The World According to the Peevish Kitty
May
30
So since we’re doing a lot of running around today, the Fun will have to be a quick one. And what better topic to celebrate this week than girl stuff?
So tell me, which do you prefer:
And now, we’re off to the agency!
May
29
Well, the house is (basically) spotless. Every outlet within striking distance of a fork-wielding child is covered. Liquor and cats are both feeling neglected in the basement.
We passed our last inspection, we signed our documents saying (in effect), “What, are you KIDDING me? Of COURSE we want her!”, and we wrote another in the endless stream of cheques for the endless fees. And the social worker has gone.
BDH’s family doctor — who took one look at Mystery Baby Girl’s picture and not only agreed to take her on as his patient, but also waived the fee for the day’s visit — gave her medical report a good look-over and saw nothing untoward.
So, all that’s left is to meet with our case worker at the agency tomorrow morning, supply yet more cash, ask a billion questions, and start counting the days to a court date.
Is there a Greek god we can sacrifice a pint of Haagen Dazs to — a god of expedient court cases, perhaps? (It doesn’t have to be Greek. I mean, I have wine for any Roman god who can get this job done lickety-split. I’m flexible.)
May
28
Well, very soon Mystery Baby is not going to be a mystery anymore. We all must get prepared.
So it seemed to be time for a meeting of the Mystery Baby Welcoming Committee to be convened:
Pooh Bear Picture Frame (Chairman) addresses the group with some opening remarks, while the official representative for Canada, Mr. Polar Bear, looks on:
The group listens attentively to everyone’s presentations:
International groups are well represented –
Africa:
Urban regions:
The Hundred Acre Wood:
Although Eeyore looks concerned about the choice of bedding, everyone is pleased to learn there are several different sets of bedding on the go.
And in conclusion, the committee looks well pleased at the announcement that Mystery Baby is a little girl.
The next meeting will be held at eleventeen o’clock, to discuss which members will go with Pooh Bear Picture Frame as part of the Special Advance Travelling Welcoming Sub-Committee.
May
27
Adoption Journey – Day 494 (1 year, 4 months, and a bit)
Well, as you saw, we got our referral yesterday. A tiny, perfect little girl. 6 weeks old. 7.5 pounds. And a whole lot of hair.
It’s been an amazing 24 hours.
Yesterday started like crap. I was sore, as I posted about in the morning. Then around noon, I looked out to see that the chipmunk that I had been feeding for a few weeks now had fallen into the neighbours’ rain barrel and drowned — within the past half hour or so. I could have run out and rescued him, if only I had looked out the window sooner.
I was bummed. So I messaged BDH and told him I was really having a lousy day, and I was going to sit on my exercise bike and try to work out some of the pain (and some of the sadness) by riding a bit.
I was pedalling like mad and about an hour into a chick flick when the phone rang. I checked the call display and saw it was my agency, but I didn’t think anything of it. I picked up and it was my adoption worker, who I had never spoken to before. She asked if BDH was home, but I said no — they talk frequently, so I thought he had called and asked for some information — so I asked if there was a message.
She said no, but that she had some news. She had a referral for us.
I stopped. “Really?” I asked.
She said yes. So I said, “What do we have?”
She asked if I wanted her to tell me, since she was emailing the info out. I stopped short of saying, “DUH”, and said, “Sure” instead.
She took a deep breath, and quietly she said, “You have a little girl”.
I was gobsmacked. A GIRL. I knew that girls were frequently requested, and since we had not specified a gender, I just assumed we’d be referred a boy. In fact, I was sure we’d have a boy.
I was thrilled. I stifled a “SQUEEEEE!” and told her how thrilled I was.
Then, she got all excited. “She’s absolutely BEAUTIFUL!” she exclaimed. Well, everybody says babies are beautiful — nobody every says, “Wow. You have an ugly baby.” So I kind of mentally skipped over that part. But then she said, “And she has SO MUCH HAIR!”
I burst out laughing.
“Well, then,” I said, “OBVIOUSLY she takes after BDH then. He had a ton of hair when he was a baby too.”
She laughed. She was clearly really happy to be bringing us this news, after such a long wait.
