Happy Bird Day!

Guess what I spotted this afternoon--the first hummingbird of the summer.  Woohoo!  I apologize that this is a crappy blurry picture but there's a hummingbird there, cross my heart.  I'm sure my photography skills will improve as the season progresses.

Then when the cleaning lady had gone it was quiet in the house and I heard a familiar song.  I looked out the kitchen window and there was Mr. Wren sitting on top of the little wren house on the privacy fence singing his love song to any passing Mrs.  I read somewhere that wrens like to nest by running water and I put out the fountain last Saturday quite close to the birdhouse.  Later on I saw him fly up with some nest materials.  I sure hope he finds a taker.  A few years ago we had wrens nest in a house among the ferns below the kitchen window and one of the fledglings flew across from the birdhouse to Durwood's knee as he sat on the patio in the shade.  Cool things like that never happen to me.  Probably because I have so much trouble sitting still.



When I ate my lunch (a 6" flour tortilla with low-fat mayo, some chicken lunchmeat, a handful of broccoli slaw, and a drizzle of wasabi sauce with some baby carrots and a clementine on the side--yum) this male Downy Woodpecker came for his lunch.

It was a happy 3-bird day.  That was before the furnace guy came to do the annual air conditioner tuneups, did his routine safety check of our 15-year-old furnace, and found a crack in the heat exchanger that will introduce a dose of carbon monoxide into the house.  NOT what we want at all.  So on Thursday afternoon we'll be getting a brand new furnace installed.  *sigh*  As Durwood said, "this is why we have 'the pile' (our emergency savings account) but it sure sucks to have to use that much of it, although I'd rather pay for a new furnace than funerals.  Plus we get a nice discount for paying cash, well, with a check but still we get a discount.

I'm trying to master or, more realistically, develop some sitting around skills so while the cleaning lady was here and later once the furnace guys left I got the Two-stripe Packer Hat to the crown decreases.  Hats go fast once you start decreasing stitches on every other round.  Maybe I'll get it done tomorrow... no, tomorrow I'm going to sew up some things I have cut out so that I can move the bins and boxes around the furnace so that the installers can find the old one to take out and I won't pile things on top of other things and lose the stuff I have cut out and ready to sew.  Yeah, that's what I'll do, sew.  After I hit the Oneida St. Goodwill in search of a couple more pairs of summer-weight lounge pants for Durwood.  I found some for $17 at ShopKo tonight but then found 2 pair just as nice at the Goodwill closest to the house for $4 each.  No contest.  The $17 ones go back and I spend less than that to see if I can find more a couple miles away.

May 22--Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire above Tholonet Road.  Sophie sat on the stone patio behind the villa, her book in her lap, and the ice melting in her glass of tea.  The mountain loomed purple in the distance and gray-green olive trees marched in ranks toward her like an advancing army.  Rudy was away on business in the city and she could hear their cook and housekeeper, Amalia, clattering pots and crockery in the kitchen.  Sophie had told her since Rudy wouldn't be home for supper she didn't need to make anything special.  To be honest Sophie longed for the old, poor days when a salad with a bit of cheese and a hard-boiled egg was all they could afford.  Her undemanding affluent life was beginning to bore her to tears.


Today's Me Made May entry is the second Tunic no. 1 I made and the first one that I took off the straight and narrow by adding printed cotton sleeves, gussets, body bottom/hem, and pocket.  I wore it on errands today and everywhere I got compliments from young women.  Look at me, I was cool there for a minute.  (You can tell I've lost weight, my leggings are baggy.  Or maybe it's because they were fairly cheap.  No, it's because I've lost over 30#.  Not to brag or anything.)

Okay.  Got the shrimp out to thaw for tomorrow night's supper (Jumbo Shrimp with Spicy Cuban-style Black Beans and fresh asparagus) and the WW Baked Ziti for Thursday night's supper when the furnace guys are here so it can thaw in the fridge for a couple days.  I love having meals in the freezer for when life is busy.  Now I can go to bed with a clear conscience--not that I don't do that every night.  I will say that not being able to sleep isn't one of my flaws.  Most nights I sleep the sleep of the innocent and exhausted.  Night.
--Barbara