Guess Again Ms. Know-it-all!

Side note to yesterday's report on Mommy Nancy's visit last weekend. She saw a small bird in my backyard, and picked my ever handy Field Guide to North American Birds.

Nancy: "I found it... hum... Black Phoebe... it was this one, a juvenile... it had brown on the wings."

Know-it-all-Claire: "Naw, that wasn't a juvenile, it was an adult, they're solid black with a snowy white belly. "

Nancy: "I thought I saw like a reddish brown on the wings."

Know-it-all-Claire: "No, no, there's an adult or two that always hang around the yard."

So, flash forward to this morning, I look out the window and whom do I see lined up on the Pool fence?

Juvie Line-up
Waiting for MaBaby Phoebes! Honestly, I'm tickled half to death. I wish I could be home every day to watch the little guys line up for their chow, and their harried parents. They all ignore me, but when a Scrub Jay buzzed in, the entire family was off in a flash. You know how it is when THAT creepy neighbor comes calling. You just have to pretend you're out!

Feeding time at last

Girly Weekend - Part II

I can't say I was a traditional Sex and the City (SatC) fan, because I never watched it on HBO, I watched it via a weekend SatC DVD fest. Still, as soon as I heard of the SatC movie, I began plans for seeing it with a buddy or two. Barbara and I originally planned to see it on it's opening night of its release, which would have been in Denver, the night before flying home. Alas, our vacation was cut short. No biggie - Mommy Nancy decided to see it with me. After the play last night, she came home with me and we watched a few episodes of SatC on tv.

So we got up this morning, ate a LONG breakfast, sat in the back yard yakking, went for a quick swim, then headed for the movies in Roseville.

Even though SatC has been out since late May, it was still sold out when we got to the theater. No biggie - we got tickets for the next screening but that meant (drat!) we had to go next door to the theater for a yummy sushi lunch at Mikuni's Japanese restaurant *belch*.

Totally enjoyed the movie, though I admit, I enjoyed having company to sit in the back yard with even more. I don't really sit out in my back yard much. I don't even have lawn furniture out there anymore because every freakn' kitty in the neighborhood gets more lounge time on the furniture than I do (I do have foldable camp chairs which are quite comfy, thankyouverymuch).

Hey! While on the topic of the garden, I never showed off what happened to the stuff I planted back in March.

A bumper crop of Denia Lillies in early May

Not only did the lilies bloom, but they had the good graces to bloom before I went on vacation AND while I had company. I have a humongous rock in the center of the pot above, so Rum-kitty doesn't bed down on and kill these lillies like he did some Oriental Lilies I planted a few years ago. I am still waiting for the Nerine Bowdenii flowers to bloom. Maybe they're not willing to come up while the lilies are offering such competition.

Don't be too impressed - this pot is currently a pansy's vision of HELL.
Aha! And below is the first and only orchid that my birding buddy done gave me that lived. I think I've murdered some twenty something orchids from him. HEY! We can't all have green thumbs you know. I think this one lived because I ignored it. Sometimes a plant, well you know, it just wants to be left alone.

Cymbidium Survior

A Girly Weekend - Part I

Tonight I saw The Secret Garden; last of this year’s Davis Musical Theater season. I love the book, and was anxious to find out if the musical is any good. I was thinking possibly not, because ages ago I bought a used audio cassette of the musical and the music made no sense to me at all.

In The Secret Garden, the spoiled brat heroine Mary Lennox travels to England after everyone she knows in India drops dead of Cholera, over night. So Mary moved to England to live with her only relative, a strange hump-backed Uncle who, of course, lived in a typically wealthy gothic mansion & grounds. Here’s the thing - the child is accompanied by uninvited travelers; the ghosts of her past life. She’s not the only one either, her Uncle Archie entertains many of the same ghosts since his beloved wife’s death. So for the entire play there were ghosts in and out, singing along with all the action (to demo what happened before Mary came to England). So, that’s why nothing made sense to me until tonight, when I saw the live production.

I didn’t go alone of course, I went my theater buddy Cornetta & I invited Mommy Nancy. We had fun, the theater company obviously saved the best for last – who knew Davis had so many amateur, yet stage quality singers. How does the town pull that off? How!?

Nancy & Cornetta; divas of the theater

Yes, I cut myself out of the photo. So sue me.

HEY, I'm talking hair!

Whew! The 2 day marathon in Vallejo is o-vah! My hair is officially wearing the look that I hope, as the Scotts say, will 'see me ooot (out)'. I wrote a while back that while in Colorado I was told about a new style (system?) of 'braiding' hair called Sister Locks. So that's what I was doing all weekend, getting my hair done by a nice lady, Lana, my new 'hair consultant'. She was sweet enough to let me just stay at her house for the entire braid-a-thon, saving me the (1.5 hr drive) between Fair Oaks & Vallejo on Saturday night.

The entertainment while getting my hair done was a marathon of movies, from I am Legend & Good Luck Chuck to The Bucket List - 5 movies in all. The Bucket List the most thought provoking. I'm now formulating my own bucket list (things I want to accomplish/enjoy before I kick it). I was insufferably pleased to realize I've already crossed several things from 'Claire's Bucket List', such as seeing Alaska, birding Yellowstone & the Florida Everglades, seeing a Blue Whale and getting my birding life list up over 500. V. cool. On the flip side, some things on my list are doomed to failure. For example, my Mr. Right must have died in Viet Nam or more likely, last week in San Francisco, he married Mr. Right.

Ok, back to my hair. Here's a smiggin of a photo immediately after my hair was done. Notice how very fine the individual 'Sister Locks' or 'braids' are. Again, cool.

Fresh Locks
It's going to take a while for the hair to settle in and not look drastic. What with my pale scalp and dark hair, my head looks like a checkerboard just now. I'm thinking 'scarf' - at least for a month or two.