BTW

The Lovebirds... Again

This is what occupies my heart these days -- the African lovebirds are back for real.  The flock has grown quite a bit.  The most I've counted at our feeders is 25 at one time.  And they were mostly the greens and blues.  Adding Yellow bird's family to that would make it about 30 birds.  Maybe more.

I recently found a wild bird forum where I read these birds referred to as "feral lovebirds".  Heh.  I always thought of feral as worse than wild.  Snarling beasty.  But I guess it just means wild... no longer pets.  I can't imagine how anybody could have the heart to cage these beautiful birds.  They're so amazing to wake up to - the tree is right outside my bedroom window and they squawk and talk to each other in the most horrible amazing racket. :)

A few pics here, more on Flickr.

This one was a surprise!  One little parakeet is surviving on his own.  He does seem to like to hang around with these two blues.  Click for larger views of these pics.

Evidence that they're breeding and not just gathering stray birds?  There are 2 (maybe 3) new birds this year that are green and yellow mottled:

Motherlove

Mother love is not limited to humans.

and it's not limited to species

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

More Mystery Flowers

Wassisdat?

Poppies?

I keep thinking this must be the last of the wildflower bloomage, especially since we're probably going to hit 100 tomorrow.  But as some of the flowers die back, new ones keep popping up.  The most recent is this batch of poppies (I think that's what they are), and this little blue fellow:

Bird Brain

I've had birds on the brain lately. 

I was so upset about the Eagle cam going offline, and then I couldn't find out what happened or why and I got so frustrated!  I nearly bashed my monitor.  I don't know what it is about animals.  There is an opening in my heart for the animals that seems to have no protective barrier.  I had to stay away from the eagle cam for a few days, so I didn't see that there was a new Eagle Cam nest with two fuzzy baby eaglets! 

It's such a salve to the wound, a balm to the soul, to see the little fuzzy chicklets and their momma (dad?).

Watching the eagles reminded me of a movie I had seen a long time ago with Jeff Daniels in it, about a guy and his daughter flying south with a flock of canadian geese.  I remember feeling SO GOOD after watching that movie.  So I got online and bought the DVD - Fly Away Home. 

Come to find out, I bought the special edition, and it's got extra features (!!) about the real guy, the actual real guy Bill Lishman and his family and friends and cohorts and what they actually did that inspired the making of the movie.  If you're going to get this movie, be sure to get the special edition.  The movie itself warmed my heart, made me cry, gave me hope.  But it's TEN times better to know that it's not just a nice story.  Somebody out there is really doing this stuff, is really working hard for the survival of some species on our planet, and is thinking in terms of THEIR needs, not just industry, power, or profit and loss. 

If you want to know more, the website about Bill Lishman and Operation Migration is here:
http://www.operationmigration.org/

It gives me hope in humankind.

Security ... Pants?

This funny quirk started when he was a puppy... whenever somebody comes over or we come home, Zach has to grab something for security and he runs around with it in his mouth.  It's usually one of dad's socks, or a shirt, and sometimes, embarassingly, underwear.  Now he usually goes for something big.  The more he can fit in his mouth, the happier he is.  This is actually 2 pairs of socks, one pair of underwear, and dad's sweatpants, all rolled up into a ball and stuffed in his mouth.

More Flollies

This blue fellow popped up in my flower bed the other day.  A pink version came up yesterday.  I have no idea what they are.  This is not a touched up photo, the blue really is that vivid.  And these are so tall, when I focus my little digital camera on the bloom, it ends up looking like it's floating in space.

Most of these flowers I'm sharing here are quite small.  This is what you see if you step back a bit.

The first rose, and it does smell so sweet!

Menses Humor

Need a laugh wymyns?  This post from BeanCounters cracked me up:  Starting with a link to the oldoldOLD Disney school-film version of The Story of Menstruation.  Lord, was life ever really like a Disney movie?  I loved their revised version! 

Eagle Cam

This is the coolest thing - a webcam set up to watch a momma eagle on her nest.  When the eggs hatch, oh boy, this will be so great to watch.  Thanks to my friend Phee for this link: http://www.infotecbusinesssystems.com/index.asp?op=company.videoUpdate.

UPDATE: The eagle cam has moved!  Thanks to Nancy for the new link.

I love animal cams.  I like to check in on the panda cams ...

• San Diego Zoo's Panda Watch - I visited the San Diego Zoo many many years ago when they had their very first panda exhibit.  They've also got an Ape Cam, a Polar Bear Cam and an Elephant Cam.
• Smithsonian National Park's Panda Cam - scroll down on the page to see the panda cam.

It's hard to see animals in a zoo environment.  The wild cams are the best.  But I love seeing the animals anyway.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Hmmm, maybe that should be "the light at the top of the hill" or some other analogy that implies continuation.  The end of the tunnel sounds like ... it's all over, it's all better, we're out of the darkness now forever and ever amen.  And I know that's not true.  I will go into darkness again.  Up and down and up and down, but hopefully each time becoming less and less dark as I cry and heal and bring light to my darkness.

Anyway, for the moment, I'm coming back up.  I'm rising.  I'm cresting the hill, I'm feeling the sun on my brittle bones, reviving me. 

It's hard to see one's own up and down -- forest / trees, etc.   The biggest sign to me that I'm UP again is that I feel like talking.  I want to share my questionable wisdom, I want to blah blah blah, and I need a venue, many venues, ears to hear me, places to speak, share, write. 

When I'm sunk in the pit, it's so hard to even find the energy to breathe, let alone speak. 

I've basically LOST the last few months to darkness.  My other blog has kept me going.  I've had one pinky finger hanging on there, clinging to it like a tether to the light, something to keep my attention from going completely dark.  The need to find something to post kept me occupied outside myself for at least a few minutes every day, and that was a very very good thing.  And I realize it had to be something like coffee/tea, it couldn't be about myself because when I'm dark, feeling valueless makes it hard to talk about myself.  Pretty hard to believe, I know, but that's why I haven't been posting here much.  What could I possibly have to say that's of value? Well, and of course nothing was able to penetrate the darkness to feed my soul, so it seemed pointless to post here.

I'm coming up out of that now, for a time.  October to March, is that 6 months?  Have I really been dark for 6 months?  Well, I guess it's better ... it's getting better.  The year after mom died was truly a black hole.  I lost that entire year. 

When I say "lost", I don't mean I went to bed and never got up.  Heh, well, some days were like that.  But most days I had to get up.  I had dogs to feed, and bills to pay.  And as much as I wanted to just lie down and die, I couldn't.  But I functioned on auto-pilot.  I was a robot, with very little awareness of what was going on around me. 

I feel pretty good this morning.  And it looks like rain.  That makes it a truly WONDERFUL morning.  :)

Wild Flollies

I'm grateful for a yard, and for flowers, for this time of year when things actually bloom and smell wonderful.  This is one of the few things that can usually draw me out of my darkness.  Flowers feed my soul.  I just wanted to share some of the stuff that's growing right now.

The first bloom on my pink jasmine:

Some mysterious wild flowers.  Anybody know what these are?