Orioles!

A pair of Orioles has adopted my feeder, at least, they were very frequent visitors to it today.  When I saw her on the nectar feed I hurried to get the oriole feeder out and set up.  That was a trick with a hole in it because where I wanted to put the feeder (up in front of the new retaining wall) I couldn't get it into the ground.  It took me a few minutes to remember that they'd laid a bed of gravel for the wall so there was no way I'd get my pole through that, which meant that I had to put the feeder by all the rest of them.  That was tricky too as there seemed to be something solid like a concrete block or brick in the way.  I finally angled it into the center of the circle of shepherd's crooks, cut an orange, and put the last of the grape jelly into the dish just in time for their next visit.  The female likes the hummingbird feeder but the male prefers the jelly.


Speaking of Hummingbirds, I saw my first one of the season this afternoon.  I tried to take its picture but it was on the back side of the feeder and the camera focused on the screen instead of what I wanted it to.  I thought I saw it earlier when the Oriole was on the nectar feeder and I was glad when it came back.





I noticed that a rabbit is digging a hole under my day lilies.  I don't know how to keep her out of there but I do not want a clutch of baby bunnies eating my ferns.







The ferns have started sending up curls that will turn into fronds...





and the lilies of the valley are shooting up.






Here's the fourth and last dish of this round of Investment Cooking--Loaded Up Chicken Bake.  Doesn't it look cheesy and creamy and yummy?  It's kind of like a loaded baked potato but there's chicken in it.  It has the highest points value (8 pts.) of the recipes I made but it's so cheesy and creamy and yummy that it's totally worth it.  The base is Pillsbury biscuits too so it's all kinds of good.  Now I have 24 servings of suppers laid in.  That makes me happy.

14 May--Barbara Malcolm, Tropical Obsession. 

 The next morning when Yana came to work Mona sat down with her and the two women devised a menu for real men (they both laughed over that) of sliced beef sandwiches with fried onions, sliced tomatoes with fig balsamic vinaigrette, and chocolate cake for dessert, served with beer of course. 

Mona called Susan Clemment a bit shyly asking if she would meet her for lunch to thank her for being so welcoming the night before. Mona was relieved and flattered when Susan said she would be delighted. They agreed to meet at It Rains Fishes, one of the most popular restaurants in Playa, on the waterfront in the middle of town at twelve thirty.

As soon as he laid eyes on Jack Spencer, Manning knew he had his next pigeon. Jack’s eyes kept flicking to the Spanish doubloon he wore around his neck and Jack kept inching closer to his side. Whenever someone went to get a fresh drink or moved away to speak to a friend Jack shifted into the vacated spot. Manning did not pay much attention to Jack, did not always answer his questions, and appeared more interested in the climatologists and their global warming scare tactics. But Manning’s radar had homed in on Jack from the beginning. Without anyone needing to tell him, he knew that Jack was a self-made man and that he thought he was smarter and sharper than all of the people in any room. Just the sort of patsy Manning lived to find. This guy would be too egotistical, too greedy to think too much or too long about sinking money into a venture with so many variables.

It would be easy to string him along, with a few apologetic looks at first, saying that he, Manning, did not want to offer his new friend such a high-risk investment, then he would let the pigeon trap himself. Let Jack Spencer convince Manning to let him invest, insist that Manning accept his money.

Manning would have to get in touch with Santiago right away to get the fake shipwreck site set up somewhere close enough to shore that Jack could drive out and see the boat on the site but in a spot where it was too dangerous for an amateur to dive, so Jack would not insist on diving there.  Santiago had found an old wooden freighter wreck just outside his home harbor and he could haul up some of the railing and a timber or two which he would bring over and Manning could show to the pigeon as proof of the wreck.  They could even sink the stuff in the offshore spot they chose so that the mark could be watching from shore, with binoculars even, to see it emerge all barnacle-encrusted from the bottom and meet the boat at the dock to see it and touch it for himself.  It was a perfect plan. What could go wrong?

The weather seems like it's finally going to be warm starting tomorrow.  I think I'll send in my plant order so I can plant next week.  That means I need to dig out the high-nitrogen fertilizer and get some on the bales to restart the composting and heat them up for planting.  I wasn't sure I was going to do a garden this year but I'm glad I decided to do it after all.  Just another normal thing to do.
--Barbara