Hummingbirds & gardens

I took time to enjoy my hummingbirds today. There is a real cute little girl bird that has been lucky enough to fend off the boy who guards all the feeders and keep others away. Twice this week she has shown up on different days with a definitely ‘heavy load’. I haven’t tracked her to the nest, but I’m sure by tonite there are at least two eggs in it. I have four feeders in the front of the house and one in the back. The ones in the front are the domain of a very large male and he swoops in to chase the others off if the encroach on his territory. Last week, my son had the misfortune to walk through the war zone (our front sidewalk) and get smacked upside the head by one of the hummers. In addition to the feeders, there are a lot of flowers out that the hummingbirds enjoy (and the deer). So far, the geraniums seem to be non-edible to the deer and the rose vine. No such luck for the mums, zinnias or marigolds. What the deer don’t devour, the slugs have suddenly decided to attack. Mostly, they are eating the petunias. They will all gang up on one overnight, the next day the entire plant is gone. We didn’t have this problem last year. Every year it is different. (except for the deer).

Tomorrow I will try once again to find tomatillos and cilantro for my herb and vegetable garden, no such luck yet unless I want to try by seed (which I don’t). My mulberries are in full fruit and I’m having to fight the birds for the fruit. This year, I should get at least two quarts from one tree (at the rate I’m eating them, that may be optimistic. I’m not sure about the newest tree, it leaved out very well but I didn’t see much flowering. My blackberries are doing fabulous this year, but I’ll have a fight with the local wildlife in getting them in. Maybe it needs a year. I love the gardens and all the herbs, fruits, veggies that I harvest; but I’m sure by the end of the year I’ll be sick of them.

April showers

What a month we have had. Temperatures from freezing to near 100. Earthquakes within 150 miles, tornados in under 15 miles, hail, more hail, drought, freezing rain (2 inches in under an hour), sunburn and heatstroke, every kind of allergy you don’t want. Nature went nuts – animals, birds, plants all acting out of character. This is a month to remember, and it still has two more days to go. I’ll actually be glad when it is over.

It’s been a busy and profitable month, money wise. It’s been an active and charitable month, it’s been fun and sad. Wow! I need to write down every single little thing that happened in this month, maybe in my private journal. I didn’t much enjoy the month though, as I’ve been worn down with pnuemonia and still not completely well. I have no energy at all and am totally physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Thank god I have an outlet for this in my various writings, my various outdoor activities and my looking forwardness. It’s funny – I would be worn out and brain dead and sore, but once I am doing something I like, for instance, paddling a canoe with my son for half a day – I would feel good and clear headed and not really notice whatever ills, aches & pains had a grip on me. This past weekend, I had virtually no sleep, lots of work and meetings, spent a day in the sun working with kids and guns, only lost my voice a couple times, got sun burnt and got my first annual dose of chiggers or poison ivy – not sure what it will turn into. But I had a blast. Sometimes I think I am allergic to being cooped up in my home/office for days at a time. The outdoors definitely revitalizes me. After I pay a couple of bills, then hopefully April can go away peacefully. Is it April that is supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb? That’s surely what happened, even if the rhyme is in reverse. Everyone who reads this, say a prayer for my daddy. He’s in a nursing home now and may never be able to live on his own again. It’s mental deterioration, not physical. And he’s so confused, more like a prison to him and every day for over a week, he packs his bags because he thinks he can go home. Maybe that’s all he has to live for now. If he quits doing that, will he give up on life itself? He thinks, when he remembers me, that I have deserted him because I helped my brothers completely assume his care giving and guardianship.

May, and summer, wish you were here. There’s so much life to look forward to!

On the mend

After a long and fruitful tax season, things are finally beginning to wind down to an even, slow influx of work. It’s actually been almost a week since the dreaded (by others) April 15th deadline, but it’s taken me all week to get my files tidied up and billings sent out. There were a lot of extensions this year, so combined with the ongoing onslaught of notices by the IRS, I will still be busy for months to come. I don’t know where the last week went – but a few days before the deadline I came down with pnuemonia and it’s taking me a long time to bounce back. Today is the first day I haven’t had to take any medication to get through the day, although I am sure I will have to dose up in the night if I don’t want to cough my fool head off. The herbal teas and remedies seem to be the most effective, at least in giving comfort and allowing me to sleep a few hours at a time. My herb gardens are getting a makeover this year as well as some of my flower gardens (which also turn partly into herb gardens – the rose & hibiscus & fruit teas are always a pleasure to share. The older I get, the longer it seems to take me to bounce back. I really need to get out and start walking every day and extend my treks through the woods. Besides allowing me to recoup my sanity and enjoy the springliness of everything, my endurance is shot and I’ve got to build up for my two week stint in the New Mexico mountains in July. I’m so acclimated to the flat lands here that the slightest increase in elevation will wear me down in nothing flat. So, besides my walks and canoeing, I probably should hit the stair climber too, if I can find a good gym. I’m so not looking forward to that, but I’d rather buff up a little now and sweat a little more than find myself slapped down with altitude sickness. I think I’ll procrastinate a few more days and see if I can shake off the last dregs of this bug as it still sends me into chest aching coughs even if I giggle a little.

