I have always enjoyed my quail and I’m looking forward to seeing babies. Certainly some of our quail are having babies? In the past, I’ve found nests in planters. As soon as I see quail families, I’ll post photos.
My favorite bird of all. Red is so striking.
Mrs. Is pretty cute, too! Isn’t it something how the males in nature have all the bright colors?
Red shares the spotlight with a quail. There’s always one quail who keeps watch for predators. He’ll be up higher and alone and start squawking if he senses danger.
Then there’s this guy. There are three chipmunks who hang out together. One looks like a parent with two babies.
What are your favorite characters in your backyard?
Here’s a PS I wasn’t expecting. I saw a foot and ankle surgeon about a painful left foot I’ve been dealing with for years. Finally, I decided to inquire about surgery. In the meantime, during our stay in the cabin on the lake last weekend, I fell and twisted my right ankle last Friday. I asked the surgeon (since she’s a foot and ankle specialist) if she could check it out for me while I was there for my left foot. Big surprise. I fractured my fibula and have been walking on it for five days! Yesterday was especially painful and swollen. No wonder. They are trying to get me into surgery ASAP. If you miss hearing from me for a few days, that’s why. I may have to wait for insurance approval and scheduling, but the sooner the better.
This is a photo from our courtyard near the front door. The morning light made the cactus look like it was lit from inside.
I think my photography is improving thanks to an online photography class I’m taking through the local community college. I struggle with the concepts at the beginning of each week. Every Monday there is a new module online. I have to print it out, highlight and reread the material several times. I’m looking for clues for the weekly assignment which is due over the weekend. There’s also assigned reading from our textbook.
Instead of telling us what the assignment is, the professor says the instructions for photos can be found throughout the module.
This week’s topic is aperture, which are the “f stops.”
By putting the camera in Aperture priority, I can adjust the aperture (which is the hole in the lens) to let in more or less light. But the camera decides the shutter speed so the photo has the correct exposure. The module said to use this mode. Whew! I found one clue for my assignment. The instructions also said to use creativity with the depth of field. Plus I need to submit four photos.
What is depth of field?
Depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a photo that appear acceptably sharp. It is influenced by factors such as aperture, distance to the subject, and focal length of the lens.
In the photo above, I focused on my Bird Buddy feeder and the house finch. The bird is staring into one camera while being photographed by me. The background is blurred because the depth of field is shallow. The lower the f stop, the larger the aperture opens, letting more light into the camera. (Nothing confusing about that, right?) It makes the depth of field more narrow.
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to submit the same photo using different aperture settings or not. I’ve decided since this is technically an art class, I’m going for four different subjects using different f stops. I’ve got three so far. I will once again remind myself, “I’m doing this to learn, not for grades!”
I knew my pink flamingos would make it into a photo assignment. I used an f stop of 4.5 which is a low stop, which means the aperture opening is big. The shutter speed adjusted to 1/4000 of a second, which is really fast. That fast shutter speed made for crisp and clear flamingos and barrel cacti. The low f stop kept the foreground and background fuzzy.
Now to find one more photo! I took a ton of photos of my buddy Red. He hung out with me while I was photographing in our yard. Unfortunately, I didn’t think his photos turned out well enough to use for this week’s assignment.
The other day, I spotted Red with a girlfriend or wife. But she was only here for one day. Maybe she’s in their nest?
My buddy Red. He’s a little out of focus. I don’t think it was because of f stops or shutter speeds. He’s a flighty little thing. I think it was movement blur.
What’s your opinion on a shallow depth of field with a blurry background and crisp focused subject? Or do you prefer photos where everything is in focus?
Have you used the different settings on a camera in manual mode? Aperture priority or shutter priority?
I’ve been heartbroken since I had to say good-bye to Olive, my daughter’s cat, who I adopted after she left for college. Olive was a highlight of my quiet life in Arizona. Since we said good-bye to her in November, I’ve noticed a Bird Buddy who is wiggling into my heart.
No, I’m not getting another cat or dog. My son has asthma and allergies. I wasn’t getting rid of Olive because our son seemed okay in our new house — until his last visit. I guess a few years’ worth of cat dander added up. I won’t subject him to a new cat or dog. If I did, he’d probably skip visiting us altogether.
So here’s my new pet. Like I said, sort of. He waits for me every morning to fill the feeder. He’s first to rush in for his fill of seeds. Then I hear him sing and flit around the yard for a few hours. He comes back at the end of the day. We spend time looking at each other. I find myself imitating his tilt of the head and he tilts back at me.
My husband asked what I was going to name him. I chose Ollie but my husband thinks it’s too close to Olive. Which was the point, I might add. His idea was Kramer due to the Cardinal’s hair do. I might settle on Cosmo, which was Kramer’s first name in Seinfeld. Or, I’ll stick to Ollie. Time will tell.
We used to have a Cardinal couple who frequented the bird feeder. The females are not as colorful is how you tell them apart. This Cardinal is alone all the time. I don’t know if he was part of the couple who used to stop by. Cardinals mate for life, so I sure hope he didn’t lose his wife.
Cardinals have a beautiful song and I always know when my new sort of pet is near.
