Week of May 1, 2005. You could almost say that this is a blog, but I don't have that much energy or stuff to say. So, I'll aim for weekly stuff. Mostly what I have been up to. I spend so much time every week taking pictures and doing stuff that I don't have anywhere to put, short of creating whole new pages every week. I really don't have that much time. So I am hoping to get a few things in here.

Music currently playing: U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb". Love it. Especially "Love and Peace or Else". On iTunes of course. Saturday was good. Weather was crappy, but we helped Christy move into her new place fairly early in the day. Nice place. Her kitties had never seen stairs before and they were so funny "learning" to go up and down them. She says by Sunday they were flying up and down and rug surfing like Ginger does on our stairs.

It was a very good bird day too. As I was sitting on the couch looking out at the gloomy weather, I spotted a bird with red on it, but not all red. It was a Scarlet Tanager! I haven't seen one in quite a few years here. When I zoomed in with the binoculars, there were 3 indigo buntings right there with him! Tony saw them too. I know it seems uplikely, but there they were. Also saw a Cedar Waxwing at Christy's. Short of the day in February at Biltmore that I finally saw a Belted Kingfisher, that was a great bird day!

We went to the Arboretum on Sunday, which was beautiful weather. Cool though. I think it is going to be June before we can feel warm weather and open the windows and NOT WEAR A JACKET! Seriously, we had about an inch and a half of snow on last Sunday. Weird! The flowers were beautiful at the Arboretum, which is part of the UNC University system. Lots of trails. We hiked on one rated for biking too. Now we are looking at getting bikes. With the truck, it would be easy to take them somewhere to mountain bike. I am not interested in road biking. Too many people likely to run over you. We could upgrade our Biltmore passes for biking too. That would be a great place to bike.

I got off subject again! I took these at the Arboretum. Click the photos to see larger ones below:

       

More later, time to cook!

May 3: Okay the wildlife is giving me a headache! Last night I cooked, we ate, and were watching tv when 3 bears stopped by. They were juvenile bears. Adults are much more cautious. They came up and looked right in the house. One at the front storm door (the wood door was open at the time), and one even walked up and stood up and leaned on the sliding glass door. You could hear his claws scratching on the glass. He might have been young but standing up he was about six feet tall. That was more than enough for the cat, Ginger. She was upstairs and under the bed before you could blink. The bears then nosed around and left. I'm not sure how they missed the garbage can, but they did. This was real fun when I had to leave for work at 6:25am... I was so busy stomping and looking around for them, that I didn't notice the damage they did to the spa top. Or maybe they came back during the day, because they ripped chunks out of it and I don't know how I could have missed that! Needless to say, I am not happy. I put up with a leaking spa top for a couple of years because they aren't cheap. Finally had to get one, when the old one became so water logged that I couldn't lift it off the spa anymore.

In case you are wondering, "stomping" is noisy and bears will run away from loud noises. I am always thinking that I don't want to walk around the corner of the house and there is a mother with cubs. Because, I have seen quite a few around here. Poor Ginger! It took awhile to lure her out from under the bed. She wouldn't even come out for FOOD! Later when she did, she wouldn't go near the glass door and stuck close to us. Not even when the raccoon came up to the door. He stops by everynight and she just hates him. She will throw her body at the glass door and try to open the door so that she can "get him". That raccoon will walk up close to the door to look at us, but won't come close when the cat is there. He looks like he can't quite understand her hostility.

The bluebirds are nesting in the bluebird house and I get to see them everyday! The Carolina wrens are nesting in the eave of the house and have babies that I hear chirping. I worry about their first flight, the drop out of the eave of the house is a long way down. But I guess birds must do okay or baby birds would be everywhere. Two hummingbirds crashed into the front window, but flew right off. I also saw an Indigo bunting today. As much wildlife as this seems, it is nothing compared to when my daughter lived at home and rehabbed birds and animals for the Nature Center. I never knew what I would find living in the house!