Brian comes over to my mom’s on Fridays a couple times a month to watch movies with her. Today he brought his 5 year old teacup pomeranian, Chip. She’s just recently been groomed for summer but she’s still so tiny! I could stop calling her “kitty.” 🙂
Today’s movies were quite the mix of genre: 300, Goodnight & Good Luck, and the first two episodes of the John Adams series. I could not keep up.
Oh, and IT’S FRIDAY!!!
We spent the night on the boat last night. Got up this morning and headed out for a sail. We had a great day – sailed up to Windy Point and back. Back at the marina we grabbed a bite to eat at Shades and watched the end of the Masters. Then on to Iguana Grill to watch our friend Wiz and his band play.
As I was sitting listening to the music I saw a tiny hummingbird hit a beam and fall down right next to me. I think he flew in the open window on his way home and hit the beam.
For all the times I’ve hunkered in the kitchen in front of the window where the hummingbird feeder hangs trying to get a stealth shot – it was really amazing to see one up close.
I didn’t know if he was dead or just stunned. So I picked him up. His eyes were open and he was breathing really hard. He was so tiny! I held him for 5 minutes or so. I brought him over to Monte for him to see. He held him in his hands for a few more minutes. Then, after his head cleared, he stood up, flew into the air… chirped a “thank-you” and flew home.
I found myself taking 2 pictures today. After looking at them, they had something in common- both pictures of birds… so to speak.
First one taken while on a walk after work.
Second one right before dinner – Monte’s latest technique for grilling chicken … posed by me 🙂 Brined grilled chicken cooked with applewood chips. Yummy!
Keeto discovers FaceTime. Hippest bird in the hood.
Was up all night. Again. Got a few hours break until another all night session tonight on this work thing. So, I finally made it to the gym to work off some stress. Caught this cardinal giving me the goose eye.
We rafted up tonight with Kurt & Wally, on Zen, and Rory & Greg on Sapphire. We were all anchored up before sunset. So we amused ourselves by feeding the seagulls that were flying around the cove. These birds must be migratory, because they are not here when the weather warms up.
Well, we started with one or two flying around. Kurt was tossing them pieces of bread. Before long it was starting to look like a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
This is one of the shots I captured as they were swooping down to pick up the tidbits.
We took friends out for a sail today. Chris was visiting Irene for the weekend, and after a lovely breakfast in Central Austin we headed to the marina. Irene took the helm for most of the sail and did great. The winds were light so we were able to set up the cockpit table with nibblies for the voyage while we were underway.
Lori and Dave came out, too, on Camelot. And we crossed paths with Wally and Kurt on Zen on our way back.
The day was overcast, and a front was on its way, but it was a really nice day on the lake.
Back at the marina we saw a bunch of our slip neighbors. Wally, Kurt, Lori and Dave joined us for a cocktail. Then we packed it up before the front dropped in.
Our resident ducks stopped by to say hello. They’re all grown up now.
My meetings this week have been running from early AM to late PM. It’s tiring. I took a break today at lunch to walk around outside. These geese are only about half of those that were hanging out in the lake on the property. Before I walked up, they were pointing in all different directions. By the time I got up close to take a few shots, they were all lined up, staring at me, giving me…. the goose-eye. 🙂
As the temps linger in the 30s in our neck of the woods, my thoughts have turned to the beach. I’ve been looking for the sea glass that I brought home from our Abacos trip a couple of years ago. But, I haven’t been able to find it yet. I’ll keep digging. I have found other treasures collected while beachcombing shorelines along the west coast, the gulf coast, the east coast, and the Caribbean. So pretty. And they each bring back memories.
This is a baby sand dollar, or some urchin relative. Collected from the east coast of Florida — many moons ago.
Sand dollars are one of my favorite beach finds. Very rare (for me). Not only are they hard to find, but once found are also hard to take home intact.
I can’t wait to go beachcombing again…
Went for a bike ride around the neighborhood today. There are a handful of pecan trees nearby that are on common grounds in the neighborhood. We stopped by to gather a bunch of pecans that had fallen. We have several pecan trees in our own backyard, but they don’t bear much fruit – at least not any of the years we have lived here. So it’s nice to find a few that we can harvest from nearby. They are very sweet this year.
Julie and I rented a movie from a nearby RedBox last night – The Amazing Spiderman. It was a good flick. Stop number 2 on the bike ride today was the RedBox to drop the movie off. Then we rode to Academy to see what we could see. Then we stopped by the local pet store to check out the birdies. This is one of two very friendly macaws that live there.
Over 2 years ago I posted a picture of the catboat wind thingie that monte made me (here’s the original post). It had sails made out of ripstop nylon which I had sewn and installed on each little boat. It worked great, and I LOVED it. As the wind blew, the boats started turning and the sails tacked and jibed as they went around.
Then last summer, I posted a picture of it after it had been attacked by squirrels (here’s that post). One of them went nutso in the heat of the summer and ripped up the sails. And just like that my catboat wind thingie was out of service.
Til today! Monte made new sails out of copper sheets, and fastened them to the mast with copper bands and replaced the string mainsheets with little pieces of metal chain.
It’ll take a stiffer breeze to make it go round, but it’s back! I love the new, improved version.
Take that, varmits!
I went outside this afternoon between meetings and was greeted by a bevy of butterflies flitting around the lantana. I snapped this shot quickly. Bear with me, as it’s a bit fuzzy. I had to zoom in and tweak it a bit. My online butterfly identification guide tells me it’s a female Monarch butterfly. You go, girl!
It’s Tuesday already. Almost halfway to the weekend! The picture above is of Monte’s latest project… a homemade sundial. I think this is a prototype. But it seems to work pretty well. He’s aligned the center of the dial with magnetic North using a compass. Some adjustments will be necessary. Stayed tuned.
The zinnia patch has flower stalks that are over 4′ tall. We’re still harvesting them. This is today’s selection.
And, last one, this is a shot of 2/3’s of the flock as we settle in for the evening.
G’nite!
I cast my fishing pole several times. But this is the closest i got to a bite today.
Sheila365 