Weird & Wonderful Sky

A true Sky Watch moment.  My son interrupted me and said, “What are they doing?”  I looked out our big front windows to see all our neighbors in their driveway and the road pointing their cellphones and the sky and comparing pictures.  Obviously, we dropped what we were doing and ran out to see what they were looking at.  They were looking at the sky.

It was cloudy with light, high clouds.  The sky was really unusually colored as sunset was approaching.  The western sky was a gloomy, weird yellow color.  I turned to look where my neighbors were looking and saw this . . .

and later this . . .

This is the view of the Western sky at the same time.

We live in a great neighborhood.  I love chatting with our neighbors when our world collide just right and we’re all outside at the same time.  But, this was special.  Look at that sky.  There was no rain . . . other than a couple of drops.  Thunder storms were predicted but never materialized.    Just amazing colors and beautiful rainbows.

For more amazing skies, visit SkyWatch Friday.

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Wordless Wednesday

Me and my great-grandmother, Gammy Lola

A Quick Ruby Tuesday

What could induce Ruby to get so near the dreaded swimming pool?

Ahhhh.  Her boy playing with the hose.  End of the summer fun!

A small panic-induced haitus

I am panicking just slightly at the realization that school starts in 21 days.  I’m feeling ridiculously unprepared.  I haven’t gotten anywhere near enough done this summer — my house isn’t ready, my kitchen isn’t finished, my dining room isn’t finished, my entry way is still a messy storage jumble, my school preparations are a joke.  We are going camping at the end of this week and I’m not ready for that yet.

Yup.  I’m in a panicky way.

I know that it’s not as bad as I am making it out to be.  My kitchen is very nearly finished — I really just need to finish the one strip of tile and finish putting everything away.  My dining room isn’t finished but we’ve ordered the new door and will get it around the end of this week.  Nothing I can do to speed that up.  While my house is still a disaster, it is way better than at the beginning of the summer.  I’ve completely cleaned my son’s room and will do my daughter’s this week while she’s gone.  I cleaned our bedroom from top to bottom and decluttered a LOT of junk from there.  Our entry way is still nightmarish but it’s better than it was — picking away at it slowly (too slowly! 🙂 ).  Progress is being made.

School preparations are similar.  Have I spent as much time as I wanted to at school preparing?  Nope.  Not even close.  But, I have done some organization.  I’ll spend a couple of days there this week and some time with one of my 4th grade team this week and I’ll be feeling a lot better about all that, I know.

So, thinking outloud here, I’d really like to get my living room completely clean — hey, I can get that done today.  It will probably only take me an hour or so.  I would like to get all the rest of my school stuff to school so my house is less cluttered.  Again, I can get that done today another hour, tops.  The biggest project I’d like to accomplish this week on the house is to finish the kitchen and get the entry back to a semblance of order.  I also have to clean my daughter’s room.  (See the panic building again . . . )   Okay, I’m off to make a list and get organized . . . no way around it now.  Summer is nearly over and I have to get my butt in gear.

So, don’t expect much posting.  I will try to post some pictures now and again.  I’ll still be reading blogs. And, I’m sure I’ll feel better in a short time for the focus on getting things DONE.

Happy August!

One of the reasons for my distraction

His Majesty's Dragon

In researching for a story idea, I stumbled across a reference to this book, His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik.  I ordered the book on Amazon and fell into a most fantastic story.  Imagine that dragons are real and can be tied to one person through a bond of love and trust.  Imagine that you are an English naval captain fighting the forces of Bonaparte in Regency times.  Imagine you come across a very large egg. This book has almost all the elements I adore in a book . . . historical setting, fantasy, and alternative history.  It’s fantastic.

Oh, and best of all, it’s the start to a series.  I’ve already requested book two from my library.

The only problem is that this is the sort of first novel that is most discouraging to someone setting out into the dangerous seas of writing.  So many of my favorite authors make writing look so insanely easy that it would be very easy to get discouraged.

And, I’m easy to discourage, I must say.

Still, if this sounds at all appealing, give it a try.

Another rescue

Look at this poor thing.  We were working on our dining room floor and Greg had the slider wide open.  It is about 4 feet away from my kitchen window where all my feeders are.  I was working at my computer — Greg had gotten a work-related phone call and was dealing with that.  Ruby was driving me nuts — running around the house, growling, into the kitchen, barking, etc.  All that is very un-Ruby-like behavior.  Finally it penetrated my internet-dulled mind and I investigated.  I saw this poor baby in the kitchen beating itself against the window.

Made Greg take Ruby into his office and close the door — she ignores the birds outside but damn birds do not belong in the house!

I took one picture — terrible but the poor thing was panicked and not going to pose pretty for me.  And, then I set to work.  This was not an easy rescue.  Pygmy Nuthatches are brazen, tough, and assertive little things.  This one was not going to let me get my hands on it without a fight.  Twice I got it in my hands but it slipped out and bashed itself into the window again.  Shudder.

Finally, I had it in my hands tightly enough to keep it there and lightly enough not to crush it.  I walked to the open slider, opened my hands and . . . .

it just sat there.  Poor thing.  I don’t know if it was just waiting for me to eat it or exhausted from the battle royale or simply relieved to have a warm, soft place to rest a minute.  I let it rest and finally gently wiggled my fingers and it flew off into the nearest redwood tree and proceeded to chirp indignantly at me before disappearing into the woods.

The Nuthatches were back at my feeder the next day in full force but I do wonder what its side of the story was . . .