Warmth on a Cold Night.

  Tonight...it is cold!  The temperatures have taken a dive to below freezing. While that does not seem like much to a lot of folks, down here in the Deep South...it is COLD!  We feel it.  Even with heaters and fireplaces going, there is a chill about the Little Bayou House.  Maybe the old house has some drafts.  Maybe Mother Nature is feeling playful and is giving us an early dose of winter. Maybe it is age catching up with me.  Maybe all three.

  As soon as November rolls around, there is one thing that has been of top priority for the past few years.  November is the time to pull my "special" blanket out of the cedar chest. My sweet niece, Eva, made a lovely throw blanket as a gift for me.  It is double ply with warm fleece on one side and thick, soft Sherpa fleece on the other.  Trust me...this thing is warm!  The small blanket has seen me through several winters already and I am sure to use it for years to come.  (That is, if I can keep my son-in-law from sneaking it out of the house!  He loves it as much as I do!)

  Not only is the blanket, itself, warm, the thought behind it is.  What warms the heart, touches the soul.  Ms. Eva is talented, beautiful and graceful.  She has a pure heart and gives without expecting anything in return.  I am often inspired by her amazing spirit and pure love.  Yep, I am blessed to have such a sweet niece.  Heartwarming thoughts on this bitterly cold night.

Screechers Are On The Loose!

  Several years ago, my niece, Kammie, described some of the critters of the Bayou as "Screechers".  This was a slip of the tongue as she meant to say "scary creatures" but combined the two words.  I liked this better than scary creatures so it became the name of a certain bunch of creatures. In the fireplace each summer, a growing number of chimney swifts make their nests.  Once the eggs hatch, the tiny birds start to make noises as the parent birds fly in to feed them.  All birds do the same only with the chimney swifts being confined in what, more or less, is a giant tunnel, the noise is loud.  Most folks would have immediately called an exterminator to rid the chimney of the birds but then complained of the bugs around the Bayou.  I rather like the birds, their penchant for biting insects and even their noisy screeching.  I love the Screechers of the Bayou!

  For the past several days, I kept telling Son that it sounded like one of the Screechers had fallen to the bottom of the fireplace.  To me, it sounded as if the bird was in the firebox and not the chimney.  I feared that the parent birds would overlook this little one and not feed it. Still, the bird did not seem to be weakening so, perhaps, my fears were for naught.  Then, this morning,  it sounded as if the bird was fluttering inside the house!  SON!!! 

  He and I (armed with flashlights) started searching the dining room.  My first thought was that the bird was inside the antique parlor stove.  This old cast iron stove is vented up through the chimney.  While I took off the burner plate on top, Son took off the protective grating on the front of the stove and set it to the side.  Nope, no bird inside the parlor stove!  Where was that thing??  Son reached down to pick up the grate to replace it when a frantic fluttering again took place.  The tiny bird had been clinging to the grating when he had removed it!  Now, the bird was on the loose inside the house!

  After about five minutes of (gentle) bird-chasing, the little tyke settled down near the newel post.  I reached down, picked up the bird and consoled it.  The bird sat calmly in my hand.  Son took a photo of it but refused to use the flash.  "It has been living in the dark all of its life.  The light will harm its eyes." he told me.  So, the photo was dark, the bird was put back in the fireplace and all was good.  As soon as I held my hand behind the stove board that covers the fireplace front, the little bird flew up the chimney to be with his siblings.  Probably by tomorrow, the birds will have all flown up the chimney and out the top.  This little one probably would have been ok on his own outside but it was best to let him be with the others for his first flight. Happy flying, Little Screecher!  Come back to see us now!    

I'm Thinking There is a Difference

  Not too long ago on a rainy afternoon, a young niece was looking at some of my bird photographs.  She made the remark that two photographs were similar.  "This bird must visit the feeders often," she said.  Well, yes....and no.  I explained that while the birds were both the same colors and had a lot of the same markings, they were, indeed, quite different.  Other than the obvious coloring...one was darker brown than the other, the beak was a dead giveaway that the birds were not one and the same.  I pointed out that while one had a cone-shaped beak used for cracking hard seeds, the other had a more of a dagger-shaped beak used for catching insects.  "Well, that does not make sense as they are both on the bird feeder." she mused.  Well, yes, the dagger beak can also be used to eat small seeds just like the conical beak can munch out on bugs. Still flipping back and forth between the pictures, she was gradually beginning to notice the differences but then made the remark "You sure have a lot of brown birds here!"  Well, that was easy to explain as well.  Both birds were females.  Yes, they are brown.  This is so that they are not easily seen while sitting on the nest.  Predators find it harder to see the mottled brown in a sun-dappled bush.  "Ahh...I understand.  If the bird was bright, anything could find it and eat the mama bird or if she got away, the babies could be eaten.  That is terrible!"   I think she was catching on to the reasoning behind the idea.  I then explained that one bird..the one with the dagger-like beak...was a female Red-winged Blackbird while the one with the cone-like beak was a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  With that we had to look up pictures of the male birds so she could see the difference.  "Wow!  Those really are bright colors!  I can see how a cat might find them."  Yep, a cat, fox, snake, hawk or any number of predators that lurk in the shadows.  "Poor Mama.  She must be hoping all of her babies are girls.  That way they won't have the bright colors that draw the bad animals."  Yep...you just have to love kids and their way of thinking!

