All the Fluff

It's cottonwood fluff season in the neighborhood. Well, I suppose it's cottonwood fluff season all over, wherever there are cottonwood trees. There are huge old cottonwood trees behind the houses across the street and yesterday they started sending out their fluffy seeds. Today they really got in the swing of things. I ran an errand this morning and noticed that the gutter is filled with fluff and the edge of the lawn is full of fluff too. I'm just glad that it's not warm enough to have the air conditioner on so that the fluff doesn't get sucked into it and clogs up the vanes.

The female Oriole stopped by a couple times that I saw. She must feel like there's the correct place to sit on the jelly dish because she flew over, hopped on the orange, then fluttered up to the crook, and finally settled down in the place she usually sits and had her jelly fix. I haven't seen the male since I got back home a week ago. He must be off vagabonding around leaving her to tend the nest.

The male Cardinal showed up and drove all of the House Finches away from the platform feeder, as usual. I noticed that one male House Finch drives off any extra females when he and his mate come to feed. Are all male birds bullies?

I saw the male Goldfinch on the feeder back by the retaining wall and took a picture but it was too far away and turned out blurry. Later on I saw that one was on the near feeder, on the back side of course, but I managed to get almost all of the bird in this shot.

I didn't paint today. I know, scandalous. But I did draw a few critters out of 20 Ways to Draw a
Jellyfish. I was intrigued by the nautilus shell with its various stripes and dashes. I know that their shells aren't like that in real life but I like the way it looks.

At Friday Night Knitting I finished the Cashmere Sophie--finally. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn a few inches from the end so I decided just to bind off and make the one end blunt while the other one is pointy. I don't think anyone will judge me for that.

While I was out taking pictures of cottonwood fluff I took a look at Dad's rosebush and noticed that there are buds on it and one is looking like it's getting ready to bloom pretty soon. I can't wait.

The Sparrows and Starlings are working very hard to empty the birdfeeders that ED and I filled last night. I wish I could figure out a way to discourage the Starlings, they're the ones that really throw out the seed that they're not interested in. They dig and dig until they find a peanut half or a sunflower seed but I am not going to start filling a feeder with just those. I think that'd only bring more of them.

I spent a couple hours working on the manuscript today. I so want to be done with it soon. It's getting to the point where I'm not seeing the words, I find myself skimming which is not helpful.

--Barbara