That's Sif! Tazendra's "sister" we got to be a friend for her when they were both kittens. I've talked about her but I don't post pictures of her much, because mostly all she does is sleep. (She's fifteen, cut the girl a break!) She is also really difficult to photograph, because when she's not sleeping, she's slinking and hiding.
She's very cute and very goofy and very sweet, and now she is very old.
I like spring, when we actually have it, which we often don't. Certainly not this year. We didn't even have a winter. Normally it's cool and sunny for a couple of weeks, then cool and rainy for a couple three weeks, and mild for a few weeks after that, and then it's summer, but for those few weeks, it can be really nice. Allergies are noxious, but that's more or less a year-round thing here. Because we don't have much in the way of spring most years, the plants just kind of do what they want to do when they want to do it, so most stuff doesn't bloom at the same time, meaning there's not much to look at most of the time. This is a really useless part of the country if you like weather other than blasting heat with a side of occasional sleet.
We get lots of mockingbirds and blue jays and robins in the spring, and this is the first neighborhood I've been in that didn't have loads of mourning doves, which are sweet little birds albeit very stupid. There's the obligatory LBBs, of course (little brown birds), year-round but I've never been enough of a birder to tell the differences between them. They are all "sparrows" to me, and they come in swarms. We also have grackles and starlings, and cardinals are usually around somewhere -- easier to see in the winter. And we have lots of crows and red-tailed hawks! Swallows nest under overpasses, and we used to have purple martins at my parents' house. I'd say that 99% of the birds I see are those birds, but I've seen flickers and woodpeckers and other sorts. I saw a tanager once, which was pretty cool. I am not generally a bird person, so most of what I know comes from "OMG MANDY LOOK WHAT YOUR CAT JUST KILLED." Because my mom WAS a bird person. And so were most of my cats. *snerk*
This was so interesting. Thank you for taking the time to write it all out! Somehow I had it in my head that although you have African summers and arctic winters, spring and fall were gorgeous. Kind of like the Northwest, where on those days that it's not pouring down rain, it's glorious.
Someday I am going to cross the Rockies so I can see a cardinal. You all probably take them for granted, except maybe in winter!
I looooooove cardinals! :D Other people may take them for granted, but I never do. We had a holly tree (not a bush, a TREE, the thing was as big around as my leg and taller than the house) outside our house when I was a kid, and it attracted cardinals. They're territorial little things, but we had a couple pairs that would visit. They're my possibly-favorite native bird in terms of how pretty they are (the other being the blue jay, which is a GORGEOUS bird, even if they are noisy as fuck).
There's days -- isolated days -- where the spring weather is unspeakably lovely, but it's not a given thing. Now, FALL is BEAUTIFUL, because it doesn't come with the storms, and you tend to get more of those nice days together. From mid-September to early November is just wonderful. There's a couple of weeks where the trees are all turning where it's just gorgeous. We live in a really woodsy area, and Tulsa is overall a really tree-y city (when you fly over in an airplane, it's surprising that large chunks of land inside the city look like parkland, even though they are residential) so autumn can be really beautiful here.
Pics:
www.flickr.com/photos/naamah_darling/sets/72157603620762796/with/6924598426/
She's very cute and very goofy and very sweet, and now she is very old.
I like spring, when we actually have it, which we often don't. Certainly not this year. We didn't even have a winter. Normally it's cool and sunny for a couple of weeks, then cool and rainy for a couple three weeks, and mild for a few weeks after that, and then it's summer, but for those few weeks, it can be really nice. Allergies are noxious, but that's more or less a year-round thing here. Because we don't have much in the way of spring most years, the plants just kind of do what they want to do when they want to do it, so most stuff doesn't bloom at the same time, meaning there's not much to look at most of the time. This is a really useless part of the country if you like weather other than blasting heat with a side of occasional sleet.
We get lots of mockingbirds and blue jays and robins in the spring, and this is the first neighborhood I've been in that didn't have loads of mourning doves, which are sweet little birds albeit very stupid. There's the obligatory LBBs, of course (little brown birds), year-round but I've never been enough of a birder to tell the differences between them. They are all "sparrows" to me, and they come in swarms. We also have grackles and starlings, and cardinals are usually around somewhere -- easier to see in the winter. And we have lots of crows and red-tailed hawks! Swallows nest under overpasses, and we used to have purple martins at my parents' house. I'd say that 99% of the birds I see are those birds, but I've seen flickers and woodpeckers and other sorts. I saw a tanager once, which was pretty cool. I am not generally a bird person, so most of what I know comes from "OMG MANDY LOOK WHAT YOUR CAT JUST KILLED." Because my mom WAS a bird person. And so were most of my cats. *snerk*
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This was so interesting. Thank you for taking the time to write it all out! Somehow I had it in my head that although you have African summers and arctic winters, spring and fall were gorgeous. Kind of like the Northwest, where on those days that it's not pouring down rain, it's glorious.
Someday I am going to cross the Rockies so I can see a cardinal. You all probably take them for granted, except maybe in winter!
Reply
There's days -- isolated days -- where the spring weather is unspeakably lovely, but it's not a given thing. Now, FALL is BEAUTIFUL, because it doesn't come with the storms, and you tend to get more of those nice days together. From mid-September to early November is just wonderful. There's a couple of weeks where the trees are all turning where it's just gorgeous. We live in a really woodsy area, and Tulsa is overall a really tree-y city (when you fly over in an airplane, it's surprising that large chunks of land inside the city look like parkland, even though they are residential) so autumn can be really beautiful here.
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