grackles – The Hermits' Rest

Sedate Samhain

There was very little spookiness for this year’s observance of the pagan new year (for some of us) or Halloween (for others). Tomorrow I’ll walk through the metaphorical door into the darkness/introspection/changes and we’ll see what happens next.

It’s vaguely autumnal now, with honey locust leaves turning.

Lee and I drove out to Temple to get me some bird feeders/seed at Wild Birds Unlimited, but it’s gone. So I managed to find substitutes at Lowe’s and Tractor Supply. Now that winter’s coming I want to supplement my stump feeder with a couple of hanging ones. All the winter sparrows and friends might enjoy variety. The House Sparrows won’t care.

We visited the antiques store area in downtown Temple, and I found two purple tea light holders from PartyLite, where I used to get a LOT of candles a few decades ago.

I got two for four dollars, and one is $14 on Etsy, so I did well.

We also went to a very fun kinda goth antique-ish shop that I’m pretty sure is where my kids hang out. Lots of macabre and odd items. We enjoyed it, other than the incense, which messed Lee up.

The day wasn’t entirely un-creepy, though. Everywhere we went today there were way too many Grackles way too close to me. I’d try to look at a cabbage plant, and out would pop a Grackle. Lee nearly stepped on one, too. Sure, Grackles are common near retail outlets, but these were extra! Then, when I complimented a sales person in one of the stores for her feather earrings, she explained that she was dressed to evoke the spirit of a Grackle. Black feather necklace, feather print wrap and even iridescent eyeshadow. Time to go back to the ranch, where more sedate Grackles live in reasonable numbers.

We’re just shiny, hungry, highly adaptable birds. Settle down, Suna, or I’ll peck you like a discarded French fry!

Then I scared myself. For context, we’ve just finished this season of the Scariest House in America show with the marvelous and sartorially splendid Retta.

In the show, people talked about hearing noises and invisible people talking in their haunted homes. This appeared to stick with me, because as I was walking back from horse feeding, I kept hearing sounds like a gate opening. Then I heard a woman’s voice, but couldn’t identify it. Eek! I even called out, “Hello!” As if that would help.

The horses often make the chains on the gates jingle.

Only when I scurried into the house did I realize my phone (in my back pocket) was playing an ad. My phone is usually on silent, but I’d turned it up to change Siri’s voice and forgotten to turn it down. I butt tuned something! Gee whiz. I set myself up for that!

I hope you had/have a good holiday weekend. El día de los muertes is tomorrow. I’m gonna ask my dad to watch out for me. it can’t hurt.

Rambling Along

Yep, we fired up good ole Seneca, hooked the Jeep up, and left on a journey —during the work week! Well, the company I am contracted to takes two weeks off at the end of the year, so the contractors do, too. Other than not being paid, it’s nice to have a break. So, no complaints over what I can’t control, and I’m ready for fun.

I now have a rock as a birding station sign. My idea of fun.

Before we left, I got all the plants and animals cared for. They have my son to watch over them, so all is well for them. I just miss them. I enjoyed the birds, as usual, and got 52 species before we left! The variety of sparrows, warblers, woodpeckers, hawks, and waterfowl astounds me.

On the other hand, the sheer number of grackles by the restaurant where we ate dinner also astounded me.

But wait, before we left I got pictures of what Lee and I thought was a broken tree limb. That’s what it looked like from a distance, but when I got closer it was clear that it was a sapling with just one branch, covered with yellow leaves. I will try to get closer when we get back, to figure out what kind of tree it is. Many species have yellow autumn leaves here.

We were happy to get that figured out, and were able to make the familiar trek through the Eagle Ford Shale region, which is full of oil wells and wind turbines. Texas is big on wind and solar as well as oil! Eventually we got to Lake Corpus Christi State Park, which I chose because I figured it would be quiet at Christmas. It’s not a “destination” park like some of them.

We managed to arrive before dark, which made setup easier. It’s a pull-through site, which is also convenient.

I got a little walk in and got to see some butterflies, plants, and a nice group of young deer at dusk. I can’t wait to try other trails.

We went to dinner at our favorite barbecue place, Smolick’s Smokehouse, where we ate last time we were here. The staff was still overly friendly and the history of Mathis, Texas all over the walls is fascinating. I enjoyed pulled pork with braised cabbage. Yum.

