I... Am An Idiot.

This morning I glanced out to check on the garden and saw the back of a bird sitting on one of the fence posts.  It looked smaller than the Cooper's Hawk and a lot smaller than the Red-tailed Hawk but I thought it was a hawk.  I got out the bird book and decided from the size and tail configuration that it was a  Sharp-shinned Hawk.  I was puzzled why there seemed to be quite a few smaller birds unfazed by the unmoving predator.  Then it turned around and flew down to the ground.  It was a Mourning Dove.  A Mourning Dove! the least hawk-like of any birds on the planet.  As I said above, I. Am. An. Idiot.

Speaking of the garden, I cut some lettuce for salads for supper last night.  No nasturtiums because the blooms were fading so I didn't know if I wanted to eat a dying flower.  It's leaf-ish lettuce so it doesn't have the backbone or crunch of romaine or iceberg but it was lettuce I grew with my own two hands.  I was proud.  Also it's yummy.  Durwood said so.





Here's a bird I'm confident I know what it is.  This is a female or juvenile Downy Woodpecker.  Males have a red stripe across the back of their heads and this year's fledglings don't have it no matter which sex they are.

I cast on the first Pink Pussycat Hat yesterday.  You know how much I love big needles and big yarn projects, well this is one, uh, three.  This yarn is so old, it says it was made in Wisconsin by Badger Mills in Grafton.  I'm going to have to look that up.  Wonder if they're still in business?  It's 100% wool and it's very nice to knit.  I'm using three strands to make it go faster.  Thanks, whoever donated it.

June 23--Thomas Moran, The Great Blue Spring of the Lower Geyser Basin Yellowstone.  The smell told Myra she was getting closer.  She slowed her steps and stopped.  The thought of falling into boiling acid water kept her rooted to the spot.  There had to be a boardwalk around somewhere, she had walked the lower geyser basin earlier that day but somehow she had lost her way in the dark.  Off to her left there was the sound of munching.  She hoped it was a bison having a midnight snack and not a grizzly bear on the prowl.  She really wished she hadn't dropped her flashlight into that bubbling mud pot.

And that's that.  It's a gorgeous day so I think I'll go outside and play.  Toodle-oo.
--Barbara