I won’t go into detail about how many times I get discouraged.  Today I feel “encouraged”!!  A very busy lady-friend took time to mail me a calendar with beautiful bird pictures.  Also an article from Yankee magazine, Jan-Feb 2013, pp. 92-97.  I’ve just read the interesting details regarding the photography of Allison Trentelman in Stillness and Flight.  This morning was particularly difficult for me and the gift couldn’t have arrived at a better time!!  My neighbor has placed moth balls about six inches apart in front, and back, of her apartment.  I am extremely sensitive to odors and the smell of moth balls closes my throat and nostrils so I can’t breathe.  I had intended to work in “Pandora’s Garden” but was forced to flee into my apartment, close the doors and turn on the air-conditioning.  She, likewise, uses highly perfumed dryer sheets  when she dries her wash.  Those details to convey my sincere appreciation for a thoughtful gift received by mail.  (Moth balls to keep snakes out of her apartment.)  I’ll look at this current situation as a blessing is disguise: I’m forced to work indoors on neglected “downsizing” projects!!

Allison Trentelman strikes me as a sister I’ve never met.  “The more I photograph birds, the more enamored of them I become.  Watching their antics out the window is a constant source of amusement and beauty in my life.”  ~~  Lorraine’s pictures won’t find their way into a magazine but spending time–with my inexpensive camera–watching Bluebirds, Hummingbirds, and others, is a joy.  (At this hour [3:00 PM] I am monitoring the Bluebird house because one or more eggs may hatch in the next couple of days.  “Mama Blue” has been faithfully incubating day and night for almost two weeks.)

Enter Merck…This major player is currently working on a “like treats like” grass allergy drug. The active chemical is a ragweed-allergen that causes sneezing, runny nose, etc.

A Merck spokesman told Reuters that the drug addresses “the underlying cause of allergy attacks.”

You know — as opposed to allergy drugs that treat the symptoms.

Wait… Treat the CAUSE rather than the SYMPTOMS? Huh! Just imagine if a quack idea like that actually started to catch on.

To Your Good Health

Today I have the privilege of seeing a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird on the perch occupied by the male a couple of days ago.  I took over thirty pictures to get two worth publishing.  They simultaneously visited the feeder but I didn’t capture that image.  

OMG, this very minute (4:00 PM) I glanced at the feeder and both were there!!  I grabbed the camera and started shooting.  These are cropped….

Impossible to read, but the outside thermometer reads eighty-two degrees.  Cooler than the ninety-four degrees forecast for this hour.  A thunderstorm is not far away and bringing relief.  Likewise, eighty-two degrees inside the apartment.  I feel like I’m in a sauna because I still do not have air-conditioning!!

Postscript, Thursday, July 18, 2013, 6:45 PM: The air-conditioner was repaired sometime today (while I was working  at my volunteer job, in an air-conditioned building).

Whimsical gardens are enchanting!!  If I had a larger yard (and didn’t have to bow to the opinions of neighbors) I’d be a lot more creative!!  Likewise, I would consider Shade Garden Ideas for the little wooded area at the edge of my back yard.  (Thanks DD.)

I’m so thrilled when friends share web sites with me.  This one is awesome: What fun God must have had the day He designed these.  (Obviously, I’m not the only person who takes pictures of birds!!)

Another: Beautiful Story about an American Eagle and Jeff.

Exotic Birds – Digital Photography

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

For over two weeks, I have been sloshing around in “a soup” of wet grass and mud.  Rain, rain, and more rain!! Yesterday my air conditioner choose to break down!!  No rain today and the temperature soared over 90 degrees.  I’m now in the frying pan!!  “Mid-90’s with humidity” according to TV weatherman and “almost 100 degrees by this weekend.”  Fortunately, I have a nice oscillating fan (that hasn’t been out of the box for over three years).  The repairman arrived about 5:00 PM and surveyed the situation.  Parts will be ordered but it may be several days before he can get the air-conditioner back in service.  ~~  I need to retrieve my thermometer from the travel trailer; I don’t know how hot it is in the apartment.  Eighty degrees, in the shade, on the patio, at this hour (6:45 PM).  ~~  Prophetic isn’t it: “Maybe I’ll need that some day.”  It took less than five minutes to get the Lasko HVB-tower fan out of the box and moving air in the living room.  ~~ Just thought my readers would like to know I can prepare a blog with different contents (LOL).

