unmotivated, blooming things, new bird sighting

Friday morning overcast, cool, and drizzly. Not a day for accomplishing much of anything. And I didn’t. Read blogs, scrolled social media, played a couple of games on my phone, read my book, fed the kitties, walked the dog, fixed dinner. Thursday night we watched episode 6 (of 8) of the last season of The Boys. If you are the least bit squeamish this is not a show you want to watch. Just trust me on this. Last night we watched the first episode of the mini-series Chernobyl, a historical drama about the nuclear disaster. 

Saturday started out overcast and gloomy but not wet. It cleared up mid-day and with the sun out, temperatures are rising. I’m still lethargic and unmotivated to do anything though I did take the boxes of plastic, cardboard, and paper to the recycling center mostly because they were all full. Now every place that I would work outside is in the sun so that’s not happening. I took a cursory look at my art journal and…nah. I think maybe late afternoon I might wash the car which it sorely needs. 

And that is what I did. While I was doing that just outside the garage I heard a wren in there giving its warning call over and over, looked up and Minnie was standing there but she doesn’t usually upset them. Looked again and Cat was sitting there so I scooped her up and put her inside and the warning chirps stopped. This is a new development which makes me think maybe the eggs hatched plus I’ve seen mom flit out several times the last two days. So Cat is housebound for a while. I failed to tell Marc and after I finished washing the car Minnie and I walked over to feed the cats and when I got back, Cat was sitting by the car and the wren was again giving out its warning call. Back in Cat went and all parties have been informed.

I did let Cat out this (Sunday) morning but I’m keeping an eye on her whereabouts and listening for the wrens (she’s now back in). I strolled outside and was immediately struck by a bird call I had never heard before. It took me a while to locate it high in the magnolia tree, brilliant red, smaller than a cardinal, I got a good picture of it with my new phone camera (I love this camera!), did an image search and it’s a scarlet tanager. I have never seen one before.

My pink angel trumpet that did not bloom last year and was not thriving until I repotted it and gave it some fertilizer is blooming profusely right now. It has 22 blooms in various stages; 2 spent blooms, 6 open flowers, 9 almost open, and 5 tight buds. It already needs a bigger pot.

Other things are blooming…spiderwort, althea (rose of sharon), a very late bearded iris, (also daylilies but that's the next post).

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One thing I wanted to mention, that I overlooked in the list of reasons people are leaving this country in my last post, is the brain drain. Because of scientific and medical research funding cuts, higher education funding cuts and control of curricula in our universities, the firing of so many of our scientists, medical professionals, and educators, our best and brightest are being wooed away to Canada and Europe who are more than happy to accommodate them and their research. 

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Dark Places by Gillian Flynn - Libby was seven when her mother and two sisters were brutally murdered. She survived by scrambling out a window and running to hide among the brush. Her older brother Ben was convicted mostly by Libby’s testimony even though she never saw him, only heard his voice. Twenty five years later Libby is contacted by a group that thinks Ben was innocent and starts Libby on a quest to find out what really happened. The story of that January day is told in flashbacks interspersed with Libby’s own investigations culminating in her own life being threatened when she gets too close to the truth. She knows she heard her brother’s voice during the murders but did he really do it?

Rage by Linda Castillo - a Kate Burkholder novel. A dismembered body is found in the woods by a creek, shallowly buried by Amish kids playing hide and seek. The body is identified as a young Amish man, Samuel, and Kate, Chief of Police of the small community of Painter’s Mill begins her investigation, talking to family and friends. Two days the body of another young Amish man, best friend of Samuel, is found crammed into a barrel. Kate finds a picture of a young woman in Samual’s things and sets out to find her leading her to a brewery/pub and a topless club. When the young woman turns up dead, Kate starts putting the pieces together but the closer she gets, the more danger she finds herself in.