Lee told me to quit remarking about the grackles, but they always crack me up in big groups. Note the ghostly grackle in the upper middle. Spooky.

I’m looking forward to a few days of rest and exploration. Getting to explore is the best gift Lee could give me. I bid you good night as I listen to coyotes in the distance.

Holiday Traditions Are Few This Year

Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

If they are referring to the winter holidays, like the Solstice or Christmas, then there’s only been one constant since my children were little, and that’s to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We used to eat them while opening gifts.

Something cheerful: Vlassic running at sunset.

For many, many reasons I’m not doing much for Christmas this year. It’s going to be a hard one for much of my family, and I’m not feeling very celebratory. I’m just going to go somewhere with Lee, if we can get someone to feed dogs and medicate Apache.

Speaking of horses, I caught Drew and Fiona being friendly today.

If not, I’ll stay home and eat cinnamon rolls then cook a meal for the same people I cooked Thanksgiving for. Maybe I’ll make pork loin and correct cranberry sauce. I think there will be small, handmade gifts for people.

You know, I think I just don’t want to do anything religious. I’m not happy with things being done in the name of religion these days, especially the ones stemming from Moses and his tribes. I’m disappointed in wars, book banning, misogyny, religious intolerance, and fundamentalism. All of it.

For the solstice, which at least predates Christmas, there will be candles and maybe a fire if the place we go has a fireplace. I’ll make decorations out of things from the woods and put intentions of peace into them.

It will be fine to skip materialism and shiny things for one year and concentrate on helping struggling loved ones however I can.

Daily Bird

We had some rain today, but it only rained hard briefly. It did quiet the birds down. The daily birds just have to be the European starlings.

As I went out to slog through the puddles to feed the horses, I heard sounds like tiny bells. It was a huge flock of starlings heading off to some field now that the sun was back out. It always amazes me how many there are.

I learned in a magazine that the flocks often contain the local grackles as well. Blackbirds like each other, I guess. I’m never going to love grackles, those resourceful parking lot scroungers with the incredibly annoying whistles, the great-tailed grackles. I’ll work on it.

A Monday’s a Monday, No Matter Where You Are

And today is Tuesday! I didn’t manage to get a blog post up yesterday, because I was just, as my mom used to say, “too pooped to pop” in the evening. It’s not that I did anything all that exciting, but I did the part of my work that takes a lot of mental energy, training.

Now, I’m both a technical writer and a technical trainer, so I have the skills. And I love to do training. It’s so rewarding to get people up and running with software, hardware, or heck, even knitting. I enjoy interacting with people, getting them to relax, and helping them individually. It’s just that it takes a lot out of an introvert to actually DO it. Thus, after two classes and a couple of individual sessions yesterday, I just needed to stare at a wall and go to sleep.

Or I could stare at the ocean, which for much of today looked like a gray curtain.

I feel way better today and have already been writing and getting stuff done while Lee packs up to drive back to Texas. It’s been stormy this morning, so he’s waiting a bit to start driving. He just loves doing this, so I’m wishing him well, while at the same time looking forward to flying home (if planes aren’t as weird on me as they have been for so many folks this year).

It’s been stormy, cloudy, and sunny so far today, and that was all before 10 am.

In between training sessions, Lee and I drove up to the first town in North Carolina, Calabash, where we’ve been before. It is an extra-cute little town that still has a lot of fishing boats, so you get very fresh seafood in its restaurants. The one I like best doesn’t open until 4pm on Mondays, so we ate at the one with the most annoying (but fun, in a way) birds, instead.

Boat-tailed grackles (the one on the right is a female)

We got enough food that I’ll have lots of leftover shrimp that I’ll peel the breading from and add to my highly creative solo meals for the next week or so. We gamely fought off the grackles and seagulls, while sort of enjoying their antics at the same time. At least I got to look at a marsh and some boats, so I was happy. The whole outing only took two hours, which was fine, since I had to teach a class from 5-6 pm anyway (it was scheduled for Central Time). All was well.

Laughing gulls waiting for us to leave so they could inspect our plates.

It’s back to my “normal” working from a condo schedule for a while now. I do my best to fit in working out in the gym (treadmill) and sitting in the sun a little while every day, with a visit to the sports bar to chat with the friendly bartenders and customers in the evening. And oh yeah…I can watch streaming television to my heart’s content. I don’t even know what shows I’ll watch,