I started to get all welly, and my mind was just blank. I said, “I’m kind of all meshuganneh here. I’m stunned.” I was a little giddy.
She said, “We get all sorts of reactions. Some people just cry — INSTANTLY. Others say, ‘Oh, well, that’s nice’. Very calm.”
“That’s definitely not me,” I said.
She told me she’d be sending out the referral, and what was included. She briefly told me what would happen next.
I said, “So this must be a pretty good part of your job, delivering this sort of news.”
She said, “It’s my favourite part.”
“Mine too,” I said.
I got off the phone, and I lost it. I started to cry. Out of relief, out of joy, out of shock, or all of the above and more, I can’t say. I just knew I was going to have a little girl.
I rushed to call BDH. Who was, unusual for Mr. Connected-to-Technology-At-All-Times, nowhere near a phone. Completely unreachable, actually. (To completely understand how unusual this is, you must understand that I can call him on his desk phone, his Blackberry, or message him, or email him, pretty much at any hour of any day. So this was a SPECTACULAR act of Murphy’s Law.)
I left messages. And while I waited, I read through the file. I stared at her pictures. I cried over her birth mother’s report. And I counted my lucky stars that she entrusted the care of her beautiful girl, ultimately, to us.
When he called back, I said, “Hullo, Daddy. You have a baby girl.”
He blurted out, loud in the middle of the office, “I am a DAD!”
The he asked me to send him the referral, but it came out like, “SenditsenditsenditSENDitsenditsendITsenditSENDITSENDIT…”
So I did. And then he sat there, smashing the refresh key on his computer again and again and again. No email. If it had been, say, “Hey, how are you?” the message would have been there instantaneously.
When it finally arrived, he printed out a couple of copies of the pictures, as he was on his way to a meeting. When he entered the meeting, he held the pictures up and announced gleefully, “This is my new daughter!” After congratulations all around, the meeting started. Midway through, he confessed, “You know, I saw your lips moving, but I have no idea what you were saying.”
He made desktop wallpaper of the pictures for his computer. And sent one to me. And then he showed her picture around to everyone, while I started calling family and friends, who were also not near a phone.
Except for Heather. She cried with me on the phone for a little while. Her dad cried too. And the most magical Miss Isabella assured me that she would help me with my baby, because I didn’t have one before. But she has a baby brother, so she knows about babies.
Sherri was home too, who seemed absolutely gleeful at the prospect of being an auntie once again.
And when I got off the phone with everyone, I stared at our referral pictures some more.
She was going to be our daughter.
It was one of our best days ever.
Now, we’re getting our last minute things done so our social worker can sign off on us and we can sign off on our referral. We have drawer latches to install, and a fire safety plan to submit, and cupboard safety locks to put on. Our wine has been sent to the basement for storage. Other things have been put up high.
We want to get through this as quickly and easily as possible, so that we can take everything in to the agency on Friday.
We want nothing to stand in our way, between now and going to meet this sweet little girl with the great hair.
Our daughter. Soon.
May
26
A GIRL.
She’s 7.5 lbs and about 21 inches long, and about 6 weeks old. With a head FULL of hair.
We have a girl.
I am verklempt.
May
26
Our weekend was nice. We were both sore from exercise and tired from other life stuff all weekend, but it was nice. And the weather was beautiful — warm and sunny, a nice change from the cold of the previous two weeks.
But waking up this morning… not so much. My head hurts and I am sitting here with ice on my knee and I would much rather be curled up in bed for, oh I don’t know, HOURS more.
It’s not like we did TONS this weekend. We ran a lot of errands. We cleaned the house more. BDH mowed the lawn. I cooked. But we’re both tired and sore as though we built a house.
We’re both working really hard to get fit. Now that his finger is healed, BDH is back into soccer, and he’s riding the bike each morning, while I do yoga each day and get on the bike and whatever else. And I think that the problem is we’re pushing a bit too hard.
My back is still pretty sore from when it went bung a week and a half ago. My knees ache and I’m hobbling around like a little old man. And the longer it goes on, the more I am beginning to think it is because I am doing too much working out, too fast.
