May 14, 2011 by Naomi.

Sixty folks came to the McNary Ed Center to count birds and about seventy species were recorded. The day began with rain as I drove toward Pasco this morning but that did not deter the birds nor the birders, it seemed. I will have to go on ebird to see just how many were sited. Audubon members attended which practically demanded that none were missed. Some birders saw their first ever Lazuli bunting. Quite a thrill. Many goldfinches, red-winged blackbirds, and starlings were counted. Several yellow headed blackbirds and mallards were there also. Our osprey were minding their eggs – we are watching with bated breath for young to hatch the third year for that pair. Rain did not persist and the temperature warmed up to eighty giving us all a marvelous day. I did the lucky duck game but that shouldn’t have warn out my feet but as I sit here I feel like I walked for miles. Hips too. I am too tired to eat and it is too early to go to bed. I can handle a full night’s sleep which will most likely start soon.

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May 13, 2011 by Naomi.

The more I do the more I can. Coffee to get a jump start. I had oatmeal and toast with cinnamon and honey. I puttered around with the leaves I am drying for a botany record of the yard. After I figured other folks were up and around I plugging in the weed eater and mowed the driveway. No hope of keeping the crushed rock clean so I will encourage it to go to sod. I don’t think it will take long. Raking the 2 foot long grass I mowed was a sweaty job. The electric cord didn’t take my “mower” all the way across the front lawn so there is more left for another day. I will have a green waste can full this week. I got a new book about smoke jumpers - “Chasing Fire” by Nora Roberts and that will be my after dark reading. It’s the subject I’ve been reading about by Nicholas Evans who is a different type author. So I will see how that goes. A beautiful sunny day although the breeze kept my clothes on. I went the the Tri-city Democrat meeting tonight with a speaker about voting rights. Home by nine under bright moonlight. Washed and hung out socks. Probably won’t be dry to wear to the Second Saturday event tomorrow but I think I have a spare pair. I will search for the article Nancy wanted about time – 365 days – but I looked fruitlessly this morning so I think it was lost when I left Verizon for gmail. I want to do the NaNoWriMo – the full novel in a month. Not that I will enter the contest but it will be an incentive to write on a novel I started about friction and found love on a chipped trail.

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May 12, 2011 by Naomi.

To get much accomplished weed pulling I have to work at that first thing in the morning. I started on the driveway where I had to use the shovel to loosen the crushed rock before I could rake the weeds away. I was dreaming when I thought I could go in like raking garden soil. I wore out quickly but managed to pull a few square feet of cheat grass. I only need to shake off the loose dirt so the work is not difficult. I sweat real quick this morning in the wonderful summer sun. In the hottest hours I come in and sort my stamps for a while. I need more divider sheets with twenty slots so I can put the single stamps in order of Scott’s numbering system. I snipped leaves off my trees and bushes to press in a botanical album. The veins are so vivid – real works of art. The temperature was warm enough as I worked but I got chilled just the same. My cold sores are drying up and so far no more are tingling in my lips. My ears are plugged but I do get relief when I do my Jillian workout. The grass around the shop was about eighteen inches I think as I waded through it with my weed eater. I could feed a goat. Well for a day at least. The ten spruce (12-inch twigs but very well rooted) I got from the Arbor Day Foundation are showing little new shoots and will have to be watered often. And then will I have a more beautiful back yard. It took fifteen years for Ashton’s Charley Brown spruce to get 8-feet tall so I have to hang around a long time to see these little spruce make a good showing.

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May 7, 2011 by Naomi.

My eyes narrow. My mouth gaps. My ears perk up. There is a blog swirling around in the synapses, stuck there as if bonded in molasses. When I pick up a noun in the mess I will be in business. I can think of sweeter things but none come to the surface so I flounder around like a fish out of water, or rather my thoughts do. Today has been lovely as far as weather goes but I will not blog sunshine. The wind tossed the English walnut leaves as if they were dancing. But I will not blog wind. Clouds sail across the blue above. I could blog clouds. They change shapes and I could find a story there. I googled earth and visited landscapes nearly forgotten. So what I am really doing is hunting up a destination. A place to go. I only got home two days ago and am ready to be on my way again. I think it is because the grass has grown up in my driveway. Weeds have matured in my flower beds. Typing on this machine will not eliminate those invaders. Nor do I have a stun gun with which to attack. So, OK, I will get down and dirty and pull those rascals. Not blog. Just destroy. I will wait until daylight to get down and get loose and pull.

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May 5, 2011 by Naomi.

There was really not a lot of “stuff” that had to be done and I decided I would not volunteer at the Refuge. I had recuperated from the five hour drive back from Mike and June’s yesterday and I thought I should accomplish something. There was a nice breeze so I washed blouses, underwear and socks and hung them on the line. I had no milk for my coffee and for the first cup I made do with the non-fat dry milk that I bought some time ago. By the taste of it I think I’ve had it since the days when you and I were young, Maggie. So I wanted fresh milk. My Hyundai had close encounters with at least three hundred and forty nine insects but I was not about to flaunt them in the daylight in the parking lot. So I had to wash them off. I couldn’t go shopping in my lounge pajamas so I had to get dressed. Well by that time I was ready to face the world and I did, but not with a whole lot of grace. Careful not to scowl at the patient clerks, I acquired a gallon of milk, a loaf of whole wheat bread, and enough grapefruit juice and sweet orange marmalade to last over the weekend. Oh yes and I filled my gas tank after searching the parking lot to find my car hiding behind the rack of shopping carts. Now I am all set. Ready to slip into the ruts, oooh noooo – the grooves of every day life. Just to prove I could, I spent twenty minutes in my sun room watching the walnut trees spread out their new leaves. And I will check their progress again before the sun goes down.

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