Thoughts from Crow Cottage (My Main Blog.)

crowbelle's Diaryland Diary

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Making Progress

Making Progress...

I didn't realize almost two weeks had gone by since my last journal entry. It's well into February now and not much is happening around here, except for the slow progress on our stairs by Paul.

Since I change the leading photo above every so often, I'll include it here for later.

Paul has been home since his operation. He's doing fine. He started working on the stairs again, installing the ballusters, of which there will be 9. He has 3 more left to do - possibly today sometime. He's tried to get out fishing this week, but weather conditions have prevented him from going. Nothing really severe, yet, just wind and cold. But tonight sometime we are expecting to get wolloped with a Nor'easter bringing with it over a foot of snow to our area.

Not looking forward to that!

Jazzy has enough trouble in the clear weather getting up and down the front stairs, but with snow everywhere, it's a real challenge for all of us.

Paul hasn't seen the endocrinologist yet. He hasn't heard anything yet from his PCP, either. So we're in limbo regarding his next step - thyroid scanning and then radioactive iodine treatment. My guess is that it will take place just when he's wanting to get out on the water in the spring and pull up lobster traps. That's why he scheduled his surgery for January in the first place, so he wouldn't miss much work. Oh well, we're grateful for how things have turned out. If he never went in for his physical last summer, he'd never have known he had those tiny epithelial thyroid cancer cells in his neck in the first place.

I've been sitting here, watching the adventures of the back yard critters all vying for a spot at the peanut dish. I've got multiple squirrels, and about 3 or 4 blue jays, and a whole slew of what I call crows, but which are probably more correctly called "blackbirds" of some sort. Don't crows have orange beaks? These guys are big and black and have black beaks. But I love them anyway. They are gentle souls. They are the angels who watch over our home (Crow Cottage) after all.

The squirrels come right away when I put out the peanuts in the morning. They scurry back and forth, grabbing a peanut, stuffing it in their mouths, and then away to the railing to munch on it in peace. Then the bluejays show up, and grab a nut and fly off. All the while, this family of "crows" sits up in the tree above, watching intently as the others have their meals. Finally, when the coast is clear, they come down and sit on the railing, big as life not 8 feet from me behind the sliding glass doors, and wait for just the right moment to jump into one of the planter pots where I put several handfuls of nuts. They will jump down and grab one and then try to figure out how to get into it, holding it with one foot and pecking at the shell with their beaks. Eventually they fly off and do finish it up elsewhere, sometimes down in the dogs' yard below.

With a foot of snow coming tonight and all day tomorrow, I have to be sure I dig out their nut dish so they can find it. I have a heated water dish out there which does well in the snow, and they all know it's there and use it regularly.

We are really lucky to have found this house almost 20 years ago. It's near civilization but it's in the woods too. Conservation land abuts our neighborhood, and in back of the house we have a small wooded area where all these creatures live and visit. I'd prefer to be way out in the country, maybe down the coast of Maine somewhere, near the ocean and the woods, but hey, I can't complain.

Before I married Paul, I was one sad case living from hand to mouth, barely able to pay my rent in a small 2 bedroom apartment and not many prospects for a meaningful life ahead. He saved me from all that, and took me with him on this adventure that has been our married life of 20 years come May. And no, we are not doing anything big to celebrate. We both love the quiet life, and just being here together with our sweet collie-dogs is the best way to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

Well, better wrap this up. The peanut dish is getting low, and the critters will be wending their way back to their nests soon, and I just may go up and do some work for a few hours. Have to earn money to keep these creatures rolling in peanuts, after all!

Cheers,

Bex

9:06 am - 11 February 2006

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