A Woodpecker Day

Two different kinds of woodpecker came to the feeders today.  First, and most exciting, was a Red-bellied Woodpecker that somehow squeezed itself into the platform feeder.  It must have landed on the edge and then levered itself onto the seeds.  It stayed for quite a while, which was good because it took me a few shots to get a decent picture of it tucked into the shade like that.

Then just after lunch this Downy Woodpecker came.  First a male came but it didn't stay long enough for a photo op, then this female came to the suet.  It stayed just long enough to be photographed at work.

See the weeds?  This is the huge pile of weeds that the landscapers uprooted yesterday.  They asked if they could leave them for the city yard waste guys to pick up and I said yes.  There are still tons of leaves left to fall and be collected so they might as well take the weeds too.  Save the landscapers a trip to the yard waste place.

These red violet mums are blooming like mad.  These are the ones that try to bloom in July every year but I cut them back so that they bloom at the right time of year when all the other, better behaved mums bloom.

We had the first Bay Lakes Knitting Guild social knit on Zoom tonight.  Only three of the board members showed up (me and two others) but we had a nice chat and worked on our projects.  We're hopeful that more members will come next week.  I cast on another preemie hat to knit on.  It's a simple pattern that lets me knit on Zoom without screwing up (too much).  I like the solid color hats I made last week but I really like this variegated yarn.  This is the last colorway I have of this kind of yarn, I've knitted up all the rest of it.

19 October--Barbara Malcolm, The Seaview. 

On the way back to Sydans I stopped at Amy’s Bakery in Blowing Point to pick up a lobster pie for supper and a loaf of crusty bread.  Amy’s lobster pies were famous on the island.  For only fifteen dollars you got an eight-inch deep dish pie full of chunks of spiny lobster meat, onions, and peppers, but they were so popular that you usually needed to order them the day before.  I got lucky.

I stopped at the IGA in The Valley for some romaine lettuce, vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to make salad dressing.  The farmer’s market was set up under the big tree in the center of town so I stopped there for lemons, oranges, bananas, a ripe mango, and a few vegetables—onions, carrots, and christophene squash.  At Vista Market on top of the hill in Sandy Ground I got Gouda cheese, a couple cartons of fruit juice, a liter of lemon-lime soda, and a bottle of rum.  By then it was time for Mr. Carty to deliver the dumpster.  There was just enough room amidst all the overgrown plants for him to put it in back of the garden.

With a borrowed machete I spent the afternoon chopping down the weeds and trimming back the bougainvillea that tumbled over the fence from the old police station next door.  By the time I could walk from the back door of the hotel all the way across the backyard to the dumpster and the road it was nearly sunset.

Standing under a cool shower erased all the itchiness from little pieces of vegetation that had stuck to me.  I shook my dirty work clothes outside to remove the chaff that had worked its way into every crevice and chase away any critters that had dropped onto me out of the jungle of the back garden.

While reheating the lobster pie, I made a big salad, and tore off a chunk of bread for my supper.  I ate at one of the tables out in the courtyard to enjoy the sounds of the village and the breeze in the palms.

All my relaxation fled when I noticed a flat tire on my rental car when I went out after supper to go up to the market for the coffee I forgot earlier.  I must have picked up a nail in the dumpster parking lot after all.  It was a good thing the tire held air through all of my shopping.  The car rental office was closed for the night so I’d have to call them in the morning to come and change it or fix it.  There was a spare but no jack.  Who rents out a car with no jack?  Maybe I could borrow enough coffee from Anne to make a pot in the morning.

Today's toss was a kids' grief program I got from the hospice people when Durwood died.  Maybe another family will need it and find it helpful.

Once again I fell under the spell of Call the Midwife on Netflix when I sat down to knit.  Man, watching that is like eating potato chips, I can't watch just one.  Someday I'll be forced to tell you that's all I've done all day, watch TV.  I'll be embarrassed for being such a slug.

--Barbara