I hate that. It’s a sure sign of getting older. The doctor tells you that you have to exercise more for ____ (fill in miscellaneous health problem here). So you say, okay, I can do that. And you ease in slowly, and the next time you see your doctor s/he says “That’s great, but it’s not enough”. Or, you jump right in and give yourself a good workout each day and suddenly, you have a whole host of other ailments to complain to the doctor about.
You cannot win.
I started getting old at 19. That’s when all my hard sports training started to break my body. Torn this, slipped that, sprained another thing. But I didn’t FEEL old. I didn’t FEEL injured. Nowadays, I really FEEL it. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. My body is letting me down.
So I am caught in a bit of a dilemma: If I continue to work out each day, I hurt. But if I rest and recuperate, I lose the enthusiasm to exercise and my momentum is lost. Do I push on through the pain like I would have before, and come out the other side fit and feeling better? Or does that even happen anymore, at my age? Will I just continue to hurt unless I stop?
I don’t have the answers. I just know that I am beginning to resent the built-in obsolescence of the human body. It’s a prison for a much younger spirit. (Okay, admittedly, it’s a minimum security prison, but STILL.)
BAH. To top things off, not only am I sore and tired, but now I am PEEVISH too.
Stupid body.
Pass me the icepack. And a couple of Advil.
May
23
I’m having a good week. It’s true. Sure, the weather has been crap, and my everything hurts, and there’s still no sign of a referall… but still, it’s been a good week overall. We’re getting things done. We feel a bit more positive. And I made awesome soup yesterday! And the sun is going to shine and it’s going to be warm this weekend!
So, I want to keep the optimism going today! I want to hear about great things: things you love, people that you think are wonderful, lovely places to go and things to buy. I want to hear about what you think is best. It’s all about what you think is best. So tell me:
So I hope you’re all feeling the positive vibe after thinking about all those nice things!
May
22
I called Mom (a.k.a. Carole, commenter extraordinaire) for tips on making a surprise dinner for BDH tonight. I wanted to make him seafood chowder to thank him for all his hard work this week around the house, but I needed a little assistance.
So I called the expert, and she answered a few of my questions. And I put the chowder together, and hoped for the best.
And, I have to tell you, it turned out really well! In fact, it was FANTASTIC! (even lacking lobster, that requisite maritime staple)
So I just have to give Big Ups to Mom, and her great advice, for talking me through yet another food emergency!
Take a bow, Mom!
May
22
I have taken my 40 Days to heart, and I have to say, I am making progress.
Of course, I am not going to tell you about my project to improve my self image. “Today I walked by the mirror and said, ‘Hey baby, nice bum! Woot wooot!’” Ummmm, I don’t think so. You’re just going to have to trust me on that one. But I will update you on my other project — all the things we are doing to get ready for the adoption (which at this point we are convinced will never happen).
I can say right off the bat that BDH has taken this to heart. You’d think it was his 40 Days around here, he has been so busy! But it has been good for me, too, since it keeps me doing things. I had set out with the intention of doing one thing per day to prepare for the adoption, and so as we get through the days, we get through the tasks.
Monday I started by bagging up a bunch of our old clothes to donate to the Diabetes Association. How does that help prepare for the adoption, you ask? Well, for starters, a lot of them used to be stored in the closet in the baby’s room, so that frees up some space in there. But also, for the last few weeks/months they’ve been sitting in piles on my bedroom floor, waiting for a pickup day, and so getting them out of there frees up some room. And one thing I am trying to do is to make room in the master bedroom so that I have a place to put a rocking chair for rocking the little one, or if need be, to relocate the crib for the first little while.
And on Tuesday, I made a concerted effort to find the fire escape plan template, with the intention of actually sitting down and doing the fire escape plan this week. After watching me searching around a bit, BDH informed me that he has it — so I will leave that to him.
And last night… we finally started putting together the baby furniture! Now this is HUGE for us. You have to understand, we bought the furniture years ago when I was pregnant. When I miscarried, we just couldn’t bear to go in that room for a while, because seeing the furniture sitting in there waiting for — well, nobody — just made us unbearably sad. But then after awhile, we pushed the sad feelings aside, and we just made that room a storage room. It seemed easier than thinking of it as the baby’s room, anyway. And so the furniture stayed stacked up against the walls, obscured by other bags and boxes and items.