But on to brighter things. This upcoming weekend I’ll be spending the day doing one of the things I love – teaching black powder shooting to teens. To get ready for this, I need to make a trip to the ‘toy store’, which is what I call one of our local sporting goods stores, to pick up the supplies we will need for the event. Hopefully, while I am at the shooting event, I will also have time to take some of the necessary measures, soil samples and GPS readings for my tech guide, the first review of which will be this weekend by those highly involved in the Capital Area Shooting Sports committee. And that reminds me – I need to touch up my draft and print out a few sets to pass around – eek! I should have been working on this all week last week, but it’s slipped my mind. So maybe not so much reading as I thought – this is important work with a deadline I’ve managed to ignor for a few days.

One pleasant thing I have done this past week is read. I’ve not read much the past couple of months due to working until all hours of the morning, but last week I was able to get back to reading a couple of books and writing reviews for the SCN website. One of my all time favorite authors, Nevada Barr, came out with a book the first of this month called ‘Winter Study’, which I’ll get reviewed in the next couple of days. Also, I finally got a copy of Sandi Ault’s newest release, “Wild Inferno’ which review was posted today. I can’t say enough good things about this author – she just blows me away and I eagerly await her next in the series. I’m also reading and hope to review “Rogue” by Rachel Vincent. And, if the book ever comes in, the latest Sue Henry book will also pleasurably occupy my time. The interesting theme that runs through all these books is animals. I didn’t plan it this way, they just happen to be on my current radar. Next week I’ll probably be back to reading and reviewing some memoirs, such as Carmin Bin Laden’s book and Sixty-Five Roses, but for now, I’m enjoying the breath taking outdoors vicariously with some kick ass wolves, bears, sled dogs and wereanimals and the women they gift with their presence. So much fun to read! My son and his friends have been enjoying my latest writing and the digging I’ve been doing to find some of the old stories in my old writing drawer. I have a lot of fun just reading my old stuff too and slowly some of it is leaking out into my blog in the form of short quips from old stories started many years ago. The boys mostly like the Tales of As’r, but they also love the dragon stories and Dina, the were-cat along with being some of my best critics for my memoirs of my family when I was a child living in the Middle East. I’ve too much writing to do and too little time as I must keep on working (the boring, paying type of work), so TTFN!

New Story in Progress

Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Ranger Lea Jorgensen is called in to help rescue an injured caver in a restricted cave only recently discovered during construction of a new Mega Superstore. With the injured caver in a coma and no clues to his identity, it’s up to the Lea to help the local County Sheriff find out who the caver could be and why he was there.

 

Tempers flare up between animal rights activists and building contractors over the controversy of building yet another mega store on a formerly untouched ranchland area. Neighboring ranchers don’t want the nuisance of traffic, nature lovers don’t want to lose another piece of wilderness and the builders don’t want the cost of yet another mysterious accident to delay progress on the job site. Join Ranger Lea in a harrowing rescue in the depths of the earth as nature and man battle over the wilderness.

Spring rain, earthquake & roses (April 10)

I’ve been so busy with work and now I’ve got the flu; so haven’t had time to post this past week. My first spring roses (red and yellow) bloomed yesterday, but it’s been too rainy to get a photo. Earlier this week we had an earthquake in Texas; it was measured as 3.7 and a little over 150 miles away, so we didn’t feel anything. Now, tomorrow the weather from here to Chicago is supposed to be the worst day, according to the Weather Channel, for storms, tornados, hail and winds to errupt. Spring is definitely here with a vengance. Our buck rabbit escaped (or got taken) this past weekend and tonite I got two watch two wild rabbits cavorting in the yard. They were running around and jumping straight up, kicking their feet, and running some more. It was hilarious to watch, but I suspect they or their buddies may be the cause of our little missing rabbit. He just couldn’t resist. The hummingbirds are going crazy trying to defend the different feeders, so if you walk through my front yard sometimes you have to duck as you hear a loud ZOOM past your head. My koi pond is active and the fish are practically leaping out, perhaps to get a bite of the swarm of gallinippers that are hanging around our house. Spring is full of life and activity and I love it.

First rose of spring

This is the first rose of spring in my yard, it actually bloomed two days before the picture was taken (April 10) but still a pretty flower. With our battle of deer, this bush was almost destroyed last year before we dug it up and put it inside a fenced garden – metal fences about 8-10 feet tall. NOW the deer can’t get to my rose!

Overwhelmed

I hate to say it, but it’s that time of year when I get overwhelmed with work, and of course, when I am overloaded is when people ask even MORE of me. I think one of the best quotes I ever heard was something like, “If you want something done well, ask a busy woman.”

