The major heat seems to have left us for a while; there's an ease to the air we breathe when the temperatures are in the 90's and not triple digits for days on end. Even Not-Kathy had to agree that 97 is remarkably better than 107.
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Mr. Packrat came today, and left an assessment of the situation for our consideration: an aerial view of the property, with numbered areas of concern. Some are within the courtyard, some outside the pony wall, and some further out toward the edges of our domain.
Deciding which ones to remove and destroy is presenting a quasi-moral dilemma for me; these are living beings, whose ancestors were here before me and will be here long after I'm gone. Who am I to decide who shall live and who shall die?
It didn't take long to come up with an answer - I live here and these things are not healthy to have around and so those in immediate proximity to the home and the outdoor spaces we frequent will have to go. Those further out can live their lives in peace.... at least for now.
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Tucson is on a migratory path of a number of tiny species.
An LYT just alit on the crepe myrtle outside my window, and is listening to me type as it pecks at the goodies within the seed pods.
The pods are shaped like the bells on the tips of Santa's elves shoes. They must be very tasty; my bird is back on the smaller bush, snacking away.
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Oh.... an LYT? Little Yellow Thing.
It's an all purpose answer to any nature question at all.
For example: What's that flower? LBT (blue)
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And that gets me thinking about hiking and how the pine needles felt under my feet when Miss Nancy and I hiked Deer Valley in Marin. This is the time of year when the trails are at their finest, the transitional weeks with a little bit of this and a little bit of that everywhere you turn.
I'm going to work on my endurance and try to take myself out into the natural world more often.... at higher elevations.... where the temperatures are in the 70's ..... because, after all, even though it's a dry heat, ninety degrees is still ninety degrees.
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It's cool enough to swim at noon these days. A few weeks ago the top of my head hurt if I paused too long between laps.
TBG and I have made an outing out of our pool time; we admire the scenery, smell the fresh air, and sing along to the oldies as we go up and back, six or eight or sometimes no strokes at all, just a strong push off the edge and a gentle glide to the other side, working on lung capacity and feeling the stillness, watching the shadows on the bottom, sensing the cooler air as our arms dip in and out of the water.
Most of my aches and pains disappear after a few minutes of stretching out and being buoyant; I leave when I'm a total prune, and not before.
Our house is at the edge of the Tucson Mountain Park, where there is much desert. For some reason the rodents feel they must burrow next to the concrete slab upon which the house sits. It does not end well for them and I think I don't feel all that bad about it. If you have packrats building their communal nests, next there will be rattle snakes living in there. This is bad.
ReplyDeleteAre you and TBG watching the Tour de France? NBCSN is carrying it in the middle of the night. Youtube has 15 minute highlight reels daily.
These animals need to learn their place!
DeleteHow funny that you remember them saying Bonjour, TBG! He just found it on NBCSN (NBC Sports Network for those denizens who aren't aware)this afternoon, on replay.
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