Birds & Flowers Too

 

First you have to see this morning's sky.  I love the clouds and streams of sunshine.  A great way to start the day.


 
It's a happy day today because the Oriole came back for jelly, to nibble on the apple blossoms, and to have a bath.  Durwood sighted it on the jelly first and then tracked it into the tree.  I saw it on the birdbath first.  It's not a competition, nope, not a competition.












Then there was this flock of sparrows with black and white heads that I'd never seen before, or maybe correctly identified before.  They aren't Chipping Sparrows; those have a chestnut patch on top of their heads with a white stripe on either side.  They aren't Lark Sparrows because they don't live here.  They aren't Black and White Warblers because they also don't live here and don't have brown bodies and buff bellies.  They're White-Crowned Sparrows.  I went onto the Cornell bird ID website and entered "black and white head" and they offered a whole bunch of pictures so I could pick the right one.  Very handy, that site.



The lilacs are starting to bloom.  Oh, they smell so good.


 

And the apple tree's blooming too.  I'm convinced that's what lured the Oriole to our yard and feeder.







The fern curls are unfurling.  I still haven't checked what kind they are but I will, I promise.


Here's proof positive that if you stick with a project you get it done.  LC's 3s Sweater needs the ends woven in, to have a bath and a pat into shape, then three buttons, and it's done.  This is a nice, top-down cardigan sized from infant to kid.  It's not a freebie but it's quick and easy.  Definitely worth having.




May 12--Minoan, from Knossos, Crete, Bull's Head Rhyton (Drinking Horn) or Libation Vessel.  The bull stared out of the dark corner of the antique shop.  Amy jumped when she saw it.  The thing was propped on a table so it was at the right height to be standing there.  She sidled over to it, careful not to knock things over in the crowded store.  How did they expect people to find things in this dim and dusty place?  There was no organization, she couldn't imagine the owners even knew what they had.  Arranged around the bull was a basket made from the shell of an armadillo with the handle made from the tail, a stuffed raccoon that she thought had definitely had rabies, and a taxidermied mallard in flight that looked like it had flown through a jet engine.  The bull wasn't a mount, though, it was just the head carved from some dark gray stone with tarnished metal horns.

I'm doing laundry today so I keep stopping and starting this thing.  I apologize if it's even more disjointed than usual.  Time to hang up the dry stuff and put the wet stuff in the dryer.  I'm hauling winter clothes down and summer clothes up while I'm at it.  Why waste all those trips up and down the stairs?
--Barbara