A Day of Rest

Whew! Been busy the past few days. When the sun is shining I feel COMPELLED to be outdoors. I've actually run out of things to do in auntie's yard - unless I want to start defoliating the jungle in the back and build more rock gardens there - which seems pretty pointless since nobody would see it except me.

Mom has taken to going out and doing yard work very early in the morning...so there's nothing for me to do garden-wise when I roll that way between 9 and 10 AM. When I showed-up a couple of days ago she was just finishing raking the grass. She did let me put the mower away. She is enjoying herself and her garden so I do not chastise her for overdoing it. Hope to hell I'm raking the yard if I make 82.

I've spent a boatload of bucks at the various gardening establishments - lots of annuals and a few perennials for Emilie's yard and a couple of flats for mom as a belated Mother's Day gift - the flats filled to her exact specifications, of course. She has taken to rearranging the annuals in the various beds and planters on an almost daily basis - it's pretty funny - but what the hell? Like I said, she is really enjoying her garden.

I still need to replace some fence posts and boards at the elders - but for some reason that is the one project that does not move me. Maybe later this week... I did stack cord of wood #3 yesterday and split a number of rounds. Worked up a good sweat. By the time I was through it started to rain so went home and changed clothes and then had a good workout at the club. I am meeting my exercise quota.

I've also been walking the airport dike trail regularly and went out and wandered around the west side of Mendenhall Lake a couple of days ago. Quite a bit of ice on the lake.

I think I'm beginning to get the hang of taking pictures of warblers and other small tweety birds. The secret is to take LOTS of pics and then toss all but the one or two that are actually worth keeping. They are elusive little buggers. I have a 1.4x extender for my 70-200mm zoom lens - still marginal for this kind of work - but I have lots of time to devote to this silliness and am working on that patience thing.

Yellow Warbler doing the warbling thing

At least I'm pretty sure it's a Yellow Warbler. It's possible it is an Orange Crowned Warbler which looks quite similar. I have plumped for the Yellow Warbler because it's song was complex - unlike the Orange Crowned Warbler which makes a simple trill. My bird book says the song of the Yellow Warbler is "sweet-sweet-sweet-setta-see-see-whew." Huh? Not sure about that; but like I say the song WAS complex. Birders and their descriptions of bird songs are as punctilious as wine snobs describing the nose of a good cabernet.

Mendenhall Lake on a beautiful spring day

Well, it's raining today - so I think I'll take the day off - except for a workout, of course. I've got blisters on both hands and my feet are sore - the tribulations of manual labor. Sure could use a hot-rock massage...

Finally, for those of you who know my wonderful daughter, Amanda, here is a link to her new blog "Camp Campington" which she will use to keep us posted on what I'm sure will be an eventful summer as a counselor at one of Paul Newman's "Hole-in-the-Wall" camps for medically needy kiddos. http://amandakrafft.blogspot.com/