Birds of a Feather...

...tend to shit up the bird feeder.

So hey, we made it to Friday! I took Danny downtown to the arts festival. We didn't buy anything, mostly because I'm not really into quilted diaper bags and airbrushed pictures of bald eagles, but that's what passes for art around here. There were some nice bronze statues, but that was well beyond my budget. There was jazz music, and a festive atmosphere, so it wasn't a complete waste of an hour.

Before we get to the clothes, would you look at this photograph Danny took of some mushrooms growing in our neighbour's beauty bark. We've had record breaking rains over the last few days (and baseball sized hail, and 80 mph straight line winds) so the mushrooms are quite happily multiplying. They really are amazing. Over the past couple of days these have grown, died, and new ones taken their place. Very short lived. Unless they're alien, and this is the start of a sci-fi horror story in which case, we're probably already screwed. My mushroom expert son tells me these are Mycena galopus. Spell checker doesn't know what that is, but now you do.

This is my favourite wrap skirt. Purchased about 20 years ago in Lynn, Mass. I wear it every summer, because being a wrap skirt, it is forgiving and has seen me through thin, heavily pregnant, and somewhere between. Made of a lovely barkcloth, it is durable and has hardly faded since I bought it. Whomever made it did a fantastic job. Let's have a closer look at the fabric, as it is so cute.

 I don't mind images of birds, I just don't care to get too close to real ones. I had about 8 Grackles fighting at the feeder yesterday doing the feather puffing to show the other birds who the bigger bird is. Just like teenage boys. The Robin showed up and ran them all off-just like an old woman.

 Our neighbor down the road gets finches at her feeder as she has seeds. As we all feed different things on the block (and have a giant maple tree) it really does turn our little corner into a bird sanctuary of sorts.

It is like a sauna outside. Once the dew-point gets near 70, it is pretty unpleasant. I bought about a dozen of these tee shirts last year in black and white. They are tissue-thin, cotton, and they drape beautifully. When I find something I really like, I stock-up. I once ordered 10 pair of black ballerina flats, and when the last pair went a couple years ago, I was sad I hadn't bought more. They lasted close to a decade. These shirts won't survive that long, but for inexpensive tee shirts they are surprisingly well made. Mr. ETB  wears an undershirt, and long sleeved shirt to work each day. His car does not have air conditioning. True, it is a very short commute, but I couldn't get a block from home like that. Sure, he's not menopausal, but I've never liked the heat.

I live in the centre of the United States. Not the technical, geographical centre (that's not far from here in Kansas) but still pretty damn land-locked. We have the Missouri River, and the Platte River, and some beautiful lakes for swimming and boating, but it isn't the same as a Great Lake, or an ocean.  I admit, seashells seems rather out of place in these parts, but perhaps that's all the more reason to wear them. We don't even see snails.

I've been doing a relaxed up-do with a couple ponytails tucked into each other. It works, keeps my hair kinda-sorta out of my face, and looks like I at least attempted to do something with my hair (because obviously, I haven't been colouring it. Gah, the more I look at these photos the more I'm tempted to just dye it silver-blue and be done with it. I don't know why I'm so chicken-shit about colouring it. I had every colour of the rainbow when I was young).

Finally, tomorrow is the first Saturday of the month and that means the big book sale at Swanson branch library in Omaha. 10-3. Corner of 90th and Dodge. There's an ongoing Thursday sale as well. The books come from a variety of sources, mostly donated, though there's plenty that have come from library branches (where they replace with newer copies). Last time I went there were books donated from the library of the Joslyn museum and I brought home some beautiful, unusual books for very little money. There's a rare book room as well with out-of-print and collectible editions. The gentleman who runs that room has been putting up with Danny flipping the lights out on him for at least seven years, and he always manages to do a good job of acting surprised. Now that Danny is getting too old to do this, he just says hello, but sometimes he'll whisper, "Boo!" just for old time's sake. After so many years, it is wonderful to have a group of people who are like family that we can visit with-and unlike family, we still like each other.

If you're a local and plan to attend, drop me an email and maybe we can grab coffee.

Have a great weekend everyone.