The Birds!

Sitting at the kitchen table, surreptitiously using my daughter’s laptop while she sleeps (she was out late last night playing with her band), I noticed a strange bird at the feeder, and was trying to place it when the male of the species appeared, and I called out to my husband, “The evening grosbeaks are back!” It’s a small feeder and can only accommodate two birds at a time, so the ladies got to feed first, I guess. It seems rather early for these brightly-coloured yellow migrants to be passing through. The males are a very bright yellow that stands out on this drab winter morning. I can see them and their duller counterparts perched on the leafless branches at the edge of the yard, eyeing the feeder. Why are they here so early? I wasn’t expecting them for another month at least.

It was Ed’s birthday yesterday and Little Princess invited him along for the ride when we went to the mall. Our first stop was the music store where she bought some violin strings, he an adaptor for a headphone jack, and I ended up getting one of those plastic eggs filled with sand that makes a great percussion instrument. There was something very comforting about reaching into my pocket and feeling this thing in there, and then shaking it. I treated them to coffee and a pastry (we shared an enormous palmier, one end of which had been dipped in chocolate). I also spent a good chunk of the money I earned by not singing my recital (I’ll earn that later) on a black leather jacket on sale for half-price and an adorable terracotta teapot, in which I brewed the cup I am drinking right now. One can’t have too many teapots.

Hubby and I stayed in and watched a movie, Catch and Release, which, while technically speaking a chick flick, also had a lot of food for thought on such things as life, death and the universe. Little Princess’ band headlined a battle of the bands put on by the music department students, and she got home very late. I didn’t hear her come in. But at 6:30 this morning I awoke because I heard her opening and closing the front door. It turned out she’d forgotten to bring her amp in and had left it on the porch in frigid temperatures for several hours. I’m sure it survived.

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