Friday, April 29, 2011

Just Keeping Busy, I Suppose

I had gone into the sun room to relax a few moments this afternoon - just rest a bit before my husband came home from work.  But I noticed that there were 8 (count 'em) beautiful golden finches hanging on the thistle socks chattering away to each other as they delicately extracted the thistle seeds and ate.  I wondered at their conversation and what they might be communicating to each other on this warm spring afternoon.  But I didn't have too long to ponder because I remembered that I needed to fill the other bird feeders in the back yard so I headed around to the backyard to get to it.  While I was taking the seed to fill platform feeder number 1, I noticed that the creek bed and pond were both low and needed to be filled so the pumps wouldn't burn out.  So I went over and dragged the hose to the pot at the bottom of the creek bed, turned the water on and started to refill the creek bed.  But first I had to clean the debris off the pump where it had gotten sucked up onto the pump when the water was low - so I did that.  Then I went back to the seed buckets and got the black oil sunflower seed for platform feeder number 2 and replenished that one.  By this time, the creek bed was filled with water and running okay so I turned my attention to the pond and moved the hose over and started filling that. While I waited for the pond to fill, I pulled some grass that was growing where we didn't want it to grow (and why does grass only grow only in the flower beds or on the walkways?).  But when I looked up, I remembered that the safflower seed bird feeders were empty too so, once the pond was filled and working properly again, I headed into the house and up the stairs to get the safflower seed from the sun room.  But on my way, I noticed the stack of freshly laundered towels and picked them up to take upstairs. Seeing that I had left my lunch dishes on the stair, I picked them up and carried them to the kitchen.  After I stowed the towels in the bathroom, I went back to the kitchen and put the dishes in the dishwasher and jotted down a few items on the grocery list I saw on the counter.  I stopped for a moment to figure out exactly why I came upstairs and then remembered the safflower seed.  SO it is off to the sun room to get the safflower seed bag and a seed cake since I had just noticed that the seed cake holder on the trellis by the blueberry bush out front was also empty.  So I added a new cake to the holder on the trellis and then headed to the safflower seed holder out front and reached in to remove it from its hanger in the weeping spruce only to accidently brush a limb and get a face full of pollen (it is the season for that).  I filled the feeder, dusted off my hair and face and then headed back to the backyard to fill the safflower feeder there only to find that the feeder had been taken down and set on the ground and the clematis vine was now totally entwined in the bird feeder.  I have no recollection of putting the bird feeder on the ground but, no doubt, I put it there at some point in the past few days with every intention of re-filling it and got distracted by something else and totally forgot it was there.  But the clematis noticed and decided it was just the thing to grow upon in its meandering all through the flower bed.  So I extracted the clematis and filled the feeder with safflower and re-hung the feeder in its proper place.  Then I had to carefully place the clematis back on the trellis where it was supposed to be growing before it took a detour into the flower bed and onto the safflower feeder.  Then I remembered I had been filling the bird feeders and I had not gotten around to filling the duck feeder by the creek bed.  So that's what I did next because I surely would not want Mr. & Mrs. Duck to show up and find that, once again this week, there are no duck food pellets in the feeder.  Now, I'm sitting here exhausted wondering what it was I went to the sun room for in the first place and it is time for my honey to come home and he wants to go out tonight and I am no where near ready for an evening out.  I need a break.  Maybe I will go up to the sunroom and rest for a few minutes before he comes home.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

In the Beginning....of the Blog

      So I decided to start a blog....well, I suppose everyone starts their blog off like this so I won't belabor the point.  For what it is worth, I'm here and getting started.  Of course, I am always open to comments and suggestions being new at this.  My first big problem is selecting a theme of sorts......unfortunately, nothing really specific comes to mind.  I'm a bit eclectic so having trouble narrowing down what this blog should be about.....guess you could call me a bit flakey....no focus as it were.  I've pondered for some time what to write about....I've seen some very good blogs on travel and love reading about who's going where and what they see and gotta love those vacation photos.  Those travel blogs sort of replace the slide shows of yesterday when we got together to see someone's vacation photos and tried not to fall asleep after seeing 150 or so blurry pictures of tulip fields in Holland or seashells on the beach. Does anyone take "slides" anymore or is it all just digital photos and sharing on Facebook or some other social network?

      But back to the topic of having no topic.  So, I've thought about blogging about birds and bird watching, a passion of mine along with gardening and flowers. Then there is the dreaded commute to work...thought about starting a blog called "Commuter Comments" or "Marc Moments" to air my grievances about public transportation.  I still might do that one...I figure I can generate a lot of attention there since everyone hates doing the commuter shuffle every morning.  But then I would like to get away from all that hassle  and wouldn't it be so nice to retire and write bout being a "lady of leisure"? But who would be interested in hearing me talk about hanging out at the house and reading and taking naps and generally just not working?

      And then there is food - I do love eating and can wax poetic about how good something tastes or looks although I am not so keen on cooking.  But there are so many blogs out there about food.  Guess we all like eating and reading about eating and thinking about eating -- as my friend, Jennifer, would say, "It IS about the food."

      So here I am thinking "blog" with no real theme that anyone would be interested in reading.  I use words like "eclectic" to describe myself so I don't sound too common and uninteresting but when it comes down to it, I am "Just Joannie Girl" and I have lots of interests and I like the idea of blogging (it is the thing to do these days) and sharing with my friends and family so that is where I will start -- with me just being me and writing about whatever crosses my mind on any given day.  And maybe someday a theme will evolve and it won't be so boring.  It will be what it is and nothing more (or less). 

      And so I begin to blog.