Rooster!

Monday morning, Roger came into the bedroom and announced, "There's a rooster on the bird feeder!"

I was so surprised. We don't have chickens (yet!), and there aren't any roosters within earshot.

"A rooster? For real? Wow, that's pretty wild."

Then, perceptibly, Roger's face changed. He looked perplexed. "Did I say rooster? It's not a rooster. It's a … It's a… woodpecker."

That was pretty exciting news as well. It was an Acorn Woodpecker, one of our native favorites. A real beauty, and on our feeder, which is pretty unusual behavior. But I was more intrigued by the word "rooster" and why Roger's brain came up with that. Lately we've noticed that our memory and language skills have taken an obvious turn toward inexplicable wackiness. We have both read the lists of symptoms of age-related forgetfulness, and yes, we're experiencing them. We started our own list a while back of things we had forgotten (that we later remembered). But then I forgot to update it. In early spring, when the daffodils were blooming like mad everywhere, I called them dandelions, EVERY FREAKIN' TIME I TRIED TO SAY DAFFODIL. Roger just reminded me of that, but then he couldn't remember the word dandelion. Isn't life funny?
Really, it's the little things that slip away first. I have always been pretty fastidious about closing cabinet doors, but not anymore. I take things out and then walk away. I always put the milk away (right away!), but I don't do that anymore either. And now I have a habit of choosing the wrong drawer for everything. If I want to put the oven mitt away, I open the silverware drawer. The other day we couldn't find the scissors. We both looked in the obvious places, but it wasn't to be found. Then I wondered where I might put the scissors if I simply wasn't thinking, and that's exactly where I found them.
It's an interesting thing, watching one's cognitive skills change. We're still pretty vital and healthy, but there's a noticeable decline going on here. Good thing we find the humor in it. So, we are laughing a lot these days.

And we realized, of course, that the solution to all of this is just to get lots more scissors and put them everywhere.

Roosters, too!

(Pics of woodpecker, moulting lizard, and pale swallowtail from the yard)

A New Endangered Species

Have you noticed lately how irrelevant blogs have become? I don't know why, although I suspect it's that stupid social networking site. This isn't a rant about Facebook, I absolutely understand our need to communicate with each other, which is why blogging seemed so important to us. But the facile ease of Facebook and the instantaneous sparks of communication and conversation simply overwhelm and overshadow the archaic beauty of blogging. Taking time to write beautiful heartfelt pieces, showcasing the subtle changes of the world from a small spot on the planet, telling the stories of our families-- the lives and deaths of people we have loved-- all of that is what made blogging so important. But things have speeded up, they now move faster than the beat of our own hearts. There's no time to ponder, to review, to record, to consider, to dream, to question. Now I must do a status update. It's all in the moment. I'm at the store. I'm at a restaurant. I'm at the airport. I'm falling love. I'm a grandparent. I'm ...

...wondering what this all means for the future. Our future... the future of words and storytelling... the future of content and meaning.

On Sunday (mother's day) I turned 60. I wrote a haiku and posted it on Facebook.

Funny, all it's been
is sixty revolutions
around this old sun

I'm lonely for the old world, and in heartbeat, that's over too.

Hello, I miss you.

Wordless Wed: Why Band-Tailed Pigeons Drive Us Crazy

Time Flies

I've been distracted by a project. A 24"x36" collage poster that I am creating for Roger's mom's memorial service that's being held Memorial Day weekend. I've been going through hundreds of photos, scanning them and then placing them on a virtual canvas. Very time consuming, but so interesting and enlightening. I feel like I'm getting to know Dini (Claudine, Roger's mom) better than I had in these past 23 years. I have found some fantastic photos that surprised and delighted me, so I know the family is going to be so jazzed. I can't post them here yet, because sometimes family members stop by to take a peek at what's happening in our lives. I want to surprise them. (Above photo is Roger's grandmother on a chairlift in Banff, ca 1950s. Not going in the collage, but absolutely needs to be shared!)

Spring is happening in a big way right now. Temps are in the high 70s and low 80s, clear blue skies and every weed seed for a million miles has found its way into our yard. It's interesting trying to save the native good stuff and pull the invasive bad. We do like to let the native grasses go to seed here. In fact, we scattered a pound of native grass and wildflower mix in the area down by the pond. It'll be interesting to see what survives the deer and birds.

We've noticed over the past month or so a young jack rabbit coming in and going out the fenced part of our backyard. We think it's spending a lot of time under the deck. It's pretty safe back there. We haven't noticed it eating anything we've planted YET. So, we're okay with it staying for now. However, if it starts to nibble on our greens, we're going to have to figure out how to get it out and keep it out. It sure is a cute, loping little thing. I haven't been able to photograph it because I only see it when I'm out there working, and I never have the camera when I'm working in the garden.

The lovely Delilah (with her beautiful mommy) came for a visit and had a wonderful little "almost crawl" time with grandpa.

The moon rose full Saturday night and I photographed it with our neighbors-- three of us standing on their very shaky, rickety old deck trying to see who could get the best shot. I won. Hah!

Wordless Wednesday: Just A Few Things