Grosbeak

This young grosbeak was sitting on the bird feeder, beak wide open, being fed by his mother when I focused the camera on them. He seems old enough to be quite self sufficient, but he didn't move from his perch on the post after his mother flew off, despite the fact that he was less than a foot away from the seeds. He had a disgruntled look on his face as he waited for mum to return. With the breeze ruffling his feathers as he groomed himself, he looked a bit like a debutante with her petticoats in disarray.

Sans petticoats, I was in disarray today too. I had intended to spend the petter part of the day trolling the salvage stores and garden centers in search of a couple of outdoor tables, but then I remembered that my car was in the hospital. OilMan grudgingly agreed to go by a warehouse store if I went along with him to take back all our Comcast equipment which now is officially finito, but then he discovered the Comcast store has moved to the opposite side of town, so I stayed home and waged war on bugs…silverfish in my bed, spiderwebs behind the curtains and flies everywhere. I hemmed a couple of curtains that have had their hems pinned up since we moved here, washed every bit of bedding on our bed and wrestled it back on again and vacuumed underneath the incredibly heavy mattress.

We just picked up my car from the new and improved Hammond Autowerks and couldn't resist telling them that I felt I had made a substantial contribution to their new digs as I paid my bill. No matter what needs to be done, it always seems to involve a visit to the bank manager for the cash. But they are incredibly nice, and I am already on record as wanting to replace my venerable BMW with another German car….