Winged Wings

Migwe has an appearance problem. He has wings on his wings.  Two feathers, one on each wing, is growing in sideways.  I think he looks a little ridiculous.  I tell him, "Preen yourself Migwe!  Your feathers are crooked."  He doesn't listen.  Since he's a Russian canary, maybe I should say, "prikhorashivat'sya sebe Migwe . Vashi per'ya krivo."  If only I knew how to pronounce that.

Another Song Memorized

While enjoying the bonfires this weekend there were two birds I wanted to figure out.  One of them sings "Ee-oh-lay" in a flute like voice.  That made me think of a thrush because robins and veerys are thrushes and they make similar sounds.  Woot Woot!  I was right.  What we were hearing sing "Ee-oh-lay" is a wood thrush.  I've seen wood thrushes in my yard before hopping on the ground like  a robin and moving leaves aside to eat insects.  So maybe I still don't know what the other bird is but I got one figured out and I even correctly guessed it was in the thrush family.  The other bird sounds mechanical and I can't even begin to describe it except the word unpleasant comes to mind.  Maybe it's not even a bird.  I know it's not a frog but maybe it's a loud bug.

Free Fruit

On this holiday I thought I would take it easy. We ended up picking fruit.  Picking fruit was fairly relaxing except for the occasional fire cracker going off in the neighborhood.  We started with the wild blackberries that have volunteered in my yard.  We picked 3 pints of those.  The unripe blackberries are white or red.  The ripe blackberries are black and shiny.  We saw blackberries that were black but not shiny and those aren't ready yet. After a few minutes of picking you can tell the difference.  The ripe blackberries fall off the bush.  I lost quite a few to the ground. Of course the prettiest, most inviting, and delicious blackberries aren't on the border of the mowed paths.  Noooooooooooooooooo, the best ones are deep inside the blackberry patch.  That is why my legs look like I have been whipped.  I have scratches up and down my legs from those blackberry brambles.  After that struggle, picking cherries seemed so easy.  I really didn't mind picking the fruit because I wasn't keeping any and therefore would not have more work to do with it.  After that we had a bonfire. I burned a big pile of white oak and black walnut.  I still have some left but it's now a manageable amount.  A couple years ago I had a 8 foot tall burdock plant full of the pesky burdock hitchikers.  I wasn't sure what to do with it.  I wish I had cut it before it got that tall and so full of stickers. I cut it off and burned it.  That turned out to be a mistake because now, all around my fire scar, I have burdock plants growing.  I tried breaking them off.  They don't break.  I tried bending them. They straightened right upright.  So I burned them. These younger burdock didn't have any seeds on them yet.  Despite being burned the stalks are still upright.  I even went so far as to put a hot brick on one stem to force it to the ground.  That didn't work either.  Those burdock plants are nasty.  As I wetted the ground around the fire ring the nasty burdock tripped me and I almost fell into the bonfire.  Twice.  I'm lucky I caught myself because falling into a bonfire would not be good.  I guess I will have to take a loppers to those burdock.  Sitting around the fire, eating ice cream, talking, watching damselflies and dragonflies, and listening to the birds sing made for a lovely holiday evening.. 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

(There's no mail today, right?  I'm painting my mailbox.  I wrapped my neighbor's mailbox in plastic to protect it from any flying paint. I hope he doesn't mind).

(I see Uncle Sam is wearing pants with an elastic band that goes under the arch of the foot just like my snowpants I wore as a child).

Casket Arts

Last night Offspring #2 and I finally made it one of the first Thursday of the month open houses at the Casket Arts Building.  We've been planning to go for more than six months.  And last night we went.  I was curious what the inside of the building looked like.  As I imagined it had wide spaces, wooden floors, sliding doors on wheeled runners with counter weights, and open brick walls.  I tried to imagine what the place looked like when caskets were manufactured here but I couldn't.  The art was too distracting.  It looks like the building is full of artist studios.  We looked at some of the art and it was really good.  Paintings of people, animals and landscapes were impressive.  One fellow worked with wood.  The theme last night was hallway art.  The art including lighting, movement, projected images, and music.  There were some snacks on the first floor.  On third floor, in an artist's studio, we saw a big bowl or Doritos in the center of a table.  Was that art or were we supposed to eat them?  I'm not taking a chance so I abstained. We walked around on all four floors and got a glimpse of Offspring #2's house out of one window. In another room a group was doing improv.  We decided to stay. We were early so we watched the warm ups.  One warm up was called "Convergence."  We agreed this would be a fun game to lay with a group around a campfire or at a party.  You need at least 4 people to play this game.  Two people start out with two words.  I think in this example the words were bush and tree.  Two others volunteer to come up with a word that is between the two words.  They count and shout out their "inbetween" word at the same time.  The goal is that the two people will say the same word at the same time.  In this case it took 4 or 5 minutes when two people shouted out "Adam Sandler!" at the same time.  How they got from tree and shrub to Adam Sandler shows the complexities of the human mind.  They got close before when one said "General Mills" and another said "Captain Crunch," but their ideas separated again.  I enjoyed watching the improv warm up.  Improv takes a quick mind and much energy.  I can see how some people would think it was fun.  I'm glad we finally made it to an open house at the Casket Arts Building.

War and Remembrance

At the suggestion of Offspring #1 I read War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk.  The story was long but worth it.  This book is historical fiction about World War Two.  Three of the characters, Victor and his two sons, are in the United States Navy.  One is the captain of a destroyer, one a Navy pilot, and one a Navy officer on a submarine.  The story was fascinating, the dialogue was lively, and the characters were engaging.  I didn't like Rhoda (Victor's wife) very much.  This book gave me a new perspective on the war and how all encompassing it was.  Planes, ships and tanks moved around all over the entire globe during this conflict.  All the continents felt the effects of World War Two.  Historical fiction is a good medium for me because I can be entertained while learning. 

Spinning Plates

Whew, what a week.  On Sunday I thought I would have a good week because a. only four work days, b. many people out of town for the holiday and c. only a few meetings.  I thought I would be able to catch up on old projects and paperwork.  You know what they say - expectation is premeditated resentment.  I wish I had never expected an easy week but an easy week is definitely not what I'm having.  I am so busy juggling six meeting changes at a time with an average of 6 people's scheduled per meeting. Sometimes getting 6 people to agree on a same day and time is near impossible. I feel like that act I used to see on the Ed Sullivan show where a man puts a plate on top of a yard long stick and sets it to a spinning balance and proceeds to set six more plates to spinning.  He runs back and forth spinning plates and keeping them all going at the same time.  That is what I am doing at work - running between plates and keeping them spinning round and round.  On top of that difficult people are coming out of the woodwork this week.  I can deal with difficult people.  I know who they are and what to expect.  The difficult people who use extra sweet voices as they spew venom are the most difficult for me to stomach but I can stomach them.  Maybe the full moon is bringing the difficult people into focus.  I'm not sure.  But the next time I think I'm going to have an easy week I should remember to immediately push that thought out of my mind because nothing good will come of setting the bar that high.