More thoughts in the time of COVID-19 …
NOAA had advised heavy winds last week and as a result there were power blackouts in our area due to power company fears, but not too much wind. I think climate change has the weather predictors as confused as are the local flora and fauna.
Smoke is still around periodically and scattered. But if you want to know what the air is like, whether you should worry or not, just blow your nose. If your snot is dirty …
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Chicken time is moving more rapidly than in the past. Or so it seems. 6:45 to 7:00 in both the morning and the evening. I am trying to remember the extremes of mid-winter. Around 8:30 and 5:30, I think.
We have a broody hen. One of the reds has taken over a nest. She’s been there for about a week. She doesn’t fight when I reach under her to gather the eggs. But she doesn’t leave the nest either.
I can’t remember how Daddy used to break a brood cycle. This family decided we should just put a clutch of plastic Easter eggs under her and let the urge run its course.
The other chicken news is that saturday evening, when I went out to water, feed, and close them in for the night, one of the whites was stumbling around with a twig about two feet long tied to one of her feet. The string was pretty secure, and there was string around her other foot as well. I held her and tried to cut the string off with my penknife, but the string was too tough and the position too awkward. So I called Mark to come and bring sharp scissors, and although it took about five minutes, we got both feet free. I’m not sure how string got fastened around the twig (small branch?) and then around both of her feet. Or how it stayed secured to just one foot. But the result was satisfactory and she is again walking naturally. The only harm was to my right wrist. Once, during the procedure, her wing got away from me and she got me with her wing claw. Just a small puncture. So over all, it was an uneventful event.
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I had gotten in the habit of checking NOAA’s enhanced radar post every morning to see what the weather had in store for this area. It was always easy to find us because there was always a dot of moisture (clouds?) over the summit of Mt Shasta to the east of us.
Lately, with all the smoke from the fires, I guess the radar got confused (along with flora, fauna, and weather predictors). Maybe the smoke looks the same as clouds from up there in satellite orbit and, since smoke has been covering the majority of the northern state, the Mountain is no longer distinguishable. No more identifying small dot.
Oh well …
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Dame Diana Rigg died last week. She was in her 80s, still going strong in spite of …
Back in the days when she was Emma Peel to Patrick McNee’s Steed, I was captivated. I had always felt a bit awkward and never pretty. I was too tall, brunet, and too smart when small, cute, blonde, and not overly bright was the thing to be. But there was Mrs. Peel … tall, brunet, and smart.
I was envious.
Dame Diana had become a bit stooped and her face was lined. But her eyes still twinkled and flowed with what she was thinking. She was described as bossy and funny and raunchy.
I am still envious.
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Wind and chill this morning.
I recently agreed to participate in a challenge to write a poem everyday for two weeks. It has been a challenge. There is only today and tomorrow to go.
It has been sort of fun. I’ve experimented with forms. But several times a subject has been the challenge. On a day when I’m feeling a bit blue I had to choose whether to express the feeling or look for something upbeat about which I could (should) be happy. Happy usually won. Why make someone else’s day difficult?
Here’s the one I think may be the best of the clutch … and forgive that the form isn’t correct. I don’t seem to be able to make “My Drive” cooperate.
The first of autumn’s red leaves
Have hit the ground,
Rubies among the dry grasses
And gravel.
The sunrise is now due east.
Mornings are chilly.
Deer visit regularly, foraging.
The autumn tablecloths have come out of storage.
Another year nearly gone.
Soon the individual red leaves
Will be a solid red carpet.
Winter is only weeks away.
… or maybe the funniest …
A bellyache
A bellyache
I woke up with
A bellyache
A bellyrub
A bellyrub
I cured it with
A bellyrub
Home remedy
Home remedy
Quite simply a
Home remedy
~~~
And another death. The Notorious RBG died. I had not admired her in the way I admired Dame Diana. But I did and do admire Judge Ginsburg. Intelligent and spirited.
When I heard the announcement of her death, I was on my way to a meeting. I arrived a bit shaken.
What this means for the future of Justice in this country …
This from Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451 –
We need not be left alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?
So … ‘til next week …