Lazy days

The other day I decided to plop down in the shade in my back yard and watch birds. I didn't expect much. I'd only noticed the usual weedy birds in my yard before -- starlings, house sparrows, assorted blackbirds, mockingbirds, robins, pigeons. At least I could try to sort out the blackbirds and just watch everybody fool around. So, I was surprised when a brown bird with peachy orange on its belly wasn't a young robin after all. It had a rather stylish bearing when perched and was darting around in flycatchery fashion catching things in midair.

The novelty turned out to be a Say's phoebe, common around here but new to me and therefore a small thrill. Turns out now that this bird not only hangs around my yard daily but was nesting, as today she's feeding two fledglings perched on my electric box.

The nice thing about starting over in a new location is that so much is new to me. I get beginner thrills all over again.

Sadly, Starbucks doesn't want me after all. I got no call, and I'm "free to re-apply." I wonder if it's worth a try. Everybody tells me they don't see old fogies like me serving up coffee at Starbucks. Hmmm. Their loss.