This afternoon I kept hearing a knocking on the wall that sounded like a woodpecker. I snuck around the outside of the house and caught a grainy shot of the varmit by sticking my camera around the corner.
He flew away, but I’m sure will be back. My mom’s house already has several scars from this guy and he’s working on a new one.
Maybe I’ll spray some hot pepper on the wood up there… don’t know if that will deter him though.
It’s been raining all week. This bird is obviously a fair-weather woodpecker because he prefers to do his work under the eaves where it’s dry.
But first… this is a poster that I assume one of my younger sisters put up in their room, which used to be my room, oh so many years ago, which is the room i’m staying in while visiting my mom.
There’s a 12″x12″ mirror tile on the closet door. A little too low to see in without hunching over. My older sister and I, when we shared this room in the 70’s, etched our names in the mirror with one of those diamond-tipped “pens.” They’re still there.
Funny.
I like this part of Browning’s poem: “…I love thee with breadth, smiles, tears, of all my life!” And I especially like the exclamation point 🙂
I got to catch an indoor soccer match that my niece and nephew were playing in today. Soccer is quite popular in these parts and they start them young – this is a league for 6-8 year old girls and boys. My niece is playing goalie here, and my nephew is getting ready to kick the ball.
I was not able to get a non-blurry shot with my little point and shoot camera. So, this is a frame from a video I shot instead.
I’m enroute to Seattle. I’m going to work from there for a couple weeks, while getting a chance to visit with my mom. My window on the plane was dirty, and the sun was setting, so this isn’t a very remarkable shot but it was pretty to see from the plane.
As I was looking out at the clouds, Joni Mitchell’s song “Both Sides Now” popped into my head:
Rows and flows of angel hair And ice cream castles in the air And feather canyons everywhere I’ve looked at clouds * that way
But now they only block the sun They rain and snow on everyone So many things I would have done But clouds got in my way I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow It’s cloud illusions I recall I really don’t know clouds at all….
If you, too, would like to have this stuck song in your head, just take a listen here.
Alaska Airlines has in-flight entertainment in the form of a small, portable DVR pre-recorded with a bunch of movies that you can watch at your seat. I watched Black Swan (very weird) and then watched part of a movie called Hereafter. I didn’t get to finish it, but I’m mentioning it because the opening scene is of a tsunami hitting a small resort town from the perspective of one of the main characters. She gets swept up into the raging waters. WOW. Very powerful scene to watch given the very recent Japan tsunami. Anyway, i’ll have to make sure to catch the rest of that one on my way home. It looked good.
These guys are going gangbusters! I wonder if that little 3rd flower will open up as well? You can see another bud has started to open on the top right of this frame, and another one is on its way, too, at the bottom center of the frame.
The amaryllis I planted 4 weeks ago now has about 5 buds on it. one of them has burst and now the flower is starting to grow out of the bud. You can see the slightest hint of red start to show as it opens. I know these will be bright red since this is the 2nd year they will be blooming. Can’t wait to see them fully open.
For the first time I can recall, at 9 AM in the morning, Monte and I were the only ones up. That was SOME party last night.
Eventually heads started popping up on deck.
We had a great day, just chilling out. The water is still too cold for swimming, but everyone was more than happy to sit around visiting with eachother.
As late afternoon rolled around, everyone reluctantly started peeling off to head home.
We had another great sail on the way home. We didn’t have to tack once on the trip from Bee Creek back to the marina. Very nice.
Oh, and today is the first day of Spring!!!!! yeah!
Big weekend. Lori & Dave invited us to stay on Camelot for the first Full-Moon raftup of the year. The winds were nice today. We had a great sail down to Bee Creek, and then joined 7 other boats — Pat & Dave on Va Bene, Sara & Mark on Seranade, Robert & Tasha on Voodoo, Bay & Donna on Red Sky, Rory & Greg and 2 of their friends on Sapphire, Joe on Prelude, and Teri, Jim & Kathy on Island Time.
We brought B-duck, of course. This mallard got a little territorial and started attacking. Crazy duck.
Tonight was, of course, a full moon – the full worm moon. But it is also the closest full moon to the earth in about 20 years, so it has been dubbed a Supermoon. I tried to get a photo of it, but all I captured was a bright circle of light… I couldn’t get any detail on the surface, it was too bright. It was pretty to see in person, though.
As usual, a good time was had by all as the night slipped away.
There are some colorful signs of Spring in Central Texas that I really look forward to. One is the indescribable pink blooms that cover the branches of the Red Bud trees. And another are the fragrant purple clusters of the Texas Mountain Laurels.
This is a shot of one of the mountain laurels in our back yard. I took it this morning as the sun was coming up over the house. The light was not great but I couldn’t resist.
Pretty soon the bees will be buzzing about.
Oh yes, and today is FRIDAY! We’ll be rafting up with friends this weekend on our first raftup of the year. Yay!
Sheila365 