Tag Archives: Northern Cardinal

The Final Month of Reading

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This is an iphone photo I took of our front yard yesterday when we returned from our morning walk. With everything in bloom you can barely see our house. I love this time of year with palo verde wearing yellow flowers.

I’ve reached the last two pages of my DIL’s syllabus for her AP English Class. I will confess that as the literature moved back decades in time, my reading fell off. I did a bit, but not all. I wonder if her students had a difficult time with these last few months of readings, too? I posted the syllabus at the beginning of each month if you want to take a look.

April Reading List

I’ve been more focused on photography than reading and writing. Here are a few photos from the past week:

A beavertail cactus in bloom with two flowers. There are more buds so more flowers to come!

Red hanging out under the birdbath.

I ordered a large canvas print of Red for our living room. For the five years we’ve been in this house, there is a blank spot to the right of our fireplace. I’ve been looking for art for that space, but never found anything I was crazy about. Red will go nicely there! A neighbor is coming over Friday to help me hang the print. She’s an artist who paints large canvases and an expert at hanging art.

What does April have in store for you?

Happy April First!

Friday Flora

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Happy Friday! I was excited to see a few plants in bloom. Because it’s so hot — it will top 100 degrees today — I had to snap photos before the blooms wilt. I was especially excited with this red bottlebrush that was attracting multiple bees.

This will be something else when all those buds bloom.

More busy bees on the bottlebrush!

On another note, I was scheduled for a colonoscopy Monday. I had a referral from my primary to a specialist. When I made the appointment, I asked the scheduler about prep. I’ve done this before and there’s more to it than just showing up for the appointment. She said she’d text me the instructions. Well, I was texted the name of the doctor, address and phone number.

I tried unsuccessfully to send a message through their patient portal. It asked for an office location from a drop down menu that said “no location found.” Without that field, I couldn’t send the message.

Since it’s fast approaching my appointment, I called and left a detailed message explaining I never received any instructions for colonoscopy prep. I got a call back. I learned that I was scheduled for a consultation PRIOR to the colonoscopy. I asked why did I need a separate appointment since I my referral spells out the procedure requested by my primary. Consultation cancelled. Waiting for my colonoscopy date in April. Medicine these days!

Here’s the bottlebrush bush from a few steps back. I can’t wait to see this in full bloom!

And a photo of Red to go with the red bottlebrush photos.

Have a great weekend! What are your plans?

Photos of My Favorite Bird Buddies and a Full Moon

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Red seems to be around every day. But the only time he sits still for a photo is when he’s at the Bird Buddy feeder! Otherwise, when I try to get his portrait, he flies away so quickly that I’m left with an empty photo.

This House Sparrow knows how to strike a pose!

Papa Quail keeps watch on his brood. It’s almost baby quail season!

A squirrel likes it when I put out a block of birdseed. They aren’t able to access the bird feeders.

Have you noticed the moon this week? I took photos of it over several days. March 3 was the day it was full.

This was taken on March 1.

A friend of mine texted me from Dubai yesterday. She and her husband were traveling for a safari in Nairobi and had a brief layover there. Which turned into four days! I told her to please let me know what they return safely to the United States! We had dinner with another couple over the weekend who were traveling to Israel this week. They have changed their itinerary and are going to Turkey instead. I think I’d rethink that trip, too.

Which photos do you like best?

Would you be comfortable traveling this week to the Middle East?

March Reading List

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I will confess that February got by me without much reading. Each month I am posting my daughter-in-law’s AP English reading syllabus. I agreed to do the reading, but not the writing assignments. If you want to follow along, my first posts of each month have the syllabus. Each month the reading goes back in time from current days — to now Shakespeare.

I haven’t been able to focus probably thanks to surgery and recovery. Plus once I get done preparing taxes, I hope to do more reading.

So what is keeping me busy? Social events. Photography. Sitting in my backyard, watching birds while reading Amy Tan’s “Backyard Bird Chronicles.” Also, I downloaded the Merlin App and I am learning what bird’s songs and calls are what. The first bird identified was — you guessed it — a Northern Cardinal.

I’m fortunate with March’s reading list. I’ve read “Pride and Prejudice,” “Hamlet” and “The Tempest.” Whew! As far as watching “Clueless” I can do that. I had no idea it was based on Jane Austen’s “Emma.”

What plans do you have for March?

What have you read on this month’s reading syllabus?

Did you know that Clueless was based on Jane Austin? Or am I the clueless one?

A Few More Birds

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I captured a few more bird photos that I really liked over the weekend. I like how I caught the dove in flight as it wanted to take over a spot at the bird feeder.

A house finch caught my eye in the Firestick plant. Then it flew to a cactus. I really like the background of the photos. I’m trying to focus on the overall photo rather than just the subject.

Which house finch photo do you like better?

This squirrel found a perfect spot to sit upon a rock.

I cleaned and refilled the bird bath and a mourning dove was much appreciative of my efforts.

Red is hanging out daily immediately after I fill the feeder.

I had a great visit with my daughter. My only complaint was that it was too short. The mountain passes are clear so her drive home shouldn’t be too bad. She motivated me to take better care of myself. She’s on me to ice and elevate more often — as well as continue with my PT for my ankle.

My daughter was impressed that when I go outside the birds arrive and sing. She said, “They recognize your voice! That’s amazing.”

The secret is to keep the bird feeders filled.

Here’s to a good week ahead and getting the taxes done!

Do you have a favorite photo today?

Are you in danger of the storm?

Birds and More Birds

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I was excited to see these “exotic” birds. The color was so beautiful. I called my husband in to look at them. He told me they were pigeons. Oh well. It’s my first pigeon in my backyard.

Off he goes. I didn’t see them again.

Isn’t the color striking?

I spotted a sparrow enjoying the bird bath.

Then he was joined by friends.

The water was flying. Now they must feel nice and clean.

A mourning dove waited for the waves to chill before taking a turn at the bird bath.

A quail walks by the other side of the bird bath. He was not interested in it.

It looks like Mrs. is having a conversation with her reflection in the camera.

Red keeps an eye out for any intruder at the Bird Buddy feeder.

I’m excited for my daughter to arrive soon! She should be here by 10 a.m. today. We’re going to the farmer’s market in Carefree and cooking dinner together. It will be a short visit because she’s flying this morning then driving our second car back to the Bay Area. She’s gone two years carless and has decided to join the world of driving again.

We recommended she buy our car rather than a used car from a stranger. Our car is in excellent shape and has low mileage. She did ask us for the CARFAX history! There are winter storm warnings through the mountain passes for her to get home. I’m worried about that, but she said she’d stay extra days in So Cal if the storm is still a factor.

What are your plans for the weekend? Can you believe we’re almost through the month of February?

We Got Pink Slipped — Again!

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Not only did we get our second violation, the City of Scottsdale recycling cop came in person and knocked on our door to talk to us.

I wrote about our first offense and our bad, bad neighborhood along with coyotes HERE.

This time we were told we have one more chance at recycling. If we have three strikes we are OUT! The recycling police will take our bin away and we will put everything in the regular trash bin. This time it was plastic bags from the grocery store. I always thought they were supposed to be recycled, so I learned something new. I’m super careful about what gets recycled and break down all the boxes from Amazon that seem to be flowing freely to our house daily. It was a shock to get an in person visit.

On my small walk yesterday, I saw a neighbor had a pink slip on their recycling bin. I wanted to take a peek at what offense they had committed. I walked over to the bin to see what their pink slip said but my husband thought I was being nosy and objected.

On a brighter note, look at how the Christmas Cactus bloom I posted Wednesday looks today!

Here are a couple nature shots I took this week:

Mourning Doves at the bird bath.

The squirrels eat the blossoms on the barrel cactus.

Here’s looking at you, Red!

Have a great weekend! What are your plans for this second weekend of February?