Sharing My World 44

SHARE YOUR WORLD – 2016 WEEK 1

As a child, who was your favorite relative?

Eleven aunts, ten uncles, twenty-three cousins…..and that’s not even getting started on my maternal grandmothers hoard of living relations who were ‘greats’ of all sorts…..it’s impossible to name a favourite.  Impossible.  I could probably name two or three I wasn’t too fond of if you want, but why speak ill of the dead?  Actually I’ve always wondered why you’re NOT supposed to do that, so I looked it up.  It is distasteful, disrespectful and even cowardly.  And rude.  Too much like dancing on someone’s grave.  Plus the person you are disrespecting might come back to haunt you.  Do your ill speaking while they’re still alive and can defend themselves I guess.

Really, as a child I was blessed with more relatives than I could keep track of, but of course now I wish I had paid better attention to who they were and where they came from and where they went.  We had company all the time on our farm when I was growing up.  I’ve known a lot of amazing people and it makes me happy knowing I’m related to them.

If you could be a tree or plant, what would you be?

A great big red maple, changing with the seasons.  I would be tall and beautiful, with at least one sturdy strong horizontal branch perfect for a child’s swing.  At the age of one hundred someone can chop me down and make me in to furniture.

What would be your preference, awake before dawn or awake before noon?

There’s a lot of fuss made about sunsets, but have you ever watched the sun rise?  I don’t mean getting out of bed in the dark and rushing around doing stuff and then eventually noticing that it’s light out.  I’ve done a lot of that.  I’ve also been awake before dawn, sitting in a deck chair with a coffee warming my hands, watching the sun come up.  That’s a wonderful way to start your day.  Then you can go back to bed and sleep until noon, but remember to leave that part out when you’re boasting about your incredible pre-dawn experience.

Would you like to sleep in a human size nest in a tree or be snuggled in a burrowed spot underground?

This is such a weird question, I can honestly say I’ve never thought about doing either one of these things.  But no to being underground, thanks.  And I would like the tree nest to be the size of a queen mattress please, because I’ll be taking one of those up there with me.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for my nice warm house and my comfy bed and for not once in my life ever having to sleep in a tree.  We’re getting some cold January weather now and I don’t even want to go out for a walk.  So I’m grateful to have that perfect excuse.

I don’t know what’s going on next week so let’s just say I am grateful to be living in suspense.  What will be will be.

What’s to Read?

If you are what you read, I’m probably in big trouble.  This little list should speak for itself.  Although what exactly it’s saying is beyond me.

             

                        

                     

All of these books could be called romantic medical fantasy murder mysteries.  Or romantic suspense action thriller fantasies. Or some variation of some or all of those things.  With a bit of paranormal psychic stuff thrown in here and there to keep you on your toes.  As if real life isn’t strange enough.

I don’t pretend to do book reviews anymore, in case you’re wondering.  I just like people to see how I spend my leisure time and hope it helps to explain my mental state and lack of focus.  I’m not crazy, I just read too much.

Camera Shy Magpie

It’s amazing what two days of rain can do.  Get things really wet, turn things green, make the air smell breathtakingly fresh and clean.

First thing this morning, and I really do mean first thing, around six a.m. before anyone else in the neighborhood or their right minds had even considered getting out of bed, I looked out the bedroom window and saw a magpie strutting about on the back lawn.

It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time to get out there and get some pictures of him.  I don’t know for sure if it’s a “him” or not because male and female magpies look a lot alike, with the female having a more greyish white hood than the male.  Also if there are two of them, the female is the one that’s bossy and aggressive and the male is the one running away.  I’ve noticed that kind of behaviour in other species as well (not mentioning any by name.)

So, there I was, in the backyard sitting in a lawn chair with my coffee in one hand and my camera in the other and the magpie nowhere to be seen.   It’s a little chilly here at six o’clock in the morning.  The ground was still wet, there were little sparrows whipping about, traffic noises to remind me that I’m far from the wilderness, a light breeze and a silent wind chime.  It’s rather boring sitting around waiting for a magpie that refuses to materialize, so I put my inner detective to work to find out what’s up with the stupid wind chime.

And this is what I discovered on the ground beneath it.  With a little bit of rotted string attached.  They really should consider making these things with fishing line to withstand Canadian winters.

The bird feeder is almost empty.  The bird house (on the left up there and pretty much completely cut out of the picture by the side of the garage, is being used by some kind of little birds who are busily coming and going.  The patch of lawn that the meter movers destroyed has approximately four blades of green grass on it struggling to survive.

That magpie is always around when I don’t have my phone or camera handy – on the lawn, on the garage roof, in the bushes, hopping along the fence.  I swear I am not making this up.  But after about twenty minutes of impatient waiting around and with an empty cup and a cold butt I decided to come back inside where it’s warm.  Nope, I would never succeed as a bird watcher.  I’m also having serious second thoughts about this early rising thing.  For one thing, it eliminates the excuse of ‘not enough time’ when I don’t feel like going for a walk.  There’s still hours left in my morning for magpie stalking and other worthwhile pursuits.  Like windchime repair.  Or a nap.  Can my day get any more fascinating I wonder?

Stay tuned for more heart stopping developments.  That magpie could return at any moment.  And I might even be awake to see it and capture it on film.  Or not.  I hope the suspense doesn’t kill you.