Squirrels don't speak English...

...and other things I learned today.

The blue bench by the water garden beckoned me this morning, so instead of having my morning coffee as I pour over news headlines and emails, I sipped it out there, in the almost chilly air.

Almost immediately I had an encounter with a hummingbird who came to visit the lilies and I learned that they make a sharp, faint squick, squick chirp while they're hovering.

A short while later, a grey squirrel made himself into a pancake and squeezed under the fence with one of those annoying, raw peanuts that the neighbor feeds them. He walked slowly to within three feet of me as I sat very quietly. As soon as he started digging in the mulch, right between the juniper and the geranium, I said in a lowered voice: I would appreciate if you don't do that and either eat your peanut or go bury it in the neighbor's yard. He stopped for one moment to look at me and process the request, then proceeded to bury his treasure anyway and walked away. The cheek!, I thought, until it dawned on me that the language barrier must just be too great.

Down in the park, the light and shadows were very long and striking; great shafts of light falling over the sparkling, dewy grass. The manual setting on this camera allows the ISO, the flash, macro vs. infinity to be changed but that's it; no flexibility as far as aperture and f.stop is concerned. By focusing straight into the rising sun and forcing it to compensate with a high shutter speed and small aperture, and then moving five paces to the left before pressing the shutter button, it gave me this, which is what I wanted. It's nice when one gets what one wants.

PS. Waiting excitedly for this evening's speech from our esteemed prez, will of course jot my thoughts down later.

PPS. Mr. President, it is about time you took the gloves off and told those lying, know-nothing wannabees who is the ONLY logical choice for the job. And I liked your tie very much.