Pretty Bird

We were treated to a visit by a male house finch recently. Most are quite skittish and won't stick around if they pick up any movement nearby. It made it quite a challenge to get good photos.
This feeder is right outside the kitchen window. We get several members of the finch family, blue jays, starlings, even a woodpecker now and again. Most stick around no matter what we do, but the house finches take off at the slightest provocation.
They come by fairly often now, so we see them all the time. They usually only stay a few seconds at a time.
Last week, for reasons known only to this fellow, he stuck around and let us take his picture.
We're glad he did.

Tuesday Twosomes--Now With Birds

Two birds share the feeder. The pretty red male house finch on the left and a junco on the right.

Tuesday again and that means I get to put up two lines I’ve written in the past week and two I’ve read.
Here we go.

Something I read:

“A pure white cat with dark blue eyes slipped out of the brambles. Inside, the noise of mewling grew louder.”
from Warriors: Into the Wild, Erin Hunter, Avon Books, 2003.
Okay, technically it was read to me as it’s our bedtime story.

Two lines I wrote this week from my current WIP A Fly on the Wall:

“He checked the mirror one more time. Satisfied that everything was fine he stepped into a darker area and made the trip back to his century.”

Many, many thanks to the Women of Mystery for the Two Sentence Tuesdays.

Gratitude Monday - In a Heartbeat

One of the bluebirds found on the Kootenay Plains.

It’s a great day.
It’s Monday, the start of a fresh week “with no mistakes in it” if you’ll let me quote Anne Shirley. (Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery. Anne was talking about a day, but I’m stupidoptimstic and will go with week).
I’m grateful for many things already and now I get to add a new one. On May 14 I’m going in for some outpatient heart surgery at the U of A.
It’s called catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation.
I got the call on Friday that it was set up. It’ll take all day and I have to stay in Edmonton that night in case I have to get back to the hospital for any reason.
I’ve decided I won’t have to, but I’ll stay handy to it anyway.
Prior to the surgery I need to have a cardioversion done again. It’s where the heart is stopped ever so briefly and then restarted. It’s done to restore proper sinus rhythm.
Once that’s done I get to stop taking the second beta blocker I was put on recently.
It’s all good and it’s just going to keep getting better.
**
The bluebird in the picture is, of course, the bluebird of happiness.
Have a great week, everyone.
I’m going to.

Quick Reminder--New Moon

Hey, everybody, the new moon is here.
It happened last night (in Alberta) at 9:23 p.m. That means we have until 9:23 tonight to get those abundance cheques written and filed away.
Fill out a cheque. In the amount areas write Paid In Full.
Make it out to yourself.
Do not put a date on it.
Sign it The Law of Abundance
Put it away somewhere and forget about it.

Happy Abundance.

Photo Finish Friday -- A Guest at the Feeder

Yesterday we were treated to a visit from a Gray-Crowned Rosy Finch.
He, or she, went to the water dish first. It was frozen over, but our guest pecked valiantly at the ice.

As we watched I noticed it was eating, not trying to get a drink. It was cleaning up the fallen sunflower seeds from the feeder above.

It went away for a bit, but then came back and went to the feeder. It stayed and ate, and ate, and ate. Then it flew away.

After a while it came back and ate. It did this repeatedly throughout the day. It was a calm bird, or perhaps just very hungry, as it didn't flinch when photographed.

These birds are commonly found in the mountains. I'd seen one years ago near the top of a mountain in Jasper on the Cavell Meadows hike.
I didn't expect to see one at the kitchen feeder, but I am tickled that it happened.

Go on. Click to enlarge me. I want you to.

Early Springtime in the Rockies

Spring in the Rockies. The North Saskatchewan River is open and flowing while the land remains cold and dry. Snow huddles in the shade hanging on as long as it can and mountains rise from the plain to greet the returning warmth of the sun.

War and Pussycats- More Twos on Tuesday

A proper cat scan.

I was so tickled last week to join in on the Women of Mystery’s Two Sentence Tuesdays I thought I’d give it another go this week.
It keeps me writing, for one thing, and for another it forces me to tap out something that I can share with the blogging world without cringing.

This is something we read this week. My husband reads me a bedtime story and has done so virtually every night for the 19 years we’ve been together. We received the Warriors series for a Christmas gift from friends and we’ve just started it. I absolutely love it and can’t help but refer to it as “War and Pussycats.”

Here are two sentