birds — Page 39

Whoa, Nellie

June 1, 2017 at 8:40 am by Claudia

Except for snow, we had a bit of everything around here yesterday. The day started out with rain. Thunderstorms were predicted, but the sun came out for several hours and the weather forecast changed to no storms. Then in the late afternoon, the sky darkened and I checked the weather app. Oh. Severe thunderstorm watch. And we got a doozy. Thunder, lightning, torrential rain, and hail. Then the sun came out. And then, at about 10 pm, another thunderstorm.

Whoa, Nellie.

From the day:

I recycled. I weed whacked. I pulled weeds. I ended up mowing the entire front lawn on a very humid day. We don’t live in an area where there are orderly plots of land with orderly grass that grows in an even, orderly way. Nope. We have different kinds of grass, weeds within the grass, buttercups in the grass, etc. So when it starts to get out of hand, it looks uneven and messy. So after all the rain, I was itching to mow the lawn. And I did.

After I took a break and showered, I went outside to take some pictures. I love a freshly mown lawn!

The dead nettle is blooming

As I was taking these pictures, the sky started darkening and that’s when I realized we were under a severe thunderstorm watch – which became a warning.

Back in the house.

After the rain, birds were everywhere, looking for worms.

This female northern flicker was in the corral.

My lonesome dove had clearly been caught in the rain.

And spotted way, way off in the woods:

A baltimore oriole.

This morning, as I was waiting for my coffee, I saw a hummingbird and a bunny rabbit within inches of each other. Alas, no camera.

I’ve seen two young mourning doves resting on the porch railing on two different occasions. Newly fledged, I imagine. And after the storm yesterday, I saw four mourning doves together, looking for food. So I’m surmising that the two young doves are the progeny of the pair of doves that live on the property.

Now, if only my lonesome dove could find a mate. The pair chases him/her away. Breaks my heart.

Happy Thursday.

Cast Albums, Opening Nights & Blue Jays

May 30, 2017 at 8:41 am by Claudia

While I’m blogging this morning, I’m listening to “My Petersburg” from Anastasia. Over and over. Sung by Derek Klena, it is my favorite song in a scoreful of favorites. I remember when it was added in the middle of the rehearsal process in Hartford. It’s simply great – as is Derek, the young male lead who is one of the nicest people on the planet. And handsome, to boot!

Anyway, it makes me happy. And since I woke to more rain and a forecast that does not bode well for the next week and a half, I’m resorting to music and crossword puzzles and flowers in vases and homemade biscuits and maybe a trip to the nursery to look for plants for the Guy Wolff pots.

Opening night for Escape to Margaritaville was a big deal, a joyous and happy celebration. Jimmy Buffett came onstage at the end and everyone sang Margaritaville. There was a huge party afterward and lots of VIPS and producers and Parrotheads. Don had a great time and now everyone will settle into the run of the show. As always, it’s hard to know what to do with all the spare time you have once the daily rehearsals have ended. I well remember from my days as an actress. Now, as a coach, I’m usually leaving town the day after opening.

I sent Don flowers. He sends them to me and I thought “Hey, I should send some to him, too! This is a big deal!” If I had asked him if he wanted flowers, he would have said “Oh no, don’t bother.” But he was delighted by them and I’m glad I did it. We won’t mention my panic when I couldn’t find out whether they had been delivered. The company I used is supposed to email when the flowers have been “hand delivered” but they didn’t. I called them twice and they couldn’t get hold of the florist. It was now one half hour until curtain and I couldn’t contact Don and didn’t want to try to contact him as I knew he would be preparing for the start of the show. Finally, I messaged him (after the show had started) and said that I’d sent something to him and if he had received it, could he message me? At 3 am my time (I was sleeping) he sent a photo of the flowers. Sigh of relief. They were brought to him in his dressing room about 10 minutes before curtain.

The email? It came a day later. Not helpful.

This guy was way, way across the yard and as I snapped several pictures of him, I wondered if he was another kind of jay. I was confused by his gray feathers. But then I googled ‘blue jays and gray feathers’ and discovered that blue jays look completely blue in the sun but in the shade they look gray because their melanin is more in evidence.

I love learning things like that.

Just as I was finishing this, the free weekend streaming of the Original Broadway Cast Album of Anastasia ended. Sigh. Now I have to wait for my CD to arrive in the mail in about two weeks.

Happy Tuesday.

Paths, Flowers, Birds, Bees

May 23, 2017 at 9:28 am by Claudia

This is a bit of what I was doing on Sunday – mulching a path to that crabapple tree that I discovered behind the house. This area is just off the back of the house and some of the kitchen windows look out on it. It’s at the bottom of a hill (coming down from the back forty) and is often waterlogged after a rain. Slowly – and I mean slowly – I’m trying to do something with it, so it’s not just grass and wildflowers and weeds, and poison ivy – which is everywhere around here. I cleared this path a month or so ago and now I’m adding the mulch. I ran out of it, so I’ll buy some more today.

At the wooded edge of the back forty, there is a wild honeysuckle that is pink. I meant to take a picture of it a week ago and forgot, but here is a hint of that pink color. It’s so pretty.

This climbing hydrangea climbs up the left side of the shed. I planted it years ago and was aware that it might take years for blossoms to appear. Indeed, it took about 6 years. Then I started to see one or two each year. This year, there are more than I’ve ever seen, which makes me happy.

There’s more to this story. Right behind that hydrangea, robins have built a nest, I believe it’s sitting on the window sill/window box. Every time I walk near the hydrangea, which I must do if I take the trash out or go into the shed for any reason, i.e., retrieving the lawn mower, a robin barrels out from behind the hydrangea, screeching at me all the while and then proceeds to fly into the trees with a steady chirp chirp chirp of warning that doesn’t stop until I move away.

It’s becoming a bit tiresome. There is also a bumblebee that has some sort of nest there as well, and he dive-bombs me when I get too close. Between the two of them, I’m under attack! My apologies to my sweet honeybees who I originally thought were the source of the buzzing in my ear. It wasn’t you. I should have know better.

I took that photo very quickly as the robin was not happy with me and I had to get out of there.

After taking so long that I thought maybe it was no more, the clematis is steadily climbing the trellis. Can’t wait to see those gorgeous purple flowers!

And every day, I eagerly visit the poppies to see if they’ve bloomed. I haven’t checked yet today, but rest assured, you’ll be the first to know – either here or on Instagram.

I’m determined to find a hollyhock to plant and I have to buy more mulch, run to the bank, and stop at the grocery store. And do more work outside.

A busy day ahead.

Happy Tuesday.

Whoa, Nellie

Cast Albums, Opening Nights & Blue Jays

Paths, Flowers, Birds, Bees

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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