We had cleaned out a lot of the stored stuff in the last little while, but still hadn’t gotten to assembling the furniture. But then last night, we tackled the crib. Despite the fact that BDH had a helper who wasn’t so helpful because of her back, we managed to get the crib assembled. And now it’s sitting in there, waiting for a mattress, bedding, and Mystery Baby.
And today, we got a lot of stuff thrown out with the garbage — specifically, what are called “clear bag” items here in our garbage collection system. These are things that are not recyclable (like in normal recycling systems) or compostable. So that means, items we’ve been holding on to in that storage room. I stood at the window this morning and watched — I was doubtful that the garbage man would take 4 or more bags of these things! — and when he did finally take them all I did a little happy dance! There are still many bags to go, and two weeks from now on the next “clear bag” day I’ll be watching and hoping again, but it’s a start.
So it’s been a good first week so far! I have to admit that I’m feeling fairly positive about my whole 40 Days experience so far. I like the feeling of accomplishment, and I like feeling good about myself.
Here’s hoping we can continue on!
May
21
Where did spring go? Did it disappear? Was I singing its praises too much and it got stage fright and left? Was it my fault?
Because I can tell you, overcast and 4 degrees is NOT my idea of a spring morning. Oh no.
I bought a couple of plants the other day — two poppies, two blanketflowers, and two gerbera daisies — and they are sitting forlornly in a flat on my porch. There’s no way I am going to take a chance planting them in this cold. This is cold where frost is still a possibility.
I thought this was MAY?! I suppose it’s possible that I slept overly long and woke up in the middle of October. Although it seems unlikely.
The rule has always been: Wait until the May 2-4 long weekend before you plant anything in your garden. Well, May 2-4 has come and gone and I’m still not taking a chance. Admittedly, it was an early one this year. But STILL.
Well, my back is bad, so it’s not like I could have done any planting or gardening anyway, but THAT IS NOT THE POINT.
One of my projects around this time of year is to pack away the winter sweaters and jammies and whatnot and bring out all the spring clothes. Not flipping likely — you’re not catching me outside in anything less than fleece on a day like this.
I am not even motivated to go out and fill the squirrel/blue jay box with peanuts. I’ve taken to just flinging the peanuts out the screen door with hopes they MIGHT land in the box. Which, admittedly, some of them do… while the rest are bouncing and rolling hither and yon across the patio stones and under the steps and into the grass. However, they can forget about me trying that with the birdseed.
The chipmunks will be disappointed.
And I can not sit out in my rocking chair on the front porch and work in the mornings in this kind of chilly, damp weather. Which is not so bad in some respects, actually, because I don’t have to see Queen Bitch President of the Special Mommies Club and her always-dirty children who, probably not surprisingly, never seem to be in school. However, I do miss the otherwise peaceful part of sitting outside, hearing the birds and enjoying the warmth and sunshine.
Of which there is absolutely none today.
Stupid weather.
May
20
Last week I told you about Rana’s post inviting people to embark on 40 Days of Change, and I said that I was going to start on it, too. So, yesterday was my day to start, and although I didn’t post about it (hey, it was a long weekend!) I DID manage to start.
It took a lot of consideration over the weekend, to decide what my 40 Days would be about. There are a lot of things I want to change, but like the original idea states, I wanted something small and achievable. And I came up with quite a few ideas.
So, I’m actually setting out 2 intentions for myself. One is practical, and the other is more spiritual in nature.
My first goal is to help a bit with my procrastinator nature. I do procrastinate — A LOT — and one of the things that I have been procrastinating about is the adoption. Both BDH and I have just gotten so blah about the whole thing, because nothing has happened recently, and it does not feel like anything will happen. And because it is so nebulous a prospect, it’s really hard to get motivated to do anything to get ready. So to help with this, my first intention is to do one thing each day to prepare for the adoption. Just one thing per day, but something. Anything. I have a lot of things that we still have to get done, and this way, it’s not like motivating yourself to do a big job you don’t want to do. It’s small, incremental, and easy, but it all adds up.
