It’s quiet now. Shelley and I are the only ones here, and the neighborhood kids aren’t outside playing yet. I’m sitting here looking out my window at the tree growing just off our porch. I love that tree. It is most of what I see, instead of the next apartment building or the parking lot. We may hang up a birdhouse there to invite more winged visitors.
We played D&D, our “home game” Rose & Crown, last night. wordcandlemage has been in it from time to time, which isn’t odd at all since it’s really a continuation of the Stars & Garters campaign that ended a year or so back. curiousmay9 joined us for the first time, playing a character who has been an NPC in the past. She got too much sun yesterday and was worn out, so she cuddled up under a quilt on the couch and looked very cute for the most part. LJ-less J joined us for the first time with a new character, simply because he was desperate to play again this weekend and the biweekly game he’s in wasn’t happening.
It was fun, although wordcandlemage and I are so used to each other and our character’s relationship is so set that it was rather odd to have other people involved. Not bad, just different.
We had chicken cordon bleu for dinner, and wordcandlemage turned mashed potatoes into something far better than I’m accustomed to. curiousmay9 brought fresh strawberries and a cake to eat them on, and there’s not so much as a seed of the strawberries left. They were delicious!
Shelley definitely appreciated the expanded staff and has had much scritching. She wasn’t so happy about getting her claws trimmed, so only 3 of 4 paws actually got done—but that’s progress!
I enjoyed showing the “new Mac switch” commercials, especially the Jesus one, to curiousmay9 this morning. She’s an avowed Mac user, so she really loved them.
J went home, and the other two rode across town with curiousmay9 to get her truck for the moving of furniture. I sent off another box of stuff we aren’t using that she will find useful—yay! And more trash went out. We’re getting there, truly!
Oh, there’s a female cardinal on the birdfeeder! She seems a bit wary as if she’s not entirely sure this smorgasbord (there are 3 feeders, all with different contents) is for real. As I recall, though, cardinals are largely ground feeders. I need to remember to put out a dish of seed on the ground for them. I think she’s getting plenty that’s been littered about by other critters, though. And she certainly knocked off more when she launched from the feeder on which she had perched—did she do that on purpose? I think she might have.
I haven’t seen any squirrels since we’ve been here, but I have seen chipmunks. Not on the porch yet, but I figure they’ll come eventually. The sheer number of children who play right out there is going to lessen the amount of wildlife that comes to the feeders, though. And I don’t have water out there yet—a source of clean, fresh water really does draw many of them better than food.
Shelly loves to sit here in front of the windows, too, watching the wildlife. There isn’t nearly as much of it as at our old place, and I doubt there ever will be—but we’re doing all we can to draw them here. I do wish there was a way to screen in the porch and put the feeders just outside the screens. Or, more accurately, I wish the apartment complex would allow us to do so. I know we could do it, quite simply—I just don’t think they’d be happy with us for doing so. Shelley could go out for fresh air on a screened porch, and I know she misses that.
I want some of those long, narrow planters that are designed to sit along (and clamp to, preferably) the railing of a porch or deck. I need to find something pretty and fragrant that would grow year-round that way, though, or perhaps I could just rotate what’s out there at different parts of the year. I’m very fond of plants right now. Herbs would be nice, or flowers. Or both. I don’t know what I want, exactly, as I know very little about plants and gardening. Of course, I don’t know much about birds, either, but have learned much more about what different sorts like in the last few years.
I haven’t done my morning pages today or yesterday, which has me feeling a bit off-kilter. Yesterday I bounced out of bed to start working and didn’t even think about them until later. Today there were guests here, and I didn’t want to be rude. Tomorrow, definitely! Oh—I just realized that I didn’t do an artist’s date this week. Not so good. Ah well—I forgive myself for it.
