Singing Your Heart Out

Song - All My Loving by Paul McCartney

Several years ago we rented a home in Idaho right on the Snake River. Every morning and every afternoon this little bird would hang out on the deck singing like no one was watching.  

Such joy in a tiny package!

Something Squirrely is Going On

Song - The Sounds of Spring - Bird Song

This is really a story of determination verses stupidity.  I am not sure which side I am on!

How do you keep squirrels away from your bird feeders?

I have spent - well, a lot on anti-squirrel devices.

It is not like I don't like squirrels as they are funny little characters but I am going broke buying birdseed! They will just hang upside down on one of my feeders and drain an entire feeder in a day or an hour.

Getting ready to attack a freshly filled feeder

Fill 'er up!

They lay in wait to see what I will come up with next.

Watching me through the kitchen window

I have bought domes and caged feeders.  I have even had two that would spin and supposedly send the squirrels flying.  I kinda liked that image - ha!

SloMo Squirrel Flung

I have tried pelting them with ice cubes figuring that it would at least water my garden when melted.  After breaking some garden lights, I decided that I needed a new approach.

"Hey Charlie, what do you suppose she will do now?"

I don't want to hurt them but I really want to discourage them from eating the birdseed.

Super Soaker to the rescue!

My two new anti-squirrel devices

The first one I bought was the pump action kind and by the time I got it pumped for power and firing, the squirrel would be gone (after having a good laugh at me!).


Then I decided to buy a battery operated one.  Perfect, I just pick it up and shoot.  Only problem was that the water was just a little light spray. 

Just waiting for the perfect moment to attack

The squirrels just lay on our pergola laughing and enjoy the cool mist that I am providing for them.  Ha Ha - the joke is now on me.

This one is giving me the "skank eye" and wondering what lame idea I will come up with next!

Shhh......

Don't tell them.....I have attack dogs.....

"But tomorrow, dawn will come the way I picture her.

barefoot and disheveled, standing outside my window

in one of the fragile cotton dresses of the poor.

She will look at me with her arms extended,

offering a handful of birdsong and a small cup of light."

--William Collins

Natures Comfort

Every morning I wake to birdsong, although lately there has been a little lamb bleating from somewhere across the creek, along with a very young rooster who starts to crow at 2:30am....yipes!

Year round we have a flock of Canadian Geese overhead or down the creek and an occasional turkey or more often a night time skunk. Last night we heard two Coyote's for the first time in awhile.  There are a lot of squirrels and deer that like to nibble my rose buds.

We don't live in the country but in a semi-rural suburban neighborhood. I like these sounds as it feels comforting to live with nature. As I get older, I find I have trouble killing a spider or an ant. Even snails that destroy my garden give me pause as I just fling them away from my garden instead of mushing them like I used to. Is this because I am older and have more respect for life?

This morning I found myself cheering for a bee that came through our bedroom screen door....while my husband was trying to find the electric bug-zapper, I was cheering for the bee to escape before he came back...................the bee escaped! .......yes....!  Although, I'm still not sure how I feel about living with a mosquito all night long.....itch, itch....! I grew up in this neighborhood that we still live in and when I was small, there where so many toads every summer that you could not walk across our lawn in the evening with out stepping on one...where did they all go?   I know some of them went down the back of my blouse to be squished by my two brothers who .....were boys....and my loving brothers....who liked to torture me!  But there used to be thousand's of these toads and tadpoles....also, there used to be Walnut tree's in Walnut Creek as well as Oak trees in Oakland.  Mr. b always says, "Places are named for things that they destroy"....like Walnut Creek and Oakland. 

“Birdsong brings relief

to my longing

I’m just as ecstatic

as they are,

but with nothing to say!

Please universal soul,

practice some song or

something through me!”

--Rumi

Good Morning Par-ee !

Bon Jour-

The flight was.....well, let's put it this way, I'm here!

As the taxi brought us in from CDG, we were crossing the Seine and there she stood...the Eiffel tower all lit up seeming to welcome us to Paris!

We slept with our balcony doors flung wide open all night and woke to birdsong in the morning!

. The birds know it is Spring in Paris!!! There must of been hundreds of finches & chickadees in our little hotel courtyard.