Here’s a video from my Bird Buddy AI feeder:
What do you think of the choices of names for my new bird buddy?
What frequent visitors do you have from nature to enhance your lives?
Kitten Olive with her best friend Angus, may they both rest in peace.
It’s been a sad few days for me. But I’m forcing myself to go outside and walk. I also spent time going through all the Olive photos on my iphone. I’m sharing some of my favorites here today.
Olive enjoying the Palm Springs lifestyle.
Olive in a negative mood
Olive found herself locked in the car. I have no idea how that happened. She was deathly afraid of cars and hated them.
A picture taken by my daughter on one of Olive’s first days with us.
Below is Olive enjoying indoor/outdoor life in Palm Springs.
Indoor Arizona life.
My favorite photo of Olive.
Closet cruising.
A stowaway in my suitcase.
My pretty kitty.
One of Olive’s favorite things to do. Harass the quail.
Olive has taken over my desk and office like she owns the place. Yes, she’s feeling better.
You know those emails you receive that have interesting facts or funnies? I received one last week that had origins of old sayings. I knew a few of the idioms and origins, but most were new to me.
I’m sharing a few I found most fascinating:
During WWII, U.S. Airplanes were armed with belts of ammo, which they would shoot during dogfights and on strafing runs. These belts were folded into the wing compartments that fed their machine guns. These belts measure 27 feet and contained hundreds of cartridges. Often times, the pilots would return from their missions having expended all of their bullets on various targets. They would say, “I gave them the whole nine yards,” meaning they used up all of their ammunition.
Personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman’s face she was told, ‘mind your own bee’s wax.’ Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term ‘crack a smile.’ In addition, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt. Therefore, the expression ‘losing face.’
Ladies wore corsets, which would lace up in the front. A proper and dignified woman, as in ‘straight laced’ wore a tightly tied corset.
Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the ‘Ace of Spades.’ To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren’t ‘playing with a full deck.’
In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington have him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted.
Arms and legs are ‘limbs,’ therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, ‘Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.’ (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint.)
As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October). Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. They couldn’t wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term ‘big wig’. Today we often use the term here comes the ‘Big Wig’ because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy.
Did you know any of these origins of old sayings? Which ones?
I tried to write my morning pages, but Olive had other ideas.
Olive has structure to her life. She has a routine that she closely follows.
5 a.m. She munches a bit of dry food.
5:10 a.m. Olive jumps on the bed to snuggle in and sleeps with us and stays on the bed after we get up.
9 a.m. She goes to her grassy patch and watches birds through the sliding glass door.
10 a.m. She sleeps on the rug in the sun.
11 a.m. Olive enters my husband’s office to jump on his lap.
2 p.m. Olive walks into the casita and wants me to stop writing. She wants me to read or watch TV on the sofa so she can lay down on my stomach.
4 p.m. It’s time for Friskies ‘Lil Soup. It’s a treat I give her after I call “Kitty Soup” and she answers “Meow-oup.”
And on it goes.
Yesterday there was no kitty on our bed. She didn’t snuggle us. She didn’t try to get on my lap while I wrote my morning pages. She wasn’t on her grassy patch or in my husband’s office.
She walked nonchalantly into the Casita a few hours later and stood under the end table by the sofa. From there she stared at me. Then she walked away and we haven’t seen her since.
I feel like I’m getting the cold shoulder from our cat. I wonder what did I do wrong to be treated with indifference? Or, perhaps she is reminding me that she’s a cat.
What are your pets’ routines? Do you think something is wrong when they vary from routines?
My kids with our yellow lab Angus. We adopted Angus from Guide Dogs when he was seven months old and wasn’t making the cut in the program. He was ours for 15 years.
Have you ever had a dream where your deceased pet is alive? I had one last night. I was on vacation and my golden retriever Pepi was with me. She looked so happy, healthy and her fur was so soft.
I told someone in my dream, “Doesn’t Pepi look good? Can you believe she was born in 1970?”
Next in my dream, I was frantically looking for Natasha, our rottie who died in the late 1990s. I sometimes have dreams with both Natasha and Pepi together. They usually are running and playing in fields ahead of me.
I feel so comforted when I have dreams with my pets, whether it’s Natasha, Pepi or Angus. They are my three dogs who crossed the rainbow bridge. It’s like a gift that I get to spend a little more time with them.
Pepi was in a litter of ten born to our golden retriever Kim — on my birthday — when I was in kindergarten. My dad sold all the puppies but Pepi, who was my childhood dog until she got hit chasing a car while I was away in college.
It offers five characteristics that people report about their dreams of pets. The dreams attest to the animal human connection we share. Here’s the one characteristic that rings true in my dreams:
The deceased pet often appeared young and healthy.
“My girl came to me full of life, love and happiness.”
―Anonymous
“(My dog) was completely healed.”
―Anonymous
In many visitation dreams, the deceased pets appeared not in their afflicted or stricken states toward the end of their lives. Instead, they are young, energetic, and healthy. The pets would play and interact with their owners in the dream.
Do you have dreams that include your pets? Are the pets in your dreams ones you lost years ago? How do you feel when you experience one of these dreams?
