Birthday Ducks and Dead Mice

These are not great shots but my batteries died after only three photos so this is what I got. Not even good enough for flickr. Two male mallards! I thought they were male/female until I enlarged the photos. This was yesterday afternoon.


It's hard to see the ducks here but you can see the messy beaver lodge. The beaver in this lodge is messing with the water levels this year. The pond directly in front of the house is slowly dying and turning to mud and another pond is opening up further back. I can see the new dam with binoculars in a spot where water used to run freely. This means that the birds will be nesting further back and it will make it more difficult to photograph them. So I need a Canon Rebel very quickly!

This last photo was a bit better.

Today was my birthday. Anna e-mailed me from Bermuda (there is no cell service she says, so she could not call); Amy took me out to dinner, made me a cake and gave me some pottery; Andrew called and is chatting with me while I download the complete Brahms symphonies (Berliner Philharmoniker & Herbert von Karajan which Andrew says is the best recording) that he got me at the iTunes store; Sue sent me a tiny beautiful tote bag perfect for all my iPod stuff, and Andy teased me unmercifully about my age now (but I'm still not as old as he is!).I also got flowers, a beautiful card and chocolate. The cats ate the flowers and I ate the chocolate.

I went to work today even though I felt lousy. I felt worse at the end of the day. But I think the illness/allergy is all over now. It's been raining all day so the pollen levels are way lower.

But I barely got to work at all. The garage guy came back before 7 AM, unknown to me, replaced the chain Amy had removed and left three remotes. I played with the remotes but none worked the middle door. I figured I would have to turn the car around inside the garage to get out but remembered that the wall switch would raise the middle door. Somehow, I trapped myself inside the garage and couldn't get anything open. I think it was a 7 AM mental fog that caused that because I finally figured it all out and got to work.

The cats? Well, they now associate the sound of the doors with me coming home and they race in from the barn when they hear me. I just have to be careful to not run them down as they blindly rush in. (Don't worry! Just joking!)

It's been a great day.