A Day Off to Shop and Feel the Rain

What a surprise! The fish are hungry and the water lilies couldn’t resist rising above the surface to soak up the warm, summer breeze.

A day off from work is what I needed and I took it. I don't do holiday shopping on the weekends. My tradition is to hit the malls early in the morning on a weekday and knock out my shopping in a few hours. Pre-planning and organization is the key. Finished. Done. Shopping is much easier for me now, compared to the years when I had a long list of gifts to find for teachers, bus drivers, coaches, Gina’s little friends and teammates, and babysitters. The nieces and nephews are grown now and I visited the toy store today for only one eight-year old nephew. I was amazed during every aisle I visited. Man, the toys are so sophisticated today. It made me smile to see some classic toys - a Magic 8-Ball, Etch-a-Sketch, and Dot-to-Dot workbooks. Slinkies (the metal ones)! Candy Land! Mouse Trap! Connect Four! I bought him books. He'll love them.

What’s a shopping trip without a little gift for me? I always treat myself while Christmas shopping and it’s usually a gift related to pricey skin care or cosmetics. Pamper, pamper, pamper. Oh, what a day!

The summer breezes didn’t stop me from decorating the pond yesterday (in shorts and tee-shirt)...

I have always loved multi-colored lights and decorated with them for a few decades. Several years ago, it became more fashionable to use white lights, so I, a non-conformist at heart, grudgingly went along with the trend and still decorate with white lights. They are boring! My colorful pond lights delight me and they twinkle, very slowly.

Chloe & Bella are decorated in their Christmas outfits, begging for a taste at the dinner table. It’s the only time I can get a photo of them together, holding a SIT.

We are completely decorated now.

When I came home from my successful and glorious shopping trip, the feeders were silent. Not a bird in sight. The sun was breaking through dense clouds rolling in from the north. Ah-ha! Cooper never misses a visit.

Only two birds had the nerves to take advantage of free roaming at the feeders, but both of them eluded me.

Sounding its alarm makes the rest take cover. Even ravaging Starlings and Mockingbirds scatter. Chickadee-dee-dee is always unafraid, willing to take seeds alone, and my God, I love this little bird.

And then there is the little squawking brat. I’ll get a grand photo of a Tufted Titmouse one of these days… (click to enlarge - you might see it).

I enjoy watching the birds at work, doing what they do, rather than seeing them hanging from a feeder.

That being said,

She flew in quietly while I was photographing the water lily. Ahhhh…. Shhhhh! I fumbled the camera and lost my footing on the pond rocks. Woodpeckers get me all excited, every time.

After all was done – spending a little time with the birds and filling their feeders, decorating and cleaning the pond, I felt the strong and quick-moving winds bring a chill with it and I found a jacket. The clouds brought rain

for ten minutes. I let the rain drip from my eyeglasses for such a brief time...