zleonska

:: the Tale of an Over-Achiever

a sweet over-acheiver on her nest

These are the birds in the third tier of the cage rack. The bird on the perch is the chick from the first nest. He is a knothead crested like his mom. The orange boy in the feeder is Minstrel, filling up on seed to feed his family. Fully fluffed out and setting is Lily AKA Knothead. The moniker was bestowed on her when she took longer than expected to learn where the food/water was in her fist cage.

But you cannot but take note on how quickly she accepted her mate, built a nest and laid her eggs! She knew what she was about. This was evidenced in the perfect hemp twine nest she built. It appeared complete in a few hours. From this nest she and Minstrel raised the one chick, both feeding and caring for it. Once Lily had made the second nest, Minstrel took over full care of the fledgling. He also makes sure his mate is fed whilst incubating the eggs.

:: in the Dark of Night

Not sleeping tonight. Restless, not wanting to desturb my sweetie or be grumped at by Chirpa. Too tired to do anything requiring thought. Sitting at my laptop trying to avoid the hell-hole that is doom scrolling. Looking at my data drive wondering if there is something exciting enough to hold my attention. A flicker of interest. I have my newest blog working. I am happy with it; why not clear out the accumulated chaff consisting of decades of old blogs, blog attempts, blog ideas, blog templates... There must be thousands of directories listed under LBBWeb.

Soon I was happily puttering away deleting collected themes from long forgotten platforms along with the notes made in the attempt to understand them. Ah, yes, delicious progress, the trash bin filling up and bytes freed for future use. Then it happened, this tiny, unassuming file with one of those blog challenges popped open on the screen. "If I were..." Tired brain seizes on this and starts typing...

If I Were, I’d be

If I were a month, I’d be September, remembering the excitement of back to school.

If I were a day of the week, I’d be Monday, the freedom of being back at school.

If I were a time of day, I’d be 2300 or so, quiet and peaceful.

:: but Ignore the Tripping hazard!

It is not quite the smallest room in our lovely house. It isn't the sunniest room so be had. It is the first room to be organised. We have lived here for a year and a half. Now there is a room, extra boxes and piles properly organised out of existance. All non-essentials on shelves in the cellar. I proudly state: belongings no longer needed have been removed from the premises! I got rid of somethings! Being a near hoarder mean I have entirely too much stuff even after purging for the move ...

This lucky room is located on the first floor to the north-east. It is a rectangular room designated for canaries, writing and laundry. I call it The Sanctuary. Here I go for a needed touch of peace. The twittering and song of the canaries always lowers my anxiety levels. A small desk sits under two corner windows, where I write and draw. A door opens out to a monstrous deck for summer enjoyment.

:: or New Blog Beginning nr.758...

I wonder how many times I have rebooted my blog. I've gone from CSS/HTML written by my sweetie. Wordpress, HTML template, back to Wordpress with many restarts and now Zola a static website generator. I chose the theme hacker.

Abandon hope all ye who enter here - Zuzanna, I'm looking at you!

As ever setting up a new website with a static generator is... interesting. I exist in a permanent state of confusion. Questions of timeformat = "" vs date = "" in the config.toml. Confusion about the time format: T00:00:00+00:00 returns the time several hours out even though MST is selected. I am too befuddled to deal with much of this now! What do I always say? "Be Still, Be Calm, Breathe!" Mostly it works if I can stop spinning long enough to actually do so!

:: a Little Brown Kitten

which bears no resemblance to Gina Michele’s Easy Plush Cat. Halt! Stop! Remember this is a "Don't be hard on yourself" zone. Okay ... Introducing one cute faced (do you know how hard it is for a perfectionist to embroidery two similar eyes on one knit stuffed toy?? Hmmm?) um, introducing one cute faced kitty and yet another finished project.

:: a Gift of Love

I know Valentine’s Day is a month past, but I want to share with you the story of a special yellow rose. This pretty flower was one of a dozen - a gift from my love. Yellow roses have always been special to me. A favourite, I carried when we were married, 46 years ago now. So when he is able to purchase them he brings a dozen home. So special, so beautiful.

:: kæləŋˈkoʊ … kal-un-KOH-ee … kal-un-kee

Upon seeing the true pronunciation written, black on white, I’m afraid my lower jaw truly did hit my chest. Kalanchoe is pronounced how??? That's it! I will never trust my trusty dictionary again! Mind you I have a history being widely off the mark with my pronunciations. For years I 'kned' my bread instead of kneading it. (And wouldn’t you know it! That is the only one I can remember after a life time of learning new words from books! I know I was covered with embarrassment many a time having misspoke a word... the way others look at you!) One word is commonly misspoken where I grew up (northern British Columbia, Canada) - shone - everyone I know pronounces it 'shawn' yet throne is throne. Strange, eh? It surprised me to discover people really do pronounce it shone! Back to the ‘kalunkohee’.

:: How Did She Know?

How easy it is to keep me entertained… you simply shake things up (good therapy) and set the jar down in a sunbeam. Next you lean in close and watch the sparklies spin.

After they settle, you shake the jar, position it once more in the sun and be mesmerised. The only bad thing about it: the glitter settles too swiftly.

At this point repeat until marvellously calm or your sweetie asks for the nth time, “What are you doing?”

:: a Special Gift from a Special Girl

Last year was a hard year for us. We suddenly lost two of our dogs: Zahn von Zwolf and Busy, aka Warok. It happened so suddenly, and you are never prepared for it. And no, it never gets any easier. But the time they give us is wonderful.

This Christmas Kya presented me with this painting. I cried. It truly is a special painting from a special girl.

:: Arthritis Pain Today

I had a marvellous time cleaning the cages and steaming them to make sure they were really clean. They look so shiny and the glass drinkers are such a bright green under the cage lights.

Sadly, it was a full days activity... simply doing something I love resulting the pain of arthritis in my hands. You work and enjoy it all the while knowing the next few days will be frustrating days of little use of my hands and fingers. And this was with Steve helping wash up the vacated cages and accumulated accoutrements. With the arthritis hanging over everything I do I am so thankfully for my loving husband.