Last thursday morning, as I sat eating my breakfast, my attention was captured by a covey of California quail, complete with their identifiable topknots, as they scurried across my morning view. I wondered where they had spent the night and where they were headed for the day.
It was a bit like the evening a week or so ago when after Mark et al had been waiting for the Victorian era street lights to come on (they didn’t come on for another hour) and the family finally gave up and left. Within minutes I saw a trio of deer move in through the seldom used entrance into the RV park and begin to nosh on the newly green area across the street from me.
The aspens are bursting with colour and evenings lately have been full of the sounds of migrating ducks and geese.
And during one of last week’s rainy days a group-flock-family (?) of Juncos kept me entertained by flying in and out of the butterfly bush outside my genealogy office window … talking a lot, sometimes seeming to scold.
The bush is badly overgrown due to a couple of years of non-care. I’ve been pruning it back slowly.
The Juncos made me wonder if I should leave some of the bush as a place for them to nest? I know I can’t set out a feeder for them since that would attract the bear who shares this area after dusk. S/he was last seen close when s/he showed up to check out what was happening as the neighbors who maintain the community garden began closing it down for the winter … rototilling etc. Wish I could have been there and taken a picture.
Quail and deer and juncos and bears … oh my …
What an exciting place to live.
~~~
And speaking of rain … there were a series of days over the weekend during which rain reigned. There was even one afternoon when I saw a lightning flash (but not the actual strike) and heard the thunder. It was only one strike however, not the thunder storm the weather report predicted.
~~~
One problem involved in moving was solved last friday morning.
While unpacking storage bins I kept coming across fabric projects in various stages which I had started but not finished before George’s decline when my time was commandeered for other occupations. So far there are several packing boxes of fabric and some tools.
I had been awakened several times during the anxiety hour of the morning (around 0300 … anyone else awake at that time?) wondering what was going to happen with it.
Then I remembered a spinner named Nancy and thought “spinners are also quilters or at least know quilters” so, on a hunch, I called her. I couldn’t stand the thought of destroying all that good stuff and if-and-when I resume crafting, I’ll just get new stuff.
Nancy seemed pleased with the offer and said her quilting guild would know what to do with all that stuff. Once I finally have it sorted and packed in moving boxes, she will organize the quilters she knows and someone will come collect it all.
Problem solved (no trip to the dump) and sleep restored … although the sorting speed was sped up which is probably a good thing.
~~~
Something that has been occupying the news for the last few days has been the shooting of a production member on the set of a movie being filmed in New Mexico. Lots of fingers are being pointed.
However, some things I learned when I was just a kid being taught how to handle a gun came to mind. My Daddy had some non-debatable rules …
Always know where all the ammunition is, i.e. how much of what kind and where.
Always check a weapon when you pick it up whether to hand to someone or if it is handed to you.
Never … repeat NEVER aim a weapon at something (or someone) you do not intend to hit or kill.
It would seem there was enough carelessness that day to share around …
~~~
Another new adventure I am facing is learning how to use the internet for things which, in the past, always required my actual presence such as obtaining meds (when needed) and supplements such as Vitamins.
That made me think of the report I heard about folks who had moved into the Sears Tower in Chicago, which had been designed to provide everything needed (schools, parks, gyms, stores, medical care, etc.), and have actually never been outside the tower since they moved in. I’m not sure how much truth there is/was in that report (it would seem to require an enormous number of service folks both live-ins and imported outsiders for specific purposes such as teachers, repair people, etc.) but as every year goes by it seems less and less fanciful and more and more possible as the number of introverts-by-choice seems to be increasing.
When I once again gain the ability (and nerve) to drive, I think a trip to gather the mail and do some grocery shopping for fresh stuff two or three times a week will become part of life’s routine. Maybe even an occasional trip around the Mountain to Mt Shasta for bran muffins …
~~~
Can what you are currently experiencing be seen as a trial or possibly a test? If so, for what position or upcoming situation are you being tested … or … for what are you on trial?
How can you tell the difference?
Does it matter?
How are you managing?
None of us are immune to life’s challenges. How we move through them is what defines us.
So … ‘til next week …