Small Moldy Jam Jam

 

Today I worked from home, since it's Spring Break at our university and very quiet. The weather was gorgeous, so Travalon and I took a couple of walks, and he took photos of birds. I even wore shorts today! Just after he left for work, my Belleek Nenagh Castle ornament arrived. 

There is one more castle ornament I want to get, and I am going to get a $15 gift certificate for having given blood, so once that arrives, I can order it. That should do it for now for Belleek castles.

In the evening I did something new: I went to a small Moldy Jam. This is how they have done them for years, before the music club opened - they get together at people's houses and jam. This was in a cooperative housing apartment building, in the "music room," appropriately enough, and I finally bit the bullet and signed up for one because I knew the hostess and I knew the area, right near the music club. There was a parking lot behind the building, which I never knew was there. It's so close to the music club, it's tempting to park there when I'm going there. I suspected there might be a break with snacks and I shouldn't come empty-handed, so I brought the bag of Late July Street Corn-Flavored Corn Chips we had just bought yesterday. Also, I had asked the hostess if I should bring the fiddle or the mandolin, and she said the mandolin, which turned out to be a great option because then I could play either melody or chords, depending on how I felt about it. The woman next to me had an iPad, so I could cheat and look at the chords and the notes. We played and played, and then we took a break and I ate way too much, since I hadn't been hungry for dinner and there was such good stuff there. Cheese and crackers are my weakness, and I had some very un-Lenten Godiva peanut butter chocolate things. (I brought one home for Travalon to make it up to him for the chips, which were mostly devoured. We still have a few.) Then we played again, and when we left, there was quite a lightning show playing across the sky.

Here are some of the many photos Travalon has taken of birds lately. First, some ring-necked ducks near our dock.

Here is a male ring-necked duck with a female bufflehead.

And a male bufflehead flapping his wings.

A pair of mallards and a pair of northern shovelers.

I asked Travalon to take these photos of a cloud with a reddish tinge on the far lefthand side.

Here is a male northern shoveler:

We saw a whole flock of grackles fly into this tree.

Those photos were all from Wednesday evening, when we sat out on the dock because it was so pleasant out. These next photos are from yesterday at Picnic Point. We saw tons of coots.

The two at the bottom of the next photo seem to be having an argument:

We also saw buffleheads.

The male and the female bufflehead:

I'm not sure what the coot in the middle of this photo is doing:

If you look closely, you can see the male bufflehead's little pink feet trailing behind him in this next photo:

These photos are from today off our dock. Here is a male blue-winged teal.

And our old pal Tux Duck.

A male bufflehead launching into flight.

These next two photos are of a female common merganser.

So, as you can see, we still have lots of types of ducks around our dock. 

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