Postscript, Tuesday, July 16th, 2013, 11 o’clock: Eighty degrees outside, eighty degrees inside!! Outdoor temperature is forecast to reach ninety-three degrees. But it will feel much hotter due to humidity. I’ll have some reprieve because I’ll be working in an air-conditioned building this afternoon.

Trivia: I just checked Waxhaw, NC, weather and it lists 85 degrees current temperature, humidity 82%, precipitation 10%, wind zero.  ~~  Charlotte weather 90 degrees current temperature, humidity 64%, precipitation 10%, wind zero.  ~~  Lancaster, SC, (about 15 miles away) 83 degrees current temperature, humidity 77%, precipitation 10%, wind zero.

Actually, Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 5:30 PM: Did I say “frying pan”?? It’s more like an oven!!  Note that outside thermometer says 104, in the sunshine, on the patio. Indoors, the thermostat says 83 degrees.  ~~ Whew!! If I were a chocolate bar, I’d be a sticky melted mess. Forget that analogy: I am a sticky melted mess!! 

6:20 PM: Local TV weatherman just said “Factor in humidity, 103 degrees.”

6:35 PM: “Blistering heat” was opening comment by Diane Sawyer on ABC Evening News. Tonight I can empathize with suffering people all over the nation. Furthermore, Diane made reference to melting chocolate (with cute video) but my illustration preceded hers by one hour.

In my humble opinion, better than TV!!  I’m able to sit in my living room and watch nature.  The Ruby-throated Hummingbird was/is defending “his” feeder.  One, or more, were attempting to enjoy the nectar.  To my  delight, “he” has spent hours on my flowers, and at the feeder.  ~~  Number two, three, and four is identical picture but cropped for greater detail.  ~~  And (!) on my TV the image of “Mama Blue” sitting on the nest with five little Bluebird eggs.

“Papa Blue” took mealworms to “Mama Blue” on the nest. Number five and six is identical picture but cropped for greater detail. Number seven is the baby Bluebird that fledged twenty-three days ago. (How do I know? Because Papa still feeds him.)

I haven’t seen the four Bluebirds that fledged in early May.

It was raining hard as a Hummingbird visited my backyard feeder.  I was snapping pictures in rapid succession–through two panes of glass.  These have been cropped.  ~~  All my labor–and expense–is rewarded because I specifically planted, and cultivated, to encourage Hummingbirds.

View from my easy chair. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Postscript: Also from the comfort of my easy chair, I can watch “Mama Blue” on the nest.

I’d Pick More Daisies

If I had my life to live over again, I’d try to

make more mistakes next time. I would relax. I would

limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this

trip. I know of very few things I would take

seriously. I would take more trips. I would climb

more mountains, swim more rivers and watch more

sunsets. I would do more walking and looking. I would

eat more ice-cream and less beans. I would have more

actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. You see, I

am one of those people who lives prophylactically and

sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day.

Oh, I’ve had my moments; and if I had to do it over

again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to

have nothing else. Just moments, one after another

instead of living so many years ahead each day. I

have been one of those people who never go anywhere

without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle,

a raincoat, aspirin and a parachute. If I had it to

do over again, I would go places, do things and

travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start

barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way

later in the fall. I would play hookey more, I

wouldn’t make much good grades except by accident. I

would ride on more merry-go-rounds. I’d pick more

daisies.

— Brother Jeremiah

— By an anonymous friar in a Nebraska monastery,

Quoted in “Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back” by

Charles Swindon, and in “The Three Boxes of Life (and how

to get out of them) – An introduction to life/work planning”

by Richard N. Bolles

~~~~~~~~~~

Lorraine here.  I’ve had this message for decades, framed and on display so I could occasionally take inventory of my life.  Three years ago I was traveling with my little T@B teardrop trailer (nine months, nine thousand miles).  I was in Massachusetts.