life — Page 128

Birds and Bears

July 28, 2021 at 9:04 am by Claudia

Some photos of mama and the babies for you. If you look closely, you can see the open beak of one of the babies.

Both of the babies. One is clearly bigger than the other. You can see the fuzzy head of the other baby on the right.

These were taken two days ago. They’ve grown bigger since then.

I imagine they might fledge on the weekend, but who knows? Mama is doing everything so they’re getting less food than they would if both parents were feeding in tandem.

Yesterday’s testimony by four heroes who sacrificed to help save the lives of our elected leaders and staff as well as our democracy was very, very moving. I hope you got a chance to see it. As to the comments of those who want to cover up the fact that there was a deadly insurrection, I’ll let you imagine the words that were coming out of my mouth.

And bravo to Simone Biles for making the decision that was not only right for her, but also for the team. She has my undying admiration.

I’m going to weed whack today. Things are very overgrown around here. It’s cooler today so it’s a good morning to get out there and do some work.

Oh, forgot to tell you…on his walk yesterday and just down the road from us, Don saw a black bear in the woods, maybe 50 feet away, and then the bear ran out of the woods and across the road! This is a very busy road and you don’t often see a bear running across it! He said it all happened so quickly that he could barely process it!

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Flowers, Books, Laptop

July 20, 2021 at 8:21 am by Claudia

I’ve never seen so many flowers on this particular day lily open at the same time. I happened to walk around the side of the house to this garden bed and what a sight to behold! If only day lilies weren’t day lilies, if you know what I mean. Shouldn’t these beauties be allowed to bloom for a week? Or longer?

Today promises to be sunny and hot, but where will I be? Driving over an hour to the Apple Store to finally take my laptop in. Reminder: the ‘t’ key isn’t working. All this time, I’ve been delaying appointments, either because of the weather or because of my shoulder/neck problems which made me uncomfortable driving. Or because I just wasn’t in the mood. I downloaded photos for the blog via my laptop and then wrote the posts on Don’s laptop. This morning, I downloaded several photos to the blog so I’ll have some available for future posts should I have to leave the laptop for repair – which seems likely. I forget how much I rely on my little computer.

Anyway, this will take up much of the day.

What else is new? I’ve been reading a book on Monet, which I’m enjoying. I’m reading an Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway mystery. We are watching the Swedish version of Wallander and, let me tell you, it is stunningly good. Far better, in my opinion, than the Branagh version. I really like Kenneth Branagh, but Krister Henriksson, who plays Wallander in the Swedish version is brilliant, beyond brilliant – as is the rest of the cast. Henriksson is Wallander. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

We’ve been watching so much Nordic Noir that I now want to visit Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. If only…

I’m not hearing quite as much birdsong in the morning, which always makes me sad. I know it happens every year, but oh, how I miss it. There’s still birdsong, but not nearly enough. I did hear a wren this morning, but it’s now clear that our ‘tenants’ aren’t going to have another brood in our little birdhouse. Mama robin, on the other hand, is still on the nest. I watched her yesterday and I think she was feeding at least one baby, but I can’t swear to it.

Okay. Have to go and start getting ready for the trek.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Birds, Oils, & Memories

July 19, 2021 at 9:39 am by Claudia

A view from the kitchen window. If they haven’t hatched yet, I expect babies to emerge pretty darned soon. Thankfully, the rain has stopped. I’m happy not only for us and our water-logged property and for those who live in the Hudson Valley who have experienced flooding, but also for mama robin. She could use a break.

Finally, a day without a flash flood, flood, severe thunderstorm, or heat advisory warning – at several points we had all of those warnings at the same time.

Working on the next painting. I considered this basket vase a while back but concluded that the handle was a bit too complicated for me. I’m still tweaking everything, of course, and have lots of detail to add.

This morning, while making our second cup of coffee, I saw this card tacked to our bulletin board:

I saved it because it holds such happy memories.

Four years ago, after a somewhat late start, we started on our trip home from California – in our CR-V – where Don had been performing Escape to Margaritaville in La Jolla. That first leg on our journey was magical. We headed north through Orange County, then Los Angeles County, saw Stella for the first time, stopped in Santa Monica and swam in the ocean in the very late afternoon, and headed up the Pacific Coast Highway. We had no idea where we would stop for the night, but we knew we were very, very hungry.

As we drove through Malibu, our search for a good place to stop and have some dinner grew more and more frustrating. We finally found a little place called Gravina, an Italian restaurant. We had no idea whether it would be good or bad, but we were desperate. It turned out to be one of the best meals we’ve ever had. It was late, there weren’t that many people there, it was intimate and lovely and way more expensive than we’d planned. But we went for it and, oh my goodness, it’s such a strong memory for us. I’m thinking of all of these things as we prepare to say goodbye to the CR-V – hopefully, at some point this week. I’ll write a separate post about that car, a car that took us eastward on a new journey in our life.

I’ll miss her. When I stop and write even a little about her, I start to cry. I’m going to take some pictures of her today.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Birds and Bears

Flowers, Books, Laptop

Birds, Oils, & Memories

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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