My second goal is more about my spiritual wellness. I have been plagued with poor self image all my life. I have done battle with the mirror my whole life, hating how I look or how much I weigh or criticizing one aspect or another of my physical appearance. So my other goal is about mending that poor self image a little bit, and being nicer to myself. I intend to say something nice about myself in the mirror each day. I am just going to find something good about how I look and say it, out loud, to the woman looking back at me. I’m going to do a little bit to repair all the damage done over all these years by trying a little bit of kindness.
So there you go. Those are my intentions. Small, measurable, and achievable. But I think they are a good step on the road to changing something bigger.
I’ll try to update from time to time on how I am doing, at least on the adoption tasks. And if you’re doing a personal 40 Days, feel free to comment about yours, too. And head over to Rana’s blog each day — she’s been posting some inspirational thoughts as she goes through her journey, and it might help you with yours as well.
May
16
YAYAYAYAYAY! I love May Two-four! It’s the start of summer, the start of cottage season (well, for those of us who have a cottage, or are not on the outs with those who have one) and it’s a long weekend! Long weekends mean different things to different people, of course, but for us it usually means sleeping in, big breakfasts, good coffee, and getting some stuff done around the place.
Hope everyone has a great long weekend!
May
15
The totally awesome Rana — whose blog I always enjoy reading because she’s so positive (and I encourage you to read it too) and is one of THE most together people I can think of — is starting on a project called 40 Days of Change. And I think I might do it, too.
It’s sort of a commitment to change, to grow, to improve your life, but in a small, measurable, achievable way. It’s to help you find more positive in your life by focusing your energy a bit. It comes from her yoga instructor (and, as you know, I am a big fan of Teh Yoga, and do a class every day in which — in BDH’s words — “Chaz kicks your ass”) and it seems to be a great little plan for me right now, at this place in my life.
I encourage you to read Rana’s whole post on the 40 Days of Change to get all the background, but I’ll borrow a bit of it to give you an idea what it’s all about:
“Your intention is yours. YOU decide what you will commit to each day. It may be about swimming, or Tai Chi or gardening for you. It may be about being kind to the beings in your life, cultivating gratitude or growing your meditation practice.
Please let this sink in….I am not going to tell you what to do, nor is your 40 days going to look like everyone else’s. Intentions come in all shapes and sizes
.
So…set an intention for the next 40 days that is SIMPLE and DO-ABLE. SIMPLE….SIMPLE….SIMPLE. [i.e. I will roll out my mat and do 1 asana/pose every day; I will smile more often; I will walk more; I will eat something green every day].
Setting an intention is a way to align and connect with what is important to you RIGHT NOW. It is a personal agreement that puts an energetic focus on your vision of your life. It is also about action, since it actively directs your attention.
My suggestion for setting your intention:
Grab a journal, a pen and a quiet moment. Light a candle. Celebrate in your heart your willingness to participate. Ask yourself the following 4 questions:
1. What is it I wish to enhance?
2. Is there anything I want to let go of?
3. Is there something I yearn to discover…uncover?
4. What is it I’d like to manifest?Once you’ve set your intention, acknowledge it and let it go. Drop it into your unconscious and go about living. Relax and be receptive to the magic…create space for the new to enter…accept and celebrate who you already are, creatively stepping into your vision.
One last suggestion: Choose a buddy you can share your intention with, then keep it close and seek your own inner counsel first. Be aware of your intention, but don’t try to “WORK” on it!
Trust yourself, trust your intention….trust the process.
Seems simple enough, right? And it’s a nice, positive process for making change. So I thought, for me, this fits in well with my mindset these days, of working to make some changes in my life. And it also meshes with the stuff I am learning in yoga. So I thought I’d try it. I have no idea what I’ll do yet — I need to think about it a little. And I’m going to set Monday as my start date because I like the idea of the 40 days being a goal, too.
I’ll post my intention and keep you updated, as Rana plans to do. And as she has said, if you want to do your own 40 Days, go for it. And if you do and you want to share, then feel free. Or keep it to yourself — it’s all good.
So, here’s to 40 Days to making a positive change in one’s life.
May
14
Here’s what’s going on at the House of Peevish on a Wednesday.
