Learning to fly

stone gargoyle planter holder from resale shope

baby made it to the roof. It lacks the long forked tails of its parents

watchful poppa. The males have the longer forked tails. The ones with the longest get the girls

fluffy baby surveying its new world

Celsus library in Efes Antik Sehri from my niece

very public potties

I sit in the shade of my garage watching Maya master the balance bike as she flies down the hill with me first checking that the coast is clear. A balance bike has no pedals. Once the balance part is mastered, then the child can graduate to one with pedals. She's a bit big for the bike, ages 2-5 because she is as tall as most 6 year olds.

Meanwhile the 4 barn swallow fledglings are ready to leave the nest are perched 30 feet away, too close for the parents who swoop into my face every few minutes to try to get me to leave. Some of the fledglings stand on the rim of the nest and flap their wings. Finally, one makes a ten foot circle but doesn't know how to maneuver into the nest.  Swallows are the most adept fliers (except for hummingbirds which can go backwards) but they must practice apparently.

Today they practiced attacking humans en masse. Six angry birds flying at my face.They now easily make their way to the nest and fly in  bigger circles.

As it turns out, that storm had some consequences. Exactly 2 hours before a repeat viewing (and repeat viewings are worth way more than first time viewings), Steve discovers that we must have had a power outage and the sump pump therefore wasn't doing its job. The whole lower level was under water. @#*&!!!! I hurry over there with a fan and we both mop things up in a hurry. We do have a wood landing that now is warped. It needed replacement any way so we have that to do. This house is such an albatross around our necks (why that expression)

Back to the money pit bright and early this morning for Steve to mow the lawn and for us to drop one of the cars off for a brake job. While he works, I return to the Farmer's Market and a resale shop. I bought some discount vegetables first checking to make sure rabbits don't like them. Out of 12 chard plants, I am down to one despite the alleged rabbit proof fence. Small animals (like chipmunks) might be able to get in but I didn't ever see one eat greens (they are eating berries right now). At the market, I run into a former neighbor all happy because she just became a grandmother. As our sons are friends, I knew all about that. For about 20 years, she held an annual tea for us moms with similarly aged boys. My invites stopped coming. Furthermore, she declined to become my Facebook friend, which of course, I took personally. Turns out all was innocent; I wasn't being shunned. One of the moms though felt bad at the teas because everyone would brag about their kids and she didn't feel she could.

So back to more planting and then a nice, long bike ride.

this is probably a bird bath but I am turning it into a planter