Mother Material

My mother loved tulips. She even loved the tulips I handed her in my grimy little fist. Then I got a swat on my butt for cutting those tulips from her front garden. Oops. I'm not talking child abuse. My mother, all five foot of her, was extremely fair in doling out punishment. Generally it was a lecture about trust or right and wrong. As you stood there hearing, "You've disappointed me," you prayed for a swat just to get it over with. My mother truly did not give me dark material to write a heartrending memoir. Yes, I'm grateful and I suppose that's why I'm compelled to write humor or stories that harken back to innocent days.

My mother loved to read and I thank her for reading aloud to me as a child. I thank her for the weekly runs to the library and for buying me every Nancy Drew book in the series. I thank her for buying Mad Magazine. I think she'd be my biggest fan now and would put up with navigating the internet to read my latest on-line poem or even this blog.

My mom's been gone 17 years now. That's hard to believe, and I don't need Mother's Day to think of her. So this is my own little card of celebration.

I'll salute my mother-in-law, too. Joyce Faries is alive and well and has a green thumb, can sew, and is an amazing cook. Twenty years ago she had to acknowledge that her son was marrying a Yankee, but it's all worked out great ( I repeat, 20 years!!!). I truly couldn't be luckier, and again I don't have "mother-in-law" stories to write.

What the heck - I've opened the can of corn here - Mother's Day allows schmaltz and candy and flowers. In memoriam - my Nana Crowther, Nana Shutters, and Ray's Grandmother Ivy.

Much love.

Joanne

My hopes for #200

As I mentioned in my next-to-last post, I'm now officially at 199 birds on the lifelist. I have been hoping to go birding one of these mornings before work, but it's been raining all week. Like I didn't get soaked enough in Cape May?

I'm hoping that we get a good sunny morning on Saturday or Sunday. In that spirit, here's my list of bird-candidates that I'd like to see take the coveted 200 spot:

Photo by Jeffrey A. Gordon, taken at the New River Birding and Nature Festival

1. Scarlet Tanager--this bird has been my nemesis for a couple of years now. I always look but never find. Zick found one for me at Oil Creek two years ago, but of course it flew away right when I looked up, so I caught only a blur. I don't count blurs. I just want to see this bird so badly--red is my favorite color, and the thought of such a beautiful red bird with black wings just makes me happy. And my gosh, look at Jeff's beautiful photo! (I shamelessly stole the pic from his excellent blog.)

2. Painted Bunting--I know--unless I'm going to Florida (with a blindfold on the whole way), the beautiful "Monet bird" is NOT going to take the 200 spot. I still love this bird, though--always have. Some day....

3. Bobolink--at least this one's possible, given my location. I soooo want to hear this song, which was described by some Flockers as sounding like R2-D2, one of my favorite Star Wars characters. (Han Solo's the man.)

4. Evening Grosbeak--I dig the black and yellow birds, and I especially love grosbeaks. (Rose-breasted is my favorite.) When I was at Middle Creek, a guy told me he hadn't seen an Evening Grosbeak in PA in over 15 years. WTF!? Odds are this bird won't appear, but I want to see one!

5. Prothonotary Warbler--would LOVE to see this bird; he's so beautiful! And now that I live in PA, I actually kinda know what a prothonotary is! (I wanted to drive to Belleplain when we were in Jersey just to see this bird, but we just never found the time.)

So this is my wishlist. I should take Painted Bunting off, but you know me--always dreaming of having silly stuff like Slayer strength or the ability to go into Harry Potter's world (and of course I'd be a Muggle witch just like Hermione!).

I'll keep you posted on the quest. Meanwhile, cross your primaries and think birdy thoughts!

A little more from the Cape, and a Niblet update

I also took some phone-camera pics in Cape May that I wanted to share with you. Here we go:

Sunset at Sunset Beach--the only sunlight we got all weekend, for about 15 minutes. Still, it's beautiful.

There were so many dead horseshoe crabs on the beach at Sunset. We also saw two of them mating in the shallow waves--come on, guys, produce some eggs for the Red Knots!

Why does the CMC Health Dept insist on mentioning (ugh) "human fecal matter" in the restroom of every single restaurant in Cape May? Is that really necessary? Can't they just say "wash your hands or else!"?

A book cover I saw that reminded me of a certain monkey we all know.


My amazing campfire on Saturday night. I tried something new this time, a trick for starting great fires; I read it in a book called Camping and Woodcraft (which is actually two books combined), written by Horace Kephart. The amazing thing is that I only paid 50 cents for this book at the local AAUW book sale (which is coming up this weekend!), but you can't get it online for less than 17 bucks!

Photo by Baby G

Here I am, taking the above photos of my excellent fire.

Anyway--here's the trick: get some cotton balls, some baggies, and some Vaseline. Rub the cotton, two or three balls at a time, into the Vaseline, getting a good amount into the cotton. Make sure to coat the entire blob. Note: this is really messy, but the good thing is that you can just rub the extra Vaseline onto the skin on your knees and elbows--it's moisturizing! I did about 30 cotton balls, again two at a time, and put them into three baggies. When it came time to start the fire, I piled up the wood and some kindling into the classic teepee shape; then I poked some of the cotton/jelly blobs into the base of the teepee and lit them with one of those Aim-n-Flame type lighters. (IMPORTANT: You do NOT want your hands anywhere near this highly combustible material.) I used probably three blobs of the now soaked-through cotton and got a fire that the Aggies would've been jealous of.

Gretchen and me at the lighthouse, exhausted but happy from all the birding and walking and rain.

It was a great trip, but I sure did miss my Flock friends in West Virginia. We'll migrate again, ladies and gentleman! Soon!

Now for the Niblet update. Thank you all for your continued good wishes and thoughts for the health of my little Son, Moon, and Stars™. He's doing great! No return of the infection, and I think he feels better in general these days, as he's become much more social and friendly again! The only remaining evidence of his surgery is the bald spot on his head:
Dr. Scholz said it would likely grow back the next time he had a big shed and re-grow. It's very soft! I try to kinda comb-over the surrounding fur so you can't see it. Hee hee!

He's really doing well, and he's been so affectionate for the last few weeks. I think he finally believes me when I tell him we're done with all that hurty stuff at the vet.