are very clearly marked.
I guess that's about all for today.
I really have nothing to blog about today, but I have a bunch of nice pictures to post so I guess I'll just ramble on about nothing.
The first picture is the male of the cardinal pair that hangs out around here. I can always tell without looking when they're out there because they're noisy. Constant chip, chip, chip. Luckily they like the sunflower seeds most so they have a tendency to stick to the red feeder that he's on, which has only sunflower seeds. This year's batch of new sparrows and finches are eating me out of house and birdseed. Several times a day they all descend in a ravenous horde and have a feeding frenzy and squabble for the six places on the feeder. Mostly it's the sparrows squabbling. The finches tend to use the feeder out on the tree, although occasionally they'll join the squabble.
Also joining the feeding frenzy on the ground under the feeders is the squirrel. This morning I caught him twice on the red feeder, trying to get the sunflower seeds out, and he didn't really run when I went out there, just moved to the satellite dish and waited to see what I would do. As soon as I went into the house he was back on the feeder. So I filled a squirt bottle with water and got after him. He fussed about that but he ran away. I had my camera battery out and charging or I would have taken a picture of him on the feeder. If that feeder's on the ground one of these days when I get home, I'll know what happened.
The little pine continues to grow strongly as you can see, but it's a little yellow-ish in areas. I'm vacillating back and forth about whether to leave it outside or bring it in, because of the yellowing. Maybe little pine trees don't like the heat we've been having. It can get really hot on that patio, and it's been windy as hell. But besides the yellowing, it's growing so well that I'm afraid to jinx it by bringing it in the house. I gave it some plant food this week, so I'll see if that helps. When we start having 100 degree temps, I probably will bring it inside, unless it perks up and looks a lot better than it does now.
I dead-headed all my roses and am waiting for them to blossom some more. These peachy colored roses are from my back yard. I have several around the yard of this variety and color and the edges of the blossom kind of curl under, giving them a fluffy look. They're pretty. They don't have as big a bloom as some of my other roses, but I like them.
The roses and the azaleas are about the only things that bloomed/are blooming this year. Well, the quince did until the ice killed the blooms. The hawthorne didn't bloom, and neither did the amaryllis, nor the crepe myrtle, nor the bottle brush. Still, I'm glad everything's green and growing, even if it didn't bloom.
The other day I had a little Carolina wren checking out my hanging basket with the wandering jew in it. I wonder if he's considering it for a nesting site. The wandering jew and the airplane plant both seem to be thriving out there in the hanging baskets, and the aloe are starting to recover from the massive sunburn they got when I first put them outside this year. It looks like everything is going to do just fine.
My cold cleared up nicely. I only coughed at night for about 4 nights and then quit coughing period. The cold was pretty much completely gone just over a week after I came down with it. That tells me I'm much healthier than last year when all my colds dragged on a good month at least. On top of that, I'm in my last month of taking INH. 25 days and counting.
I'm running for President of my national association again this year. It's funny. I ran last year and thought I had a pretty good chance of winning, but I lost. Kind of felt like just one more bad luck moment in 2013. This last Friday I just found out who I'm running against this year. I actually don't think I stand much chance of winning this year, against this person, but what the heck. If you don't try, you have no chance of winning. Plus I enjoy the association and all my friends in it, so I'll just enjoy the running and be happy either way.
I did my exercises today using a knee brace on the knee I blew out doing Zumba. It worked fine. I bought the brace yesterday because the knee is not healing. It's still fairly swollen. And I need to be able to exercise. Plus if I'm going to be able to do those hikes I like to do at all this summer, it'll be with a knee brace. Those hikes are steep, which equals really hard on the knees. So I want to get used to using one.
So that's about it for my rambling today. Later.
As usual, it didn't take long for the temperature to go into full Summer mode. It's hot today and supposed to be in the 90s all week. And of course, we've had no rain to speak of. Even though we have gotten rain a few times lately, we're still more than 7 inches below normal for this time of year. And it's been windy as hell, which just sucks what moisture there is, out of everything. After spending some time outside this morning looking at the growing things, I changed my sprinkler system to run every three days rather than every four days. I predict water restrictions this summer are going to be fierce.
So I'm complaining about the weather again. Hmmmm. How about if I complain about my health instead? I jinxed myself, I guess. I had been bragging about being cold-free since last July (which cold dragged on almost into September). But then since September and my diet changes, I haven't been sick. So I was depressed to come down with a cold this week after my trip to Washington DC. It's a nice cold too - all settled in my chest. I'm at the coughing at night stage now, which is one of my least favorite, and I've been suffering with a head that feels like it's stuffed with cotton, and really low energy levels. I actually slept 11 hours last night and also last Wednesday night because I took Thursday off to try to recover a little. Plus my sciatica kicked up, either from the plane ride or from babying the knee I injured doing Zumba.
And worst of all, I gained 3 pounds. *laughing* Okay, that's not worst, but still now that I'm on the mend, I need to begin exercising again, although I'll take it a little more slowly than the Zumba, which was fun but totally blew out that right knee. And anyway I can't exercise hard right now without coughing up a lung. But I can cut back on eating everything in sight, which is kinda what I've been doing. I know the old wives saying is to feed a cold, but I think I've gone overboard a bit.
