A Year

My most beloved Sugar Franklin died a year ago tonight.  I often wear the locket that contains some of her ashes, as I did today.

My official retirement from work is next Friday.  My office is nearly cleared out and I've decluttered my home office almost enough to have everything fit.  I have no idea how things are going to turn out, but my plan is to finally get some serious writing done and then worry about what to do.  I've had too many projects left half finished because of time and stress; now I'm hoping to at least get caught up.

Transitions

It's been dreadfully hot and humid the past few weeks.  Storms yesterday, and a nice peaceful day today in the mid-80s.

I've had a good Saturday.  Farmer's market early this morning, then some serious decluttering of my home office.  Threw out three big bags of trash, and took two big loads to Goodwill.

Birdies and I had fresh, sweet corn on the cob for lunch, and I also had tomatoes with cottage cheese.

The big news is that I finally found a way to take early retirement!  I'll still have to work, of course, but I won't have to worry about being destitute.  My last day at that place will be October 8.  

I'm applying for online instructor jobs and I won't mind working part-time for the university, but I won't ever have to go back to the place that's been driving me crazy for the past three or four years.  There's even a good chance I'll be able to get enough peace of mind back to get some writing done.

I've been missing Sugar Franklin a lot the past week or so.  This time last year she and I were engaged in the mighty battle of cockatiel beak versus syringe.  She always won.  I was looking for something in the outside storage building the other day, and the first thing I saw was her cage.  I didn't clean it very well when I put it out there, so I was thinking today maybe I should just throw it out.  In the unlikely event I ever get another bird it will always be her cage.  I think I have another cage just like it in another storage area.  We don't have any rescues in this area, so there's really no one to give it to.

The Bobbsey Twins are just as silly as always, arguing over which perch to sleep on, throwing any poisonous substances such as vegetables out of the food dishes, demanding Nutriberries every night.

Charli is well, though I think she's been a bit more quiet lately.  More happy to sit on my knee and doze or hang out on the basket in the plant stand after a hard session of chewing up the sudoku book.  She's had a few more yellow feathers come in on her legs.  Someone on the brown-head list has noticed this on his brown-head as well; he likens it to getting gray hair.  Charli is about 11 now, maybe moving into the beginning of middle age for a brown-headed parrot.

I worry sometimes that I give her more attention than I do the Bobbsey Twins, but she demands more while the cockatiels have one another and don't seem to mind if I'm around or not (as long as there are plenty of treats available).

Bobbsey Twins

Sometimes the boys come out of their cage and decide to trek across the living room floor.  I managed to get some of their latest trip on film.

O Happy Day!

I went to the Farmers' Market again this morning.  Among the haul was a nice stalk of broccoli, which Charli fell in love with as you can see (the broccoli is on a skewer).

 

Here, she's hanging upside down with her wings spread out a little bit.  She loves raw broccoli!

Later on I gave her some clean pea pods after shelling out the fresh peas.  She thought they were mighty tasty, too.

Then, miracle of miracles!  I dropped about 5 fresh organic blueberries in her food dish.  O Joy, Joy, Joy!

Yes, I gave goodies to the Bobbsey Twins, too, but they are most definitely not interested in anything edible unless it's seed or nuts, which I'm not providing today.  They'll just have to call the ASPCA and report me!

Now all the birds are taking naps.  It looks like rain, so I think I'll take a little nap, too.

Lazy Saturday

I managed to get up, get showered, and get out early this morning.  First, a quick trip to S's Bakery for doughnuts that make Krispy Kremes look and taste like lumps of lead.  They're only open a few days a week and on Saturdays; they're always sold out by 10 am.  They refuse to franchise.

Then my second trip of the season to the farmer's market.  The city finally built a nice pavillion (above) and the stands stretch around the entire block.  I got there about 7:45 so it wasn't crowded yet.  Today's purchases were fresh sugar snap peas, new potatoes, a cucumber, a heavy red tomato, two ears of corn, and a huge stalk of broccoli.  

The Bobbsey Twins and I like raw broccoli florettes; Charli likes the stalk.  So everyone got good stuff.

For supper I tried two new recipes from allrecipes.com for the sugar snap peas and roasted potatoes.  The birds were completely uninterested in either, possibly because neither had almonds involved.

For dessert I had a slice of french vanilla pound cake, topped with homemade vanilla ice cream and slices of fresh peach.

I've been trying to eat a little better -- I have no illusion I'll ever eat as well as they do over on Parrot Musings -- but more vegetables, less meat, less sugar and fat, and no HFCS.  One bite at a time.

The Gulf of Mexico continues to die.  Perhaps BP isn't working on a Saturday, especially a holiday weekend -- the oil spill cam doesn't look a bit different today than it did yesterday.   I'm being sarcastic, of course.  Beats screaming.