I was driving home last Thursday, and came around the corner onto the street where we live. There are subdividion signs on either side of that corner, and the landscapers had decorated them with banks of yellow tulips.
It has been incredibly windy for the past few days, and the tulips on the north side of the street had been totally stripped of their blooms. Those on the south side had a six foot block sign protecting them from the wind, and were still blooming.
As we traveled to Iowa and back, we saw similar examples of the wind’s power. I’m ready for that part where “April sighed, and said goodbye, and along came pretty little May!”
Daily Archives: May 15, 2005
Convenience?
I was in the grocery store last week, and I was reminded just how dependent we have become on computers in our lives. I’m old enough to remember when a cashier at the grocery store hit keys on a cash register to ring up the cost of the items. Each item was marked with a price rather than a zebra stripe.
If the electricity went out, they “rang” you up by hand, and you went on about your business. These days, if the computer is malfunctioning, or if the electricity goes off, you’re out of luck. No sale. There is nothing they can do to make a sale.
A new bird!
Saturday, I was in eastern Iowa, visiting with relatives. My niece had planted flower boxes on her deck, and a bird I had never seen visited one of them as we watched.
The bird’s body was a mustardy gold color. It’s wings were barred in black and white, rather like a downy woodpecker’s wings. It was slightly smaller than a robin, and had a similar shape. I didn’t get a good look at it’s beak, but it seems to me that it was long and pointed, rather than the blunter beak of a cardinal or gross-beak.
I browsed through my bird books, and the closest thing I could find to what I saw was a female “Northern” or “Baltimore” Oriole.
Can my birding friends suggest any other birds I might look at that fit that description?
I’ve never seen a deep gold bird before.