We are, as Terry says, bird-a-licious. I finally got a
picture of the male hummingbird flying, which is tricky…
Male hummingbird in flight |
And with the light at the right angle to show his ruby throat,
which is almost harder than catching him in flight.
Showing a bit of his ruby throat |
Here’s the female.
The female humming bird |
The goldfinch males have completely molted to their bright
yellow. They are the same color as the dandelions. A flock of them were picking
through the seeds under the feeder one morning. I don’t fill the feeder every
day because, as I have mentioned before, they just throw it all on the ground.
They can eat some of that before I put more out, dang it!
So many goldfinches! |
I have seen both the male and female orchard oriole, but
only got a picture of the male.
Orchard oriole |
The white-crowned sparrows don’t hang around long. A day or
two, and they move farther north. I did not see or hear the white-throated
sparrow this year. Their visit is even more fleeting.
White-crowned sparrow |
The chipping sparrows are around all summer. They look like
they are wearing rusty-colored bike helmets with white racing stripes.
Chipping sparrow |
Saturday was gloomy, cold, and damp. I met friends that I
hadn’t seen in a long time for breakfast. It was nice to catch up. Jane and I
wen grocery shopping after that. We went back to her house to try making orange
jelly. Jane read somewhere that the orioles prefer it to grape jelly, so we
thought we’d give it a go. We haven’t tried it yet. All jelly has to sit for 24
hours before moving it, which counted me out for having any until next weekend
when I see Jane again. Jane is finishing her grape jelly before converting.
While at Jane’s, I saw four indigo buntings. That was very exciting! I had only
ever seen one at a time before.
Terry suggested that I get a battery-operated weed whacker
because he felt I was too weak and puny to pull the string to start the
gas-powered one. It would be an insult worthy of righteous indignation if it
weren’t true. I’d asked Jane to do some research for me, and she shared her results.
We decided on a Kobalt 80V Max. It had overwhelmingly good reviews, was on sale
and in stock at Lowe’s. We were surprised that it was raining when we left the
house at 2:00.
We shopped in the rain. I drove home in the rain until the
last mile or so. It turned out we’d had no rain at all. Just a little spitting,
that was it.
The first thing I did after opening the box was charge the
battery. Academic that I am, I read all the instructions for my weed whacker
before putting it together. I learned, among other things, that I should always
wear safety glasses and not use the weed whacker while barefoot, intoxicated, around
unsupervised children, near open flames, or in the dark. It’s like they don’t
want you to have any fun! Seriously, they could have saved three pages of fine
print with four words: DON’T BE AN IDIOT. But that assumes too much, I realize.
We live in an age where “true fact” is no longer needlessly redundant but a
necessary clarification to separate verifiable information from all the ridiculous
crap on the internet. I digress.
I did a minimal bit of assembly and put in the battery. I’m
sure there are safety glasses somewhere on the property, but I didn’t know
where. I took the weed whacker outside for a little trial without wearing eye protection.
The creeping Charlie beneath the deck felt my wrath. In return, it peppered me
with green flecks of leaf and stem. I did not sustain any eye damage, but I
think they could add one more warning to the manual: wear old clothes.
My battery-powered weed whacker |
The sun broke through the clouds just at sunset, creating a
beautiful pink sky.
A beautiful sunset ends a dreary day |
I bought new safety glasses at Menards while I was out and
about this morning. Now I’m off to whack weeds for real!
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