Greedy Bastards

Salvage

Things that redeemed an otherwise frustrating and kind of ridiculous day:

(1) Iced tea flavored with fresh lime, sweetened with simple syrup, stirred with an actual iced tea spoon and consumed just at the point when I was about to descend into epic levels of low-blood sugar induced grumpiness. (Private note to Mom: remember that day in Switzerland? I was about to be that.)

(2) Fresh strawberries and home-made vanilla pudding.

(3) Watching Freckles carry around her favorite toy ever, an old sock filled with catnip and another old sock. We're all making do, but some of us are doing it more graciously than others.

(4) Working through the frustrating bits to finish a project that's been deviling me.

(5) A beautiful frilly daffodil the palest shade of real butter in a small brown jar by my bed.

(6) Sunshine.

(7) Knowing that when this day finally ends, it will be in a fluffy bed, between sheets freshly dried by (6).

City bound

I'm off to Boise for the day. I have a few errands to run, supplies to pick up, possibly a movie to see. I should stay the night, but these hummingbirds are seriously OOC and I'd feel bad if I abandoned them to their own devices. I'm having to fill the feeder twice a day! (I actually have two feeders, but one of them they completely ignore.) This morning when I went out to retrieve the empty, preferred feeder, the greedy whores actually landed on my hands and divebombed my head. I'm being bullied by creatures the size of my thumb. I guess it makes a change from being bullied by the cats. Tomorrow I'll try and take pictures. They sure aren't shy so the the only problem will be my skills as a photographer.

In other news, I actually mowed the entire front lawn on Sunday. It was . . . exhausting. I'm ready to pave the whole damn thing.

GORGEOUS!

It's a beautiful weekend here in the mountains, and today provided two interesting sights in addition to divebombing hummingbirds. First, Freckles killed and then presented me with an ENORMOUS garden snake. I shrieked and generally freaked out even though I knew it was perfectly harmless. Second, while reading on the lawn I looked up from my book to see a young gentleman leading two white goats loaded up with panniers. There were PACK GOATS. In my driveway! He gave a cheery wave and packed right on up to my neighbors' house. PACK GOATS. DRIVEWAY. So so so odd.

Hummingbirds!!

I was just minding my own business, looking out the window, and saw a bright green hummingbird dart right up to where the feeders usually hang, give a "WTF!?!?" look and then take off. I feel so guilty! It's not very warm and heaven knows there aren't a ton of flowers out to keep their energy up. But it really hadn't occurred to me that it was already that time of year. In less than five minutes I had put up a feeder with the last of last season's store-bought nectar. I really hope it comes back. And I hope the damn thing doesn't freeze.

OOC

Ok, these elk are seriously out of control. I looked out my window this morning to see that SOMEONE had taken a big chomp out of my chives. Now, since my chives are planted exactly 12 inches from the wall of my house, I was curious. Surely an elk wouldn't get that close to my house for a little snack? Maybe my neighbors saw that they were getting a little bushy and came down and snipped a few? No. When I investigated I found more hoof prints the size of dessert plates right next to the house. As well as some neatly trimmed grass in front of my living room windows. And more battered and abused tulip bulbs in the flowerbed under my eaves. When did elk become so bold!?!? And how could I possibly have MISSED them being so close??

Drat!

You know when elk aren't so charming and decorative? When they leave a big pile of droppings in the middle of your lawn and tear up half your already struggling tulips with their big fat hooves trampling through your new flowerbed! That's when.

Potable Water

I can't find a post where I mentioned this last spring, but the tap water has turned its annual spring brown and EW. I stopped drinking unboiled well-water the first time this happened, but when it's actively brown I can't make myself drink it boiled either. I'm sure it's not actively dangerous, but it just looks too gross to ingest. Which is very annoying because it means I have to go into town more often to fill my three gallon water jug. The next person who lives here might want to invest in one of those five gallon water jug holder thingies. Just a suggestion. My Belizean parents have this cool little pump thing that fits on the top of a five gallon jug, maybe I'll ask them to bring one back for me? Seems weird to import such a thing from Belize, but I've yet to find one here.

Just as much as fat robins and yellow daffodils, bathwater the color of (very) weak tea is a sure sign of spring.