Owl

It may be shark week on Discovery Channel, but it's bird of prey week here, as the only sharks at the beach were the ones I drew in a picture. Believe me, I was looking for the real thing...

Anyway, I think the hawk got fed up with me and my camera and left, but last night, the sky looked cool, so I borrowed Dad's tripod and set up to get the twilight and the moon and the dead tree. Then a kind owl landed in the tree to made it that much better. Actually, now that I think about it, "kind" may not be the best word to describe the owl. Earlier in the evening, before the sky started looking cool, we found owl pellets under that same tree. The (masked and gloved) kids tore them apart and found a skull, and some other bones of smaller animals. Maybe ribs, or feet, definitely teeth.

In fact, after model owl was done posing for photos, he flew out of the tree and landed on the ground. Just guessing more pellets are on the way.

California Birds

These guys hang out in the tree in mom and dad's yard. I took these from the front patio.

The hawk on the right is swearing at me because I didn't leave when he glared.

Mr. Oriole. His Mrs. was nearby.

Hopes and Promises

Young Adventurer drew this today to send to his sister who is at camp. He saw one at camp and hopes she gets to see one too.

Young Adventurer and I also ate lunch at his favorite restaurant, after mailing letters to camp. Then we went and painted pottery. He had a brilliant idea and took two hours to execute it on a bowl. It could be awesome. We will see in a few days. I painted one too. It has nothing to do with driving on sidewalks and contains no images of fish. All this was quite expensive, even with coupons. Not as expensive, however as it will be for a certain person (who made some rash promises last night) to buy five new (and expensive) items for Young Adventurer as he is now expecting and eagerly awaiting. You know who you are. You may have to sell your car.

Venom is home from her adventure. She had fun the entire time. Not a single negative thing to say about anything. She might want to have an adventure like this again sometime. The cell phone was not overused or abused. Good precedent. A certain little black dog was very glad to see her. The dog and the girl smiled.

What is your brain like?

This evening I was driving in the car with Young Adventurer. I was asking him questions about school. He must have gotten tired of the questions, because he informed me that the portion of his brain that deals with school had shut down for the weekend. He then proceeded to describe his brain as a bunch of condos. Some of the condos are shuttered at various times (his words, not mine). Currently the school condo is shuttered, indicating that it is not available. Do guys compartmentalize? Well, he's a little young to have heard that sort of description applied to men, and he was applying it to himself. 

If nothing else, I was entertained by picturing his brain as a condo complex. I wonder if there is an HOA? I did tell him that I thought it was interesting to picture his brain as condos. He said the condos were wrinkly and brain-like. 

Ha! Did you think only cold places had snow?

In other news, I bought the ingredients for Christmas Party Egg Rolls today. Now I just need some time to cook.

Venom is concertmaster for tomorrow's concert.

Adventurer Two is not feeling too great. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. She thinks Asthma stinks.

There was some sort of bird of prey in a neighbor's tree watching my little dogs in the yard a few mornings ago. It was not as big as a hawk. Maybe a kestrel. It was too early in the morning for my camera to get a good picture.  There are no other birds in the yard now. Have they all flown south, or is it the predator in residence?