Friday, January 20, 2017

A grey day

All winter I've fed sparrows.
No mind, they need to eat, too.
I've observed more than a little about sparrows.

I watch them from this window. I watch them from my car, where they are more amusing. I can see them sitting on pig, toad and lambie, or foraging around the deck, for spilled seed.


My biggest take away: sparrows are extremely polite.
They line up like grade school children, falling in for lunch.


Over the course of the winter I've also seen a chickadee, a junco, a tufted titmouse. One each. The first two appeared before I put up a feeder.
The titmouse inspected my feeder, and hopped over to the pine wreath, where he carefully extracted and took away a fat pine nut.

I stood in the middle of my drive and looked three hundred and sixty degrees around.
Just like my old road, a few hundred feet south, there are ample woods to support more than sparrows.

Toward spring I'll upgrade from hardware store seed, and see if I can attract my old friends. I certainly won't mind supporting some cardinal and wren families. And finch. And chickadees and titmouse. The juncos leave, but the swallows come.


It's Friday, gym day. It rained all day, that thick mist.


My neighbor went by and used my camera.
Notice that good exhale on the release.

It was another day today, that many of us ignored.
I heard part of the inaugural address, by accident, and then listened to for half an hour.

I read, a couple of days ago, and verified, that the First Ladies' Museum in Canton, Ohio, is putting together their Melania exhibit. To "round out" the display they are including nude photos of her, taken so many years ago.

And I need to say, to kick off this presidency, "For Shame!" 
She is not the president.  She's a person. I expect better behavior from the several million of us who did not elect her.

29 comments:

  1. I'll feed anything that comes to our feeders, even squirrels. I ignored it all and will do my best to spend the next 4 years the same way.

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  2. I feed the squirrels and the birds. Lots of seeds and nuts have been gobbled up the past few weeks, about a cup a day. We have a huge blue jay that has lived around here for years. He appears to be on steroids. He always makes his way to the pear tree to find out what goodies I put out there each day.

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  3. Nature puts things in perspective for me most days, Joanne.

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  4. I watched the inauguration. I have watched every one since 1960. No one including an unpopular elected official is going to stop me from seeing that the transition is done correctly.

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  5. I've been a bit negligent this year in terms of feeding the birds, but usually I get a lot of joy just watching, especially when the cardinals show up. -Jenn

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  6. I feed anything which comes to the feeder. Most are welcome, and they all need to eat.
    I couldn't watch your inauguration and am trying to avoid the news feed.

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  7. I see no reason whatsoever to start shaming Melania. It's not her fault that her husband got elected. The shame belongs somewhere else.

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  8. Joanne, you are a breath of fresh air. Thank you for that, m'dear.

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  9. Love the birds, not the looney one. Have to not watch the news. So, so, very very sad, nasty man.

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  10. It's always been a pleasure to feed birds in winter in Europe...here they seem to feed themselves but it's nice to attract them closer to the balcony.
    Nude photographs of that poor woman? Have they no shame? And I suppose they deplore her husband's attitude to women...

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    1. They are damned if they did and if they didn't. They violated the first rule of kindergarten.

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  11. I miss my quail and the other birds that came to feed at our feeders and seed scattered on the ground. The trade off I have an incredible bond with our grandson, but it is fun to see others feeding the birds and who come to visit. I won't comment about the events of today other than to say the people voted, the electoral college did what it was supposed to do and people have to start accepting it, hard as it may be for some. I did it in 2008 and 2012 and didn't protest in the streets nor feel like life as I knew it was over. My only regret is I didn't pray for the former president more than I should have. I intend to do that more with the present president. Whoops, probably said more than I should have :)

    betty

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  12. Good on you for going to the gym. I need to get my behind off my chair too, but gym membership can wait a few months until I turn 65, then I can get a pensioners discount.
    I was hoping you'd get more birds at your feeders and I'm glad to hear it's happening.
    Nude photos, no matter how old, are not at all suitable for such a display.

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  13. If they are doing that display it shows their ignorance. She is an elegant and intelligent woman and a mother and way above those Ohio museum people.

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  14. I watched the Inauguration - I didn';t intend to but was drawn to it. I was particularly struck by the ancient Jimmy Carter and by the dignity of the Obamas. Let's see now before we make too many judgements.

