Blue, Red & Squirrels

I had colorful birds visit this morning.  I bought some suet pellets at the birdseed store yesterday and put them out in the pellet feeder and a couple handfuls in the platform feeder.  The bluejay found them lickety-split.  I think it found the corn I mixed in with the dregs of the safflower seed I put in there yesterday and when it came this morning there were the delicious pellets of suet.  Yum.  I took a bunch of photos but the best one shows the bird hiding behind a corner post and a Slinky so I'm putting up this one of it flying out.  When I looked at the picture I was amazed that it could fly in that confined space.



I spent some time catching up writing in my Bullet Journal after breakfast and glanced up to see a Red-bellied Woodpecker first on the corn cob and then on the suet feeder.  This is a female.  I know this because her belly isn't red.  She's big, more than twice as big as the Downy Woodpeckers that usually visit.



 


And this squirrel not only spent time eating the corn one of its compatriots ran off with one of the cobs.  Arrgh.

When I got home from The Clearing I discovered that the bananas I'd put in the crisper to hopefully keep them edible were too mushy to eat so I had to make banana bread.  Oh darn.  I added some craisins and pecans.  I had to try some to make sure it was edible, then I froze one loaf and took the other one to DS and his family because I knew if I kept them all I'd eat them all and in short order.  Better to get it out of the house.



Just before noon I got a call from the St. Vinnie de P pick-up guys so I met them out at the storage with the key and now all that's left in there is my grandparents' old bed that I slept in after their house was broken up and that was our first marriage bed.  Tomorrow afternoon the cleaning lady and a friend are coming to get that and then I can stop paying $66/month to store things that I'll never use again.  AND I'll be getting a refund because I've paid 6 months ahead.  I wish I'd known that when I paid 2 months' rent last month (I thought I was behind).

October 23--Juan Gris, The Bottle of Banyuls.  Faye wasn't sure she wanted to drink what was in the bottle left on the table.  The bottle was dusty and the stopper was waxed into the neck.  She held it up to the light but all she saw through the brown glass was the shadow of something thick and liquid.  The yellowed paper label was more than half gone.  She wouldn't have been surprised to see that it said, "Drink Me."  The thought made her smile.

In early September I got an email from NaNoWriMo touting a writer' inspiration box from a bookstore in Montana.  It had a notebook, candles, a bag, and other things.  At the time I was considering writing another manuscript (I have since come to my senses) so I ordered it.  It came yesterday.  The coolest thing is a frog timer for seeing how many words you can write in a certain space of time.  The candles smell great and I'll be interested to read the book of pep talks.  I'm kinda lukewarm about the mitts, mostly because they have a slit instead of a thumb. I like thumbs or at least partial ones.  What?  My thumbs get cold too.  I'm up too late--again.  Good night.
--Barbara