Book and birds through day 315 of 2012 (if I remember epoch converter correctly)
I was going to start this post with what may have become my standard opening line for any sort of online activity: "I have no idea what has happened since I wrote last" but then, happily, I remembered there had been a presidential election. Woo-hoo! I remember that! Also, woo-hoo! for the results of the election in general (something I've very rarely had the opportunity of saying over 30+ years of voting). Marriage for gays was approved in three states with a fourth saying that, no, they didn't want to reverse an earlier decision allowing it. At least some of the more extreme rightwing members of the house were not re-elected though, alas, Michele Bachmann was. And, of course, Mr Obama handily (by more than 3 million votes, as well as more than 100 electoral college numbers) beat Mr. Romney about which I heave a relieved sigh. On top of everything else I just don't see how a man who couldn't even imagine losing, apparently, has the vision to be president. I mean, don't you sort of have to prepare for even those unknown unknowables as president?
Anyway. That happened this week. I wouldn't have minded if Romney had conceded a little earlier and if Obama had had a shorter victory lap; I was damned tired come Wednesday morning. (I am, however, glad I stayed up for the speeches; while he's got his shortcomings, Mr. Obama can give a fine speech on occasion; live up to the content of your speeches, Mr. President, and you'll make a fervent disciple of me.)
Most unfortunately, we had tickets to see the Seattle Shakespeare Company's Antony and Cleopatra on Wednesday night which made two late nights in a row. The play was...fine. Maybe it's just that I was tired, though it didn't seem to drag, but I wasn't as wild about A&C as I've been of other performances by the SSC. It's one of Eli's favorite Shakespeares but, for the most part, I found the characters tiresome. As I said to Eli as we were headed back to the bar (Solo, which was mighty fine and about two blocks from Seattle Center) to collect the jacket I'd left there earlier, Antony and Cleopatra were like the middle-aged Romeo and Juliet and I have no patience for those two, either. The acting was good but the material...I donno.
Today was a lovely fall day in Seattle: crisp and sunny and a Saturday. Such a conjunction can only mean end-of-the-year yard work. Wheee! Eli swapped out the storm windows while I dug up the geraniums and shifted them into the garage for the winter. Eli also sowed some grass seed and turned over some garden bed while I, conversely, mowed some grass and then planted some of the million day lilies we dug out during the Great Spring Bulb Planting a month or so ago. I picked every rose that seemed at all bloom-like and I gathered branches containing the final cherry tomatoes to hang upstairs to ripen. Now we're all cozily indoors, ready, I pretend, for winter. Just in time, really, the thin layer of water that was in the bird bath froze last night.
The roses of November
Gathered not today but a couple of weeks ago, the larger tomatoes hanging to ripen (fingers crossed) in the upstairs
More tomatoes; these are ripening (or not) in/on the lab glass collection in the kitchen window
Birds
northern flickers (the new neighbor noted that there'd been a flicker in the yard earlier this morning. It turns out that they've pestered him at his previous house so he doesn't so much care for them. I don't see us becoming best friends.)
black-capped chickadees
dark-eyed juncos
house finches
house sparrows
American goldfinches
American robins
song sparrows
pine siskins
golden-crowned sparrow
Canada geese
starlings
gulls
crows
great blue herons
belted kingfisher
Anna's hummingbirds
bushtits
Steller's jay
Book
Fortunata and Jacinta page 592 (only 274 to go!)
Anyway. That happened this week. I wouldn't have minded if Romney had conceded a little earlier and if Obama had had a shorter victory lap; I was damned tired come Wednesday morning. (I am, however, glad I stayed up for the speeches; while he's got his shortcomings, Mr. Obama can give a fine speech on occasion; live up to the content of your speeches, Mr. President, and you'll make a fervent disciple of me.)
Most unfortunately, we had tickets to see the Seattle Shakespeare Company's Antony and Cleopatra on Wednesday night which made two late nights in a row. The play was...fine. Maybe it's just that I was tired, though it didn't seem to drag, but I wasn't as wild about A&C as I've been of other performances by the SSC. It's one of Eli's favorite Shakespeares but, for the most part, I found the characters tiresome. As I said to Eli as we were headed back to the bar (Solo, which was mighty fine and about two blocks from Seattle Center) to collect the jacket I'd left there earlier, Antony and Cleopatra were like the middle-aged Romeo and Juliet and I have no patience for those two, either. The acting was good but the material...I donno.
Today was a lovely fall day in Seattle: crisp and sunny and a Saturday. Such a conjunction can only mean end-of-the-year yard work. Wheee! Eli swapped out the storm windows while I dug up the geraniums and shifted them into the garage for the winter. Eli also sowed some grass seed and turned over some garden bed while I, conversely, mowed some grass and then planted some of the million day lilies we dug out during the Great Spring Bulb Planting a month or so ago. I picked every rose that seemed at all bloom-like and I gathered branches containing the final cherry tomatoes to hang upstairs to ripen. Now we're all cozily indoors, ready, I pretend, for winter. Just in time, really, the thin layer of water that was in the bird bath froze last night.
The roses of November
Gathered not today but a couple of weeks ago, the larger tomatoes hanging to ripen (fingers crossed) in the upstairs
More tomatoes; these are ripening (or not) in/on the lab glass collection in the kitchen window
Birds
northern flickers (the new neighbor noted that there'd been a flicker in the yard earlier this morning. It turns out that they've pestered him at his previous house so he doesn't so much care for them. I don't see us becoming best friends.)
black-capped chickadees
dark-eyed juncos
house finches
house sparrows
American goldfinches
American robins
song sparrows
pine siskins
golden-crowned sparrow
Canada geese
starlings
gulls
crows
great blue herons
belted kingfisher
Anna's hummingbirds
bushtits
Steller's jay
Book
Fortunata and Jacinta page 592 (only 274 to go!)