“A squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit!”
Today isn’t as lovely as yesterday, but it is still a sweet autumn day. The sun is out. The sky is both blue and cloudy. It’s a warm day. The rain will return tomorrow.
My factotum is closing the deck which is so thick with oak leaves they covered my slippers yesterday when I went to fill the bird feeders. I kicked the leaves as I walked, a throwback from when I was a kid walking to school when the sidewalks were covered mostly in maple leaves. My landscaper said he is waiting this year until all the leaves and pine needles have fallen instead of clearing two or three times. My lawn has almost disappeared.
I went to the library on Monday and books have since absorbed my time. I finished one and am halfway through another. The librarian chose the four books and she chose well. A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier is my current book. It is on the table in front of me and tempts me to read just a page or two, but I know I’d never stop there so I won’t start reading until I finish here. I love finding books which capture my attention at the expense of everything else.
When I was a kid, my mother used to yell at me and accuse me of ignoring her when I was reading, but I didn’t ignore her. I was so totally involved in my book I just didn’t hear her. When I’d tell her that, she’d scoff.
I have nothing on my to do list today. I actually did two loads of wash yesterday. The bags of laundry didn’t even sit in the hall for any time let alone the usual week or so. I brought the laundry straight down to the cellar from upstairs. That’s like a new record for me. I also watered the plants, mopped the floor filled with Henry hair and filled all the bird feeders.
This morning I watched the deck and backyard from the kitchen window. The birds flew in and out of the feeders. Two red spawns of Satan chased each other up and down and around the biggest pine tree trunk. One grey squirrel walked on the deck rail looking for a vulnerable feeder hanging from the branches. He didn’t find one. That makes it 0-1 for the spawn of Satan!
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November 8, 2018 at 12:28 pm
Grey and dull again here but I’m happy as long as it isn’t winter 🙂
The last book I read felt very familiar but it took quite some time until I realized that I already had read that book 🙂 🙂 I was just as annoyed at the main character this time as I was the time before so now I’m looking after another book I know I have somewhere in my home 🙂
I filled the bird feeder for the first time this season and I also placed the game camera close to it so I can see if any unusual birds are here when I’m at work. I also hope for perhaps a deer photo, they tend to rob the feeders when they want something else than the herbs they usually eat 🙂 I don’t dare hoping for a fox photo, I know it walks in my garden during the nights since it poops on my entrance stairs every now and again 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
November 8, 2018 at 1:00 pm
Christer,
We’ll have grey and dull back tomorrow. It seems to be the weather pattern. We don’t need the rain.
I used to buy books, but now I go to the library for most of them. I only buy one if it is by an author I love, and I don’t want to wait.
<y feeder are hanging from trees and off the deck. I also have two suet feeders. Three of the hanging feeders are filled with sunflower seed and two are filled with mixed seed. I also throw some mixed seed on the ground for the doves who are ground feeder. I do get quite a lot of birds.
Have a great day!
November 8, 2018 at 12:33 pm
I was always an avid reader from about the fourth grade. I used to love the library, except that I couldn’t keep the books I read. Once in high school I kept a book out so long that my fines could have paid for a new book which I couldn’t afford on my meager allowance. I sneaked the book back onto the shelf and then claimed that I had returned it on time and that they made a mistake in charging me a late fee. When they found the book on the shelf they apologized profusely for their non mistake. 🙂 Soon I discovered paperback books which I bought and kept as many as I could. Today I read ebooks because they don’t take up any space and I can read several at the same time on my iPad. They also allow me to highlight parts I may want to revisit and make notes. I read a lot of biographies and non fiction books.
Today is cloudy and rainy. According to the weather folks we are going into a “La Nina” phase in the Pacific ocean which usually brings us a cooler and wetter winter. We haven’t had any snow the past two years and I’m not looking forward to some snow this winter.
November 8, 2018 at 1:22 pm
Bob,
I remember getting books for Christmas when I was in the third grade. That started the tradition of getting new books every year. I had to give my mother a list so she wouldn’t duplicate any books I’ve already read.
I never kept books even close to their due date. I always read so quickly. I got the new books on Monday and have already read one book and have almost finished the second one. Once I like a book, I can’t put it down. When I travel, I do fill my pad with e-books. Nights in Africa are quiet so I did a lot of reading when I lived there and when I visited.
The sun is still hanging around but it is chilly now. My deck is closed for the winter and looks so desolate. All the furniture is covered and the decorations are gone, stored in tubs or in the cellar. I’ll miss the deck.
November 8, 2018 at 3:40 pm
The book that was long overdue was a reference book on flying. It’s now considered a classic, “Stick and Rudder” by Wolfgang Langewiesche. The information now is out of date, but what did I know as a 15 or 16 year old? Do you think the New York Public Library will come after me for the fine after all these years? 🙂
November 8, 2018 at 4:48 pm
Bob,
My library doesn’t demand fines but will take them if the scofflaw insists. They won’t be after you as you did return the book.
November 13, 2018 at 8:26 pm
Durn tree rats
November 13, 2018 at 8:33 pm
Spaceman,
No support for tree rats from me. I remember reading at the Smithsonian that they carried more diseases than rats.
November 14, 2018 at 7:47 am
I think I told you once before I trapped like 40 of them one summer and transported them away. It didn’t hit a lick on the infestation. Plenty of nut trees in the neighborhood so plenty to eat. But they vastly prefer my bird food and eventually chew up my squirrel proof feeder. And they do it mostly to piss me off, I’m convinced. If I wasn’t so nice, I’d pop every one of ’em with my air rifle.
November 14, 2018 at 12:43 pm
Spaceman,
I have small field mice. Once in a while I see mouse poop, mostly in the cellar. I drive them a mile away so they won’t find their way back to me. When my cats were young, they were great mousers. I found many gifts on the floor. When my cats were older, I took her the duties.
The spawns of Satan, squirrels, are the ones who try to get at my feeder. Them I’d shoot too.
November 14, 2018 at 5:54 pm
Spaceman,
My brother used to say that no house on Cape Cod was mice-less, and if they said they were, they were either lying or just didn’t know.
Once, over time, I trapped 25 in my crawl space. I took them far away from here and let them go.
November 14, 2018 at 4:35 pm
Pretty hard to keep mice out. They hardly require any space to squeeze into a house. I get them in my crawl space. Occasionally let the cat roam around there. She likes that.
I may have start shooting the tree rats. The raccoons would take care of the bodies