Acrobatic Squirrel

Took this this morning before starting my day. We have a group of squirrels that run about chasing each other on our deck and hang on the various feeders getting as much of the contents as they can. This morning there were three of them on three different feeders. I chose this shot because I liked the oval shape of the composition and how this backlit photo shows how really small a squirrel's tail is.

I've been thinking about the word squirrel since our good friend Ian was here. He is from England and whenever he is here he and I tease each other about how we pronounce some words quite differently. "Squirrel" is a case in point. He insisted it should be pronounced skwi - rel with a short "i" and two syllables, where as we pronounce it skwurl, with a sound more like the e in "her" and in one syllable. If you saw the movie "Up" you know just what I mean. It so happened that while Ian was here we watched the episode of Call the Midwife where the doctor and his family go camping. The daughter is afraid of squirrels. So I noticed that they pronounced the word differently. The wife said "skwi-rel" just as Ian suggested, but the husband said "Skwu-rel" kind of a hybrid of the British and the American versions. I guess it's anybody's guess what the "real" pronunciation is.

Yes I know, a trivial topic. But for me such ruminating was superior to reading the paper with the graphic details of the horrible happenings in Orlando. I know that what you learn changes your brain. And sometimes I feel like I am on Mars when I hear what is going in this country. And others too. I wish we could all learn love and compassion, respect and trust. And then live them.

My day included lots of time on the computer, doing the wash, chasing down some money that should have come in in May, and taking a long walk with Arvin after dinner. A good day really.