Dana's Flowers

Partly because it is a "Big Birthday" and partly because of the logistics of quarantine, we are spreading John's 80th birthday out over about a week. Today we are making do with a Zoom call with the whole family when what we really wish is that we could all be together in person. Then John and I will have dinner together...a salad made from produce from the garden...lettuce , radishes, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, boiled eggs from Kathy's chickens and zucchini...mostly zucchini...more zucchini than two people could be expected to eat ....but we'll make a stab at stuffing a couple of them or spiraling them and treating them like pasta, or slicing them and barbecuing them...but not all at once.

Tomorrow, John's actual birthday, he will barbecue his favorite spice rubbed lamb chops for Dana and Jim and the boys, who are within our bubble but we'll still be eating outside. Fortunately the weather will will be good for it.  We moved to this warmer climate from Berkeley because I wanted to eat outside, yet once we got here, we rarely did it. It seems to have required a pandemic for us to move outside for meals. 

The birds were certainly on the warpath this morning. they are eating one suet cake and two bird feeders full of seeds a day and when the seeds get low , the acorn woodpecker sits on a tree branch above the feeder and literally dive bombs any bird (including bluejays...see extra) that dares to attempt to land there. I think the jay was actually taunting the woodpecker when it sat on the feeder preening. We got quite a laugh when the woodpecker dived on a squirrel precariously clinging to the arm of the feeder with its back legs and reaching across the gap to the feeder with its front legs. Not until it has chased away every bird in the vicinity does the woodpecker actually land on the feeder himself. 

The hawk, however, had the final say. I never saw it, but it could be clearly heard screaming which was enough to break up the party at the bird feeders in an instant.

It won't break up our party, however, which is about to begin on Zoom, champagne at the ready....