this and that

I'm not talking about politics today even though the situation is just as heinous as it was two days ago. Well, one thing, Hillary has now won the popular vote not by a few hundred or even a few thousand but by over a million votes. The electoral college that was founded for the purpose of preventing the people from electing someone who was completely unqualified or dangerous could end this nightmare but they won't have the courage. The patriarchy will not allow a woman to be president even though she clearly won the election. Not this time, not this woman.

OK, on to other stuff.

Where are the birds? I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the birds seem to have all gone. I had run out of bird seed but that has never run them off before. Now the seed I have in the totem bird feeder is still mostly there after 3 days. In the past three days I have seen one cardinal, one bluejay, and one little warbler (I think). No doves, no titmice, no chickadees, no wrens, no mockingbirds, no sparrows even. We usually have a large population of birds that winter over, others that never leave, but gone they are. Now that I write that I just saw a couple of bluejays and can hear some other bird out in the Wild Space but still, a dearth of birds.

I did have a red shouldered hawk come visit the other day. It sat on the gate to the Little Backyard casting it's eye over the turtle pond and Big Mama's posse of goldfish. I took this picture from where I sit through the screen door on high magnification. 

A few days later I was working in the garage/shop when I heard a sudden loud flapping noise and a strangled sort of squeaky cheep and went out on the drive to see a red shouldered hawk up in one of the oaks. As I moved around to try and get a better look, it flew off with something big and black in it's talons. A bird, obviously (so I know where at least one of my birds has gone), but I couldn't tell what kind. Black. Could have been a crow I guess or a grackle or a cowbird but I haven't seen any of those around either.

And speaking of Big Mama's posse, one of the gold fish has turned a very pale orange.

The cosmos and plumbago are still blooming but just about everything else has finished up. Most of the butterflies have migrated through but I'm still seeing monarchs.

And then there was this guy.

And this sky.

I've been dog-sitting the past two weeks for my sister while she has been out of town. Between the two dogs and the cat, I'm pretty much pinned down in the evenings.

And very last, I finally heard from the art consultant about the A&M job...three weeks later! The client is very happy with the work. The art consultant did mention the flaw but the client was unconcerned and so they told me to go ahead and submit my invoice which I did one week after the install. Now I'm just waiting for the check.