Duckpdate - Party for the Birds

This Duckpdate is brought to you because Sarge is hosting a Give Us the Bird posting contest this week.

The ducklings first swim in their new home. 

One summer evening, the dogs dashed into Dirty Creek and startled the ducks.. HUNDREDS OF DUCKS! Wha??? I started to count as they took flight and suddenly realized my efforts were futile.

As I got closer to the water and could see beyond the concrete barricades... My ducks were home! I counted...yes, they were all there. It appears, they were just having a party. And while some wayward dogs could easily startle newcomers, our little team stayed put. After all, it was getting dark...time for the party to end anyway!

Now that winter is here, the team in Dirty Creek has doubled...boy for girl! It seems they are pairing off, getting ready for spring. I just hope they forgot the way to my pool!


If you would like to join Sarge's contest, be sure to check out his blog!

Duckpdate - The Hunters!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I took a nasty fall in my own backyard coming home from Costco Monday night. I'm really banged up. Mabel did come over and kiss me and curl up next to me while I was writing in pain!

This Duckpdate is brought to you because Sarge is hosting a Give Us the Bird posting contest this week.

A few months back, I was hiking in the Tujunga River... one of those quiet, lazy, summer evenings. I heard a strange noise and the ducks nearby startled and moved up stream just a bit. I looked up on the levee and noticed two brats with pellet guns aiming at the ducks... but Bart and Mabel right behind them!

And even though those probably weren't MY ducks...Once you are a duck mom... they are ALL MY DUCKS! (Not sure I will ever be able to eat a Turducken again!) I promptly told those little criminals that they shouldn't be shooting at hand raised ducks and certainly not firing so close to dogs and a human. That didn't work! So I called the cops and the little creeps ran...

Just one more battle that the ducks have to face...


If you would like to join Sarge's contest, be sure to check out his blog!

Duckpdate - Fall Habitat

I haven't really been posting on the ducks because... the ducks are doing what they are supposed to do...growing up and moving on. But Sarge is hosting a Give Us the Bird posting contest this week and when Mabel Lou heard there may be foodables involved... well, she egged me on!

So, I thought I would post some duckling pics and tell you a few stories of the goings on at Dirty Creek this week. The biggest adjustment the not-so-little team had to make was the annual fall raping of their habitat. They are living in a flood control basin which is improperly controlled. As you can see in the photo below, all the tall reeds the ducks were living in are on the right are now trimmed to the ground!

Yet right across the water, where most of the flood waters actually go, the city did not cut or trim. Nor did they cut the tree that fell this year. It's all a bureaucratic mess! The Dept of Public Works blames Fish and Game who claim rare species in those waters. Yeah? Well if that's the case, why did you allow a five foot deep pond to fill up with sediment to maybe one foot deep???

The government agencies also blame the golf course, who - per their contract with said governing bodies - are supposed to maintain the trails and creeks. They've done such a crappy job that this week, another government agency is taking over. Grrrr. Don't get me started... back to my ducks...

Mallory Mallard enjoying her bath in my pool's waterfall while watching her ducklings.

I check on the ducks most evenings and I was there the very day the trimming was done. The ducks looked somewhat confused and mildly panic stricken. But this little team is tough. The next day, they seemed much calmer. In some ways, it's good the city no longer trims the area north of the pond...that's where predators must approach from! And I'm certain they make quite a ruckus going through the thick growth.

So the team made it through another hurdle.

If you would like to join Sarge's contest, be sure to check out his blog!

It's Just Not Magic Anymore

What is it about the holiday season that makes it seem as if the days are barreling down a mountain chasing me as fast as my little legs can run? And why does it start sooner and travel faster every single year?

In all honesty, I planned to write this post in AUGUST.... when I took the blurry cell phone pictures to accompany this post... of CHRISTMAS TREES! My bestie - the shiny happy one - pointed out that these pictures were taken in a store that sells decorations to other retailers so, to her shiny happy point of view, the store I took these in was right on time marketing-wise.

Halloween trees

To my stop-the-world-from-turning-cause-I'm-dizzy point of view...it wasn't the first store I had seen Christmas trees in... It was the THIRD! In AUGUST!

I was fascinated from a decoration point of view but I don't even understand that... I haven't decorated in more than a decade. There never seems to be enough time. It seems pointless to drag all that crap out of the attic to put it up for.. me... and put it back up again. Plus, I'm always going somewhere else... the lot of someone who doesn't have a family of her own.

 

Maybe it stems back to childhood - my mother always hated Christmas. My sister was equally determined to make it special. In the end, it always seemed to be a tug of war of wills and emotions. Once my sister's nieces and nephews grew up to have their own families and there were no kids around at all, it all got worse. 

I do love peacocks....

I've also come to resent the commercial factors of the season. It's hard work buying and wrapping all that CRAP. And really, most of it is stuff no one wants or needs. I'm trying so hard to clean out my house of all the superfluous junk I've collected that - while I appreciate the sentiment - I really don't need the soap / candles / sweatshirts that I seem to receive in abundance year after year. 

Have I just grown old and turned into a hermit crab? I'm just so sick of this family member not getting along with that one and the arguments over...nothing that really matters. I'm tired of giving and receiving gifts that have no real meaning. I'm tired of pleasing...

I need a little magic. But I'm not sure it exists anymore. I sure haven't felt it in a long time. To me, the most magical thing is feeling connected to someone I love. And yet, year after year, we gift some purchased token to one another and plan to have dinner "when things settle down." Then the very next year, we find ourselves making the same hollow promises. 

Shortly after I took these pictures, I found this photo circulating on Facebook. It was actually taken in 2009... But I like to think the classy Nordstrom's department store is still doing this. If not, I'm glad they had the guts to do it once. 

Do you remember going into the store the day after Thanksgiving (NOT Thanksgiving Day. NOT midnight the morning after!)? It was magic how the store had transformed! I wonder if kids today even notice... Or do they just expect trees in August?

Upside down trees - more room for all the gifts... yay that's great

I know a lot of parents struggle with kids who get too much.  My best friend from childhood comes from a Catholic background. She always told her kids, "Three gifts were enough for Jesus, it's enough for you!" Her list usually involved "something you need, something you want and something just because." And it worked. Her now grown children grew up valuing the things they received and being very generous and thoughtful themselves.

This year, I want the gift of time. Time to check in with friends. Time to really enjoy a moment with someone I love. Time to laugh, time to cry, time to just BE. That would be magic!

Need Some Help from the Bakers

I found these at our magical thrift store... the one I've composed a half dozen posts about in my head but never actually posted here...sigh.

They are baking pans of some sort... I thought they would make pretty little tea cakes for the niece's wedding showers. I brought them home and washed them and started searching for recipes for.... what? It would help if i knew what the pans were actually called! I've googled "recipes for vertical cake pans" and different variations... but NO answer.

They come in a variety of shapes: stars, trees, playing cards (spades, clubs, diamonds and hearts):

And they come with lids for each end. If anyone knows what they are and where I can find recipes, I would be SO grateful!