Also, my mascot, Joe Btfsplk (of Li’l Abner fame) has decided to pay me another visit and give me pnuemonia. It may be a mixed jinx/blessing in disguise since I can’t go lay down and rest or I’ll cough myself to death, so staying upright and semi-functioning at my computer actually feels better. I sort of thought my annual tax season jinx was negated this year because I broke my hand just before Christmas; I figured it just struck early. I used to keep a picture of Joe Btfsplk on my computer for years.

But I can say business is good and growing, I have some great books to review, people want me to teach 3-4 workshops (shooting sports) in the next month, I have tons of research gathered for my technical manual which only requires site inspections to complete and the recent earthquake, tornados & wind/hail storms have not seen fit to damage any of our property yet. Yep, it’s hard to imagine in the past week we’ve had an earthquake, dozens of tornados, flooding, massive hail and straight line winds all within 100 miles or so and none got close enough to harm us. The only thing mother nature has done to us lately is to send the deer and rabbits nibbling on my newly planted flowers.

But please Joe B.; cut me some slack, OK?

Dina and the Airplane Plant

The Spider Plant (aka Airplane Plant) – chlorophytum comosum - has been said to be like a cat in a previous life. Why is that? They have nine lives and when you leave them alone for a while in the dark they fool around and make babies.

Dina’s friend Lea has an amusing tale they once shared with me. Lea is part owner of a commercial nursery and Dina helps her out from time to time when the various seasonal rushes require extra help. In addition, Dina gets referrals from Lea whenever a customer either wants some plants delivered or help in planting them.

Lea had asked Dina to help her load a truck full of potted Airplane plants that were to be delivered to the Burnet airport. They were to be part of the decorations for a welcome booth the Daughters of the American Soldiers were setting up as a shady comfortable rest area for some of the pilots. The truck was to go out the next day but would sit in the parking lot all night.

The next day, Lea waited around for Dina to show up until she couldn’t wait any longer. Getting in the truck alone, she started her journey north, which would take her a little over 30 minutes to reach her destination. A few minutes into the drive, she began hearing strange noises and thought the truck must be having some kind of engine problems. Slowly pulling to the side of the road (something you can do on Texas roads with their wide convenient shoulders), Lea stops. Listening carefully, she doesn’t hear anything, so continues on her way. Shortly after starting up again, the noise begins again, but since the truck was driving well, she decides to finish her journey and prays there is nothing serious going wrong with the truck.

Reaching the airport with no troubles, Lea quickly finds the booth that has been set up for the DOAS and parks alongside. It’s barely past dawn but plenty of people are out and about, mostly working on airplanes that will later be flying in the air show. She gets out of the truck and ducks under the tent flaps to open up the door fly so that it will be easier to haul in the potted plants. Suddenly, the noise she heard while driving starts in earnest – and is coming from the back of the truck! Rushing to the back of the truck, she flings open the door, and out leaps a large cat that rushes past her and into the tent. “What the?” she gasps. Then she starts to giggle as a sudden thought came to her. “Dina, hon, is that you?”

From the tent comes a surly voice, “What took you so long to open up the dang truck? I’ve been yelling (sounded more like yowling to Lea) all morning trying to get you to open that door!”

Now, as luck – mostly bad in this case – would have it, Dina loves airplane plants to a distraction. After they were done working and everyone had left, she went back to the truck and had propped it open with a rock, just wide enough that a small cat could sneak in if she wanted to. Later, she drove back and parked her car behind the barn, then changed to one of her smaller cat forms. This is a bit of a longer process than her normal almost panther sized shape because in transforming to a smaller mass, it takes longer to displace the extra energy. The same goes for the reverse – it’s not a quick transformation like in story tales where they go poof and are done. I’ve heard it’s not pretty either, but neither Lea nor I have ever witnessed this. Dina is pretty private about it and we are thankful.

After transforming, Dina leaped into the back of the truck and started winding her way through the lush, freshly potted plants. Soon, she was patting at the swaying leaves, then jumping and hiding from plant to plant, enjoying the feel of the fresh loam in her toes. She became so heightened in her enjoyment of playing in the plants that she accidentally knocked the rock loose that was keeping the door open. It took quite a while for the adrenaline to wear off from her high frolic, but soon she realized that she was trapped in the truck. The plants had been packed in pretty tight and what was a cozy playground for a small cat became her jail as she couldn’t find room enough to transition back to human form. In cat form she couldn’t open the door. After playing a while longer, she finally crawled under some leaves and decided to sleep on it until someone, hopefully Lea, would open the door to check on the plants before leaving for the airport.

Lea hadn’t cooperated in that respect, and after waiting for the no-show Dina (who was asleep in the back of the truck waiting for Lea), she had just jumped in and driven off. The noise Lea had been hearing was the sudden waking of the slumbering cat, then the yowling of Dina voicing her disapproval of being locked, in cat form, in the back of a moving truck.

The show went well and the DOAS didn’t really notice that some of the airplane plants were slightly tattered from an over exuberant cat. And Lea had a great story to tell about the ‘cat caught in the truck’. Most people never get to hear the full story, but since I know Dina and her shape shifting qualities, I got to laugh at the full story. And every year in April I try to find another small airplane plant to give to Dina for her collection.