May
13
I have lots of things I want to do around the house, but no money to do them:
I have lots of things I must do around the house, but no inclination to do them:
Looks like a lot of things will go unchecked on my list.
May
12
It’s cold and dreary here this morning, and the rain and the damp makes one wake up kind of melancholy. I find on days like this I get thinking a lot, without the sunshine to brighten my mood, and that puts me in kind of a funk. With enough coffee or things to do, or sunshine breaking through after a few hours, it’ll pass. But until then, I tend to stew over things.
Today, I got to thinking back over the weekend, and Mother’s Day, for instance.
Mother’s Day is not a big deal to me, personally, because I never celebrated it as a child except when I was very small. As a matter of fact, it was a day that I came to dread because those were still the days of nuclear families, and teachers just didn’t have the deftness of mind to think of alternate activities for the kids without two-parent families on those parental holidays when the entire class was making handmade cards or gifts. Or perhaps they couldn’t be bothered. Whatever. But at any rate, it was a non-event for me. Or, at least, one that was studiously avoided by a motherless daughter.
And nowadays, it’s still not a big deal. I thought it would be hard for me, first during all the miscarriage/infertility business and now with the adoption, to have these holidays pass while I was still not a mom. But really, it’s been no big deal. I know for some women, it’s really hard. But for me, I don’t really feel I am missing anything, I don’t feel sad or anything — it’s just another day.
So I begin to wonder — is it suddenly going to be a big deal when I AM a mom? Am I going to care? Has 35 years of not recognizing it made it a non-event for me? I wonder. Some moms I know just think of it as a nice day, and they get some special recognition, which is a treat. I know other women who take the day very seriously. A few fellows I know are “grounded” for the day because it’s Mother’s Day, so they can be available to stay at home and help with the kids and, presumably, fuss over their wives. And I guess, in some households, it’s the only day “off” a mom gets, or the only day a mom feels she’s being thanked for her hard work. So I suppose that in those cases, it makes sense that Mother’s Day is a big deal.
But for me, I don’t know how it will be.
I know that in our little family as it is right now, we’re not terribly traditional about holidays anyway. We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, for example, with the thinking that if we have to set aside one day of the year to signify we love one another, then we’re clearly not doing our jobs the other 364 days of the year. And even on birthdays — if I know in advance that BDH has a soccer game or a business trip or whatever on my birthday, we’ll just do something another day. Or if he’s got something he really wants to buy, even if it’s the middle of summer and his birthday is in the fall, we’ll buy it and that’s his birthday present. And we buy each other treats and stuff during the year and call them “unbirthday” presents anyway. So birthdays are no biggie.
I suppose it all changes when you have kids, though. I mean, birthdays become a big thing because kids like having a special day. And I totally go all in for celebrating OTHER people’s special days. But when it’s my own, like Mother’s Day, I wonder… will I suddenly care? Will it suddenly become a big thing for me? I don’t know. Somehow I doubt it, but then, I don’t know. Maybe it will. Or maybe it will become a day when we remember Mystery Baby’s birth mother, as some families do. It’s hard to say — it’s all an unknown.
So many things are going to change when Mystery Baby is here and no longer a mystery. I wonder whether this will be one of them. It will require a quantum shift in my current thinking, but then, that’s what kids do to a person.
All part of the adventure, I guess.
May
9
I’m in the mood to relax. I get these newsletters in my email advertising nice clothes or places to travel and I think, “Ooh. I want me some of THAT.” But, alas, with the adoption of the Mystery Baby, there will be NONE of that for quite some time. But that doesn’t mean we can’t dream, right?
So today’s Friday Fun is about a bit of pampering. A bit of the good stuff. So which would you choose?
Tough choices, I know. But somebody’s got to do it.
May
6
There are grackles in my yard.
I love it when it’s warm enough that the birds come back. In the winter, you won’t see a lot of birds — ravens, not huge and ever-present like in the Northwest Territories maybe, but still saucy in their own way; maybe some blue jays in the apple tree, soaring to and from the peanut feeder down the way; a cardinal, if you’re lucky; and chickadees. Always chickadees, singing and twittering and as sweet a bird as you’ll find. Of course, there are more, but they generally stay hidden.