I need to do some house-cleaning. Between being busy and not having much energy, the place needs some work. I'll get right on that . . . one of these days.
I had an MRI of my brain done last Monday. I've been having some minor facial numbness and the neurologist I see for my migraines wanted to rule out all the bad stuff. Which the MRI did - rule out any bad stuff. Nothing abnormal in there, and actually it's kind of nice to have written proof that I do possess a normal brain. Or just a brain, come to think of it. So the facial thing is just another in a long list of symptoms that you can just put down to "aging" and add to the list of things to learn to ignore. Gotta tell ya, not wild about this whole aging thing.
Anyway, this is a short post again today because I don't have much to blog about again. Just wanted to post the roses at the front corner of my house which are blooming nicely, and another picture of the little hummingbird.
The day started out nice, but has gotten overcast as the day's gone on. I think there's some chance of rain for tomorrow and Monday. If it's going to be gloomy, I hope it does rain. I still prefer the sun though.
One of the little male hummers decided to be cooperative when I was outside and wanted to take a picture of him. This is the little guy slurping from my feeder. Soooo tiny and cute, isn't he? He's around the feeder quite a bit. And the sparrows and finches are eating me out of house and birdseed. I'm back to filling the feeders about every other day. Remind me again, was I looking forward to them all coming back? There are enough of them that they squabble for places on the feeder.
I also have a fox squirrel who forages underneath both feeders. He/she/it has no qualms about hanging out amid the birds on the patio and getting his share of seeds. So far he hasn't tried to get them from the feeders directly, just those dropped on the ground by the birds.
The girls and I were outside early this afternoon, not really doing anything, just checking out how things are growing. It was really nice out and the cat-kids hung out a bit out there.
I went shopping this morning, trying to get some gifts bought for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Early I know, but I'm traveling a bit the next couple months and this will be my last free weekend for a while. So I thought I'd take advantage of it. The Mall was packed!!!! Everyone was out hitting the Easter sales apparently. Not my favorite shopping experience but what can you do?
I discovered this week that I need a visa to go to Turkey. I'm going there in June for two back-to-back meetings. Luckily, it's very easy to get a visa online from the Turkish site. I'm on the organizing committee for one of the meetings, so I'll be busy at that one. I'm hoping to have a little time to do some sight-seeing during the second meeting.
Anyway, not much to say today. Just thought I'd post some pictures of the girls outside today and the little hummer.
I'm happy to say that we're getting another day of rain. You'd almost think I like rain, to listen to me. We're so far down in the water balance this year though, that I'm still glad to see it. This last week I drove down through the south metroplex area, and the bluebonnets are spectacular. Solid purple-blue rolling hills along the highway. I was afraid they wouldn't bloom much this year, but they have. Sooooo pretty.
And you can see from these pictures that the little azalea is fairly happy too. It's also blooming well in it's new place. And all the trees are leafing out. Yay! I'm so glad Spring is here. My rose bushes are all growing gangbusters and starting to put on buds now. I'll have roses in the not too distant future. And my grass is finally starting to come up.
I've now seen three hummingbirds, two little black-chinned males and a little female. They all frequent the feeder, the two little males not happy with each other's presence of course. The little female likes to just sit out there on the feeder, hanging out. I'll have to keep sugar water made up. With only the three of those tiny little guys, the stuff goes bad before they get through it when days are in the 80+ temperatures. Growing fungus. Yuck!
I've also seen two pair of cardinals out there at my feeders and more than two pair of house finches. The massive horde of sparrows came back from wherever they were also. And this morning I saw the male brown-headed cowbird for the first time. I've been seeing the female randomly for the last week. And the white-winged dove is back! I haven't seen him since that first ice storm last winter - only the mourning doves. And actually I only ever saw one white-winged dove, or only one at a time, even during the ice storm, which makes me think there just was one. There are two out there under the feeders this morning, so now there's a pair, or returning young from last year. It's really fun to watch all the birds, especially the little flitting hummers.
Actually, I think this little tiny yard and patio are is the perfect size for me. Enough of a place for me to putter around in and put out plants and grow things and trim things without requiring a massive amount of upkeep and maintenance. Of course, I pay a lawn service to do all the heavy work - mow, edge, clean out gardens, trim shrubbery, deal with leaves in the winter. That allows me to play at gardening while the place looks great and is kept in shape. Perfect for me, as I said. It makes me enjoy living here even more. I'm really happy with the place again now that all the repairs are done.
The ophthalmologist said the same thing the optometrist did. It's okay to have a vitreous lining pull away from the retina in your eye, as long as it doesn't create any holes or tears when it does it. They're concerned about that because if a hole or tear is there, fluid can leak out and get under the retina and cause the very bad "retinal detachment". So if they find a hole or tear, they seal it with a laser in about 10 minutes. Luckily I have no holes or tears and all is good. I'm glad to hear that.
The wandering jew I put in the hanging basket outside seems to be making the transition okay and will probably survive. The verdict is still out on the airplane plant or spider plant, whichever you want to call it. It's looking pretty bad, but considering how bad some of my other plants have looked and pulled through, I won't give up hope yet.
Not much to say today, so I'm ending this post with the most current picture of the resurrected pine tree. It's already put on about two inches of new height and seems quite happy out here on the patio. I'm pleased as all get out to see it growing and thriving.