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  15. To be honest, I've never approved of Melania Trump but this dates back when everyone knew Donald Trump as that rich guy not Donald Trump the guy who deeply alienated over half the country.

    Donald was rich and old and she was young and beautiful. I've never had much respect for women who go out and seek sugar daddies.

    But I don't exactly hate her either. I've kept my mouth rather shut about it. But I do find it ironic on how the right wing family values people just closed their eyes and ears about her "modeling" including one with another girl. And Trump himself is a giant womanizer and known cheater.

    I think Ivanka Trump serves a better example for the Trump family. And she's much more gorgeous than her stepmom

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  16. Good point, Joanne. As always, you make perfect sense.

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  17. The finches at our house - both red and yellow - observed 'every man for himself', pushing and shoving and fighting for one perch when another just as good was nearby.
    As I wrote this, I began to see a bit of parallel to this latest scary new version of America.

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  18. We have been missing the sparrows here, but finally a few are coming around. We have several families of cardinals and blue jays. There are some small birds who look like sparrow but have red heads. We used to have flocks of those. Old Man has spotted a woodpecker, and, for the first time ever, yesterday there were two red winged blackbirds on a feeder. Of course we can always count on a dozen or so mourning doves. Our many feeders in the back yard provide Old Man with hours of peace and entertainment. Before he retires at night, he always gets a fresh supply of peanuts ready for the jays. He is up at daybreak, sitting in front of the wall of windows, drinking his coffee and watching. Nature to the rescue! Like Marty's last sentence above!!

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  19. We have many chickadees and blue jays at our feeder. Not too many finches of any sort this year. Reading the birders column in the local paper, they seem to be elsewhere this winter. I buy sunflower seeds at a farm supply place.

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  20. What a variety of pretty birds in your garden; beats my crows, magpies and pigeons!

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  21. It is a great idea to feed a bigger variety of birds. Here we get so many magpies, they're quite destructive. I think of them as the foxes of the bird world... if that makes sense... ??

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    1. My nemesis at the old house was grackels and cowbirds. Just a bit too heavy for the feeders, but they learned to defeat them by jumping up and down on the pegs to open the gate, and snatching food when the gate was open. Very wasteful, too, but I had a lot of ground feeders to clean up after them.

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  22. It is a great idea to feed a bigger variety of birds. Here we get so many magpies, they're quite destructive. I think of them as the foxes of the bird world... if that makes sense... ??

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  23. I attract the cardinals, chickadees, titmice, and finches with black striped sunflower seeds (they are seed eaters, after all). the blue jays like peanuts. the white wing doves here are pretty feisty. as for Melania, I feel sorry for her in one way in that I think that this is not what she wants, to be first lady or even in politics and I don't think it's right to try and shame her for her 'modeling' career especially as a feminist. women are shamed for everything. however, I see no problem with continuing to publish the nude pictures of her. she did, after all, allow those pictures to be taken and be published and she made money off of them.

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  24. The birds here are on a feeding frenzy ! I have; Starlings, Sparrows, Blue Tits, Robins, Blackbirds, Wood Pigeons, Collared Doves and a visiting Pheasant !

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  25. On the subject of birds, the Eagles' nest cam in NE Florida is really fun right now. I just watched a parent bring a squirrel to the nest, Two healthy eaglets need lots of food, Dinner taken care of. NEFLEAGLECAM.ORG.

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    1. I'm fascinated by birds and chipmunks. At the old house there was a hawk rookery in the woods across the road. I once watched a hawk crash through a squirrel nest in the front yard oak tree and extract to baby squirrels to take home. Our squirrel population dwindled enormously after the hawks established the rookery.

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  26. I feel sorry for Melania. She is obviously lacking in self esteem, so much so that she married a bully. I recognize the look of a battered woman in her. She does what she is told to do. She looked like a Barbie doll all dressed up and stiff as a board standing next to her tyrant.
    I cried when I watched the Obama's last departure. He certainly earned the right to be addressed with respect. I was schooled in the deep south and I know about racism. It is alive and well in the deep south. Those are the followers of our current president. They voted for him because he is rich and white. somehow believing that because he is wealthy (or would have us all believe he is), the country will benefit from his leadership. They refuse to listen to reason. I know, I tried to point out little things like bankruptcy to my brother-in-law. It is almost like his followers were brainwashed! Our leader has great affection for simple minded folks eager for a "protector".

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