Blossoms and Birds

It is April and already we have had a day that reached 28 degreed. I am going to cook in July.

For those of you thinking about visiting, late March and early April are a good choice because everything is blooming now before The Great Wilting (a.k.a. summer) starts. I can't even begin to name the wild flowers we see everyday on our walk to work though the Valley of the Cross. Without even really looking, I would guess there are near a dozen different species that have bloomed this month. We have seen little daisies and big showy poppies, little red fellows and purple thistles, strings of bright bright yellow pompoms and fruit blossoms.
The only flower I can name with any certainty are the purple flowers on the Rosemary shrubs which is EVERYwhere along path edges, and I have decided it is stupid to continue buying it a the grocery store when I walk past fifty waist high plants every day.

Along with the flowers, there are all sorts of strange birds. One little blue fellow visits our pine tree each day. Somewhere between a hummingbird and a sparrow, he flashes his iridescent feathers, belts out a few surprisingly loud calls and then flies off to another tree to assert his territory with Napoleonic zeal. Almost every day on the walk to work we see a flash of a wood pecker, a lazy roosting jay (the fluffy guy in the pic), or a scuttling fowl.

We always see squawking magpies. The Middle Eastern variety are a dowdy black and grey. Poor James and his bright blue shirt must have offended the orthodox sensibilities of a local campus magpie last week. The magpie let his opinion of James' shirt be known with a fecal bomb. Luckily after a good washing the shirt survived but James' ego remains a little bruised.

Who are we kidding, this post was all about showing off my pics.