This and That (Still Cheating)

Well, hell, since I have opened a window into my brain and invited you all to look inside I guess there is no use in being reticent about showing you some of the views outside my head. 

I am not doing very well at all with my latest digital camera so most of these shots have flaws to put it kindly.  However, they are better than the proverbial poke in the eye with a sharp stick so I will post them with apologies.

The photo to the left is out of the my kitchen window and shows my lovely little fountain which burbles comfortingly during the warm months.  As is everything else in my little plot of land, the planting beds are all overcrowded and overgrown.....................  I never know when to stop.,,,,,,I never can resist poking a broken off shoot into the ground on the remote chance that it will grow........and often it does much to my mixed delight and horror.. 

Out this window is also the site of 5 of my 8 hummingbird feeders.  As I stand there washing kitty dishes or chopping onions or veggies for my own needs I can watch the little devils as they feed and chase each other in their selfish attempts to lay claim to all the feeders to the exclusion of the rest of the flock.  Mine are the variety called Anna's Hummingbirds I think..... In sunlight their backs are a gorgeous irridescent green, their heads are magenta red and there is s bit of black and white for accent here and there.  In the shade they look nearly drab brown, but there is always a flash of the wonderful green or red as they whirr around and duel with each other.  I will never forget the time I found one lying on the ground at the base of one of my sliding glass doors.  He had flown into the glass and bonked himself silly.  He looked dead as a doornail and I was wailing and moaning as I gently picked him up to see if I could give him CPR. (?)  As it happened I noticed that his body was not limp and floppy like the dead birds that Gussie occasionally favors me with so I rushed into the house clutching him, mixed up a little batch of sugar water with a dollop of brandy and proceeded to trickle it into his beak with a toothpick.  After a few minutes of my tender ministrations his little eyes snapped open and he began to struggle to get free so I carried him back out and gently opened my hand.  He sat there for a few moments fluttering his wings and checking out the situation and then, without even a "thank you" or an  I'll send you a post card" off he whizzed up to the top telephone wire.  I watched him getting his bearings and probably wondering why the world was swinging around a bit in his head (that was good Brandy) and then off he went on his rounds.  That was many years ago but I often wonder if it his descendents who are guzzling my sugar syrup are wondering when I am going to spike their nectar with some of the good stuff.

The photo below shows one of my resident hummingbirds feeding and,  I believe, a second in the bush waiting his turn. It also shows, unfortunately, the flash in my kitchen window and probably reflections of some portions of Lois that were better not seen.  Oh, no....that's OK it is only my hands.  (I know I should have killed the flash but then the birds might not have been as clear.)

To the right is a rather amazing picture.  I live in a very urban area even though it is given the bucolic name -San Fernando Valley.  I have lived in this same  house for  38 years and only once or twice did I ever see the type of bird called a raptor.  Most of my clientele are songbirds, sparrows, doves and hummers with the great crows showing up fairly frequently.  My favorites are the mockingbirds....I am crazy about that nutty dance they do on the top of the telegraph pole......leaping in the air about 3 feet, with much fluttering of wings and then drifting down to settle back on their take off spot.  I don't know if it is a mating thing or what but it always makes me giggle.  And I love their song.   But I digress.

The bird to the right is sitting on my next door neighbor's roof right outside of my kitchen window and I swear it is some kind of hawk.  Probably Troutbirder can tell me exactly what kind, but this guy showed up swooping over the rooftops one day in summer, looked over the terrain to see what might be on the menu for him and apparently turned up his nose at the neighborhood squirrels and kitties.....thank heaven.  Then off he flew never to be seen again, but I was really awed and impressed that he had honored me with his presence.  By George, you never know WHAT you are going to see out of that kitchen window......it is a veritable Nature's Peep Show.

OK, Blabby, enough, already.  I must confess I am a total failure at doing cheating type Blogs.   I am so addicted to this damned blogging that I am beginning to get a bit uneasy.  Several times when I have wakened at 4am and don't fall right back to sleep I have caught myself sneaking around in a suspicious manner, tippy toeing (so as not to give my intentions away) into the den  where the computer has been oddly  left ON and adding a few sentences or a photo to one of my drafts for the next day.  (Of course, I am not totally insane.....I do go back to sleep after a half hour or so of this nonsense....still.......the ominous signs are there.  Dammit, no sooner does a person get rid of one Obsessive-Compulsive behavior than another one leaps up to take its place.  Sigh.  I have heard that Nature abhors a vacuum.....I used to wonder what she had against cleaning machines......(sorry....couldn't resist).  

I will sign off with my usual threat.....More later.