But in spring, it’s lovely when they all come back.
Robins usher in the spring, and boldly stroll right past you as they look for bugs in the lawn. Red-winged blackbirds start fussing and bickering in the trees and on fences. We get the cooing of the lovely (and, frankly, not very bright) mourning doves. On very good days, you’ll see goldfinches, always in pairs, darting past in a flash of yellow. Sparrows come out in full force, although they were probably there the whole time, just hiding in the shrubbery to stay warm. And massive gangs of starlings, partying in the yard, and then once they’ve snacked on enough bugs (or whatever it is they do — possibly sharing a keg, knowing them) and tormented the cats, taking their mobile party noisily off into another yard.
But most of all, I love the grackles. They’re so pretty, in a simple, shiny way. But they’re also such comedians. They stroll about the yard like they own the joint. They get into the feeder and toss seed about like confetti. They play and fuss and plow through the grass. They’re totally the small dogs of the bird world — big birds in a small body, and big attitudes to match. And they’ll walk right up to the house and right by the window as if there aren’t actually at least two cats sitting and cussing at them.
Grackles are my favourite sign that spring is really here.
I have always had a house surrounded by trees, so bird watching is a big thing for me. I don’t go out with binoculars into the woods for hours on end — I’m not that serious about it. But I love sitting in the window and watching them do their thing. When we built this house, lots of windows facing the conservation area was a must. So was a bird feeder and bird-friendly plants. I even leave all my dead flowering plants and tomato cages and whatnot in the garden over the winter so the birds have a place to sit and seeds to feed on.
And I was really alarmed with all the reports in recent years of West Nile Virus decimating the bird population. So much so that I asked my neighbour to stop keeping a barrel of rainwater because it’s just standing water for mosquitoes to breed in. (Which she has not done, so more drastic measures are in order, like sneaking out and tipping it periodically when she’s not around.) I listen, now, for birdsong when the windows are open, just to know that they’re still around. And around here, at least, it seems they’re doing okay.
So I take time nowadays to appreciate my backyard birds.
And, if the chattering and squawking coming out of Duncan’s mouth as he sits here at the window beside me is any indication… So does he. But probably in a different way.
May
5
The lovely and talented Fiona at Confessions from the Home Office has tagged me with a very interesting challenge: to write my memoir in six words.
If you look at her post, it provides some of the background about where the idea originated. But basically, the idea is to sum yourself up in six words or less, post it, and then tag someone else:
You’ve seen my blog(s). Six words is not tons. I am, to say the least, wordy. So I thought about it, and here’s what I came up with to describe myself:
Equal parts fear, laughter, and dreaming.
I think it describes me fairly well. Anyone who knows me knows of my close personal relationship with fear, as it relates to people I love and control over situations in my life, not to mention bugs, praying mantises, and bodies of water that are not swimming pools. But they also know I laugh loud and long and often, and they know I have moved from place to place situationally in my life in pursuit of many a cockeyed dream.
Actually, some would say I chase dreams to escape my fears and then laugh when it all goes horribly, terribly wrong. That’s probably good, too.
So now, it’s my turn to tag others. So I am tagging
How would you describe yourself in six words?
May
2
There’s another meme going around Teh Intertubes, which I’ve seen on some of the blogs I frequent. Fortunately, I’ve not been tagged yet… which means I can use it for the Friday Fun!
But the one that’s going around is really, really, really, REALLY long — so we’re going to do an abridged version. Because we like to be zippy quick in our Fun here.
So complete the sentences:
I’ll post mine later on, after a few cups of coffee, some vacuuming, and some general housekeeping… possibly a nap…
May
1
I’m off to the dentist again this morning, which is not anyone’s idea of a good time. And since they’ll be sticking things under my gums AGAIN to measure how deep the pockets are, it’s certainly NOT MINE.
A conversation from last night:
Me: I have a dentist’s appointment tomorrow morning.
BDH: Wow. You go to the dentist more often than anybody I know.
Me: Yes. That’s right. That’s so when I am sixty, I won’t have big gaps where my teeth ought to be.
BDH: I fully support that.
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