  Explaining the difference between two similar birds sparked an interest in the child.  She told me that she was going to go out with her camera to take pictures of the birds around her home.  She promised to tell me how many different birds she found and how many she could identify by the different points that I showed her.  I gave her several reference places to look for help and promised to look at her photographs if she had some that stumped her.  

  There is a lack in the teaching of nature to our kids these days.  It seems far easier to let our flora and fauna go the wayside than to take the time to instruct our kiddos in how to identify, enjoy and protect our environment.  Perhaps, the short visit with my little niece will inspire her to notice things around her and become involved in protecting our old world.  It is in dire need of some fresh young minds to aid in its declining status.  Maybe there is hope, yet, for the generation to come.  Maybe we should start picking up in our effort to show the kids the wonders that surround them.  Maybe we should get them out of the house more and let them just be kids.

Sweet Nieces and Topsy-turvy Days!

Today, I had a sort of topsy-turvy day. It seemed that everything that I started to do, for some strange reason, was flip-flopped around to be exactly what I was not supposed to be doing! It all started early this morning when I was supposed to be clearing out a place in my living room for Hubby and Son to build some shelves. These were to be sort of a craft center for all of my junk. I moved one item when Hubby came home from fishing with almost two hundred mullet. Yes, you read that right..almost two hundred mullet! Well, that just threw a kink in the plans for the day! Instead of moving furniture, I wound up washing and bagging fish. All I could think of was how glad I was that these fish were for someone else and would not be in my freezer! Not that I have anything against fish in the freezer, it is just that all three freezers are filled to capacity! No more room ..zilch..nada..nary a space. So..I washed and bagged nearly four hundred fillets! But...like I said..nothing was orderly about today. As soon as I elbow-deep in mullet fillets, the phone rang. I answered to hear the voice of Lovely Aunt Sylvia say.."Come get some fish!" What? Me..fish...oh, my. She would not take "no" for an answer so Son and I headed to get fish..more fish...just what I needed..more fish. Oh, boy!...Yep..Oh, boy! At least these were fresh-water catfish all nicely cleaned and ready for the freezer! They will be a welcome change over the ever-present mullet so I was truly happy to get them!

After the fish episode, my detergent-making began..and ended. I received another phone call. Sweet Niece Crystal needed a favor. "Do you have a grass hula skirt that I can borrow?" she asked. Now one might wonder just why I would be asked a question like that...do I have a grass hula skirt? Ha!.... I told her that I just might and headed upstairs to look in an old steamer trunk that held a bunch of costumes and party decorations from days past. Being as it was hot upstairs, I had Son drag the trunk to the dining room where I proceeded to dump everything in the middle of the floor. No..skirt. Whoever borrowed the luau decorations the last time, did not return it. Now there is a chaotic mess in the dining room...ring..ring. The phone..oh, no. Another Sweet Niece! "Is it ok if I come for a visit?" I busted out laughing..which probably led her to believe that I was a bit insane. SURE! COME ON! I looked at the floor..oh, well, I shrugged. This Sweet Niece has to be the sweetest! She helped me clean up the mess! (I have decided she can come back any day!) Afterwards she asked if we could walk around the place as she needed to collect some wildflowers for her college course. Hey, finally! Something that I would enjoy! A hike sounded like the perfect way to get out of this house! Thank you, Sweet Niece Eva! We hiked around the place..she got eaten alive by mosquitoes (they were happy to have fresh blood!) and I escaped the confines of the house! Whew!

So my topsy-turvy day came to a close. I still have no space for shelves in the living room, a steamer trunk of luau decorations in the dining room and more fish than anyone possibly needs but it was enjoyable. Aunts and nieces..who could ask for better company!