A crow shouting match & a charming book - Thriving week 20

I borrowed this book from the library and it was surprisingly charming. Inspired during the worst of the pandemic by the need to have something to look forward to, it also is a musing on everyday joy and thankfulness. Loved the illustrations and admit I had never thought of drawing faces on eggs! I’ll have to suggest that to my granddaughter next time I babysit. What a surprise that would be for her parents.

Were you able to see the Northern lights over the weekend? I saw them long ago from an airplane in the northern part of the East coast. We didn’t see these but then the viewing advice for SF Bay area residents was to go to a rural area between 11pm and 2am and look north. Um, no thanks.

I did have a nature sighting though. Friday when I was working in the yard I heard a lot of cawing. First thought was they were warning of a predator. Then I noticed two crow pairs siting on wires overhead facing each other and going at it. I think they were yelling about territorial boundaries. Since crows often seem to be yelling though perhaps it was just a general chat instead. It was funny though. If you have any crow behavior knowledge please share!

Then I discovered the Birdcast website that tracks the nightly annual bird migration north by county in the US. I was absolutely amazed when it said that one recent night over 625,000 birds traveled over my county! Most of them were further east in the inland part of the county. They fly pretty high up and pretty fast. It is good to be amazed still by learning new things.

I really enjoyed walking to our neighborhood market to get salad fixings plus Acme fresh walnut levain bread and Bonne Maman orange marmalade for a treat. Lots of flowers in front yards, beautiful weather and good exercise.

Progress this week: Exercise more frequent, diet better, to do list being worked through slowly, Hubby and pup fine, good family time, nice if windy weather, etc. Basically a good week overall.

Top of mind from last week:

I took myself to the Humane Society thrift shop for an outing and with high hopes for interesting stock and was quite disappointed. I was looking for non-clothes and they pretty much only have clothes, nice clothes, but not worth returning. Oh well, there are two other thrift shops near me to investigate and then I will have to do some serious driving to go to see major stores none of which are near us.

However, ACE Hardware had the things on my list and I had a $5 off coupon. Spray paint to touch up patio furniture, pray silicone for window tracks, and more 3 M N95 masks for fire season prep.

Leftovers seem to inspire more cooking creativity right now than meal planning does. Leftover rice plus frozen cooked chicken led to a sort of chicken fajitas over rice plus small spinach salads for one dinner. I had thought I’d make Mexican rice and bean tostados but switched gears after browsing the frig and freezer.

The main shower floor will hopefully stay cleaner now that I removed globs of excess glue from the tile under the door. It was cruddy and the result of an obviously shoddy shower door installation.

Our plants are growing well and have lots of blooms so the yard is nice to look at from both inside and outside. I did remove all but one batch of Calla lilies that came up unexpectedly after my DIL mentioned how poisonous they are. The largest patch will have to go to as the pup thinks the drying leaves are a toy.

I’ve got a pile of decluttered stuff to put out with a free sign on Saturday as it is citywide yard sale day. Fingers crossed it all leaves with new owners.

I finally finished the home inventory update which will go into our Go Bags and the cloud in case we need to file a claim. I organized by room and went into detail as I remember how a friend had to make a detailed list from memory when their home was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake.

We had some hot for us weather alternating with chilly windy days. The new mini split heat pump unit upstairs kept the whole house cool and warm enough. We will still have to use fans in the bedrooms on the hottest days but it is much improved and money well spent.