...been a long weekend. In more ways than one.

NATURE NOTES
and
WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY


Lesser Nighthawk


Ruby-throated hummingbird

Only what I've seen through my window the past couple of days. One afternoon, late, a Lesser Nighthawk was on the power line just outside our window. It remained there for several hours, and then at dusk it flew off for his dinner hour!! Also, there have been a return of a few hummingbirds. And they're becoming very active now, around our feeders. I haven't been out much over the holiday weekend, so not too much 'birding news'. [explained below]



WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE




1. What's something you're never too young or too old to enjoy? Ice cream?!!! Ya, that.

2. Share one happy memory from your high school years. It's a bittersweet memory...Being with Frank between classes and after school - I was VERY happy, knowing him and being his best friend at times; his confident!! He left town after joining the military...Then....he was KIA in the Vietnam War, if things would've been different, I'd have been a widow at the age of 20. Having his friendship meant the world to me, and thinking of him often today still breaks my heart. In the past, I have posted a newspaper clipping of him and how he was killed in action... HERE [scroll down to the end of the page]

3. A nationwide strike of fast food employees took place in parts of the U.S. last week...they're calling for higher wages and the right to unionize? Your thoughts? Higher wages these days are a necessity, but UNIONS on the other hand are the rut of recession in my opinion...with unions, it may make the workers have more 'privileges and higher wages'....but that, in a turnaround, makes OUR cost of living raise. It's a vicious circle.

4. September is National Honey Month...what's a favorite dish you make or eat that calls for honey? I'm not too keen on honey, it's okay, but I don't ever crave it or need to have it. I do like Sue Bee's Creamed Honey, but only on toast. Actually, I read somewhere in a nutrition site that the best honey for anyone to consume is local honey: produced by bees in your own area. Only because of the pollen bees use...it's pollen that creates allergies, and locally produced makes for a guard against allergies humans suffer from the pollens created in their area...helps fight against strong allergy attacks. Don't know for sure if there is any credence to this tho.

[image courtesy of google - no copyright infringement intended]

5. If you notice someone with a tag sticking out, a button unbuttoned, a shirt on inside-out, or some leftover lunch stuck between their teeth do you say something or do you keep quiet? If it's family, I'll tell them so. But if it's no one I know, I will remain quiet.

6. What movie always makes you cry? Or at least makes you feel like crying? A movie that was made from a classic novel... Where the Red Fern Grows read more...

7. 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' was written in May of 1830, and published in Juvenile Miscellany in September of that same year. Now for the fun part...create your own four line rhyme using that same tune.

Mary had a little lamb
little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
its fleece was white as snow.


my attempt:

Summer's been so hot these days,
hot these days, hot these days.
Summer's been so hot these days,
I'll be glad to see it go...

[but, thing is...summer continues here in South Texas for about another month, at least!!]

8. Insert your own random thought here. For the last few days, of course during a holiday when all the offices are closed...I have not been feeling well, and keeping a close vigil on my blood pressure and heart rate in an attempt to stay away from the Emergency Room at one of the hospitals. I will call my cardiologist first thing this morning when their office opens. Hopefully, he can help me work things out with a different medication, OR a different dosage. Sorry, I haven't felt up to visiting anyone, and probably won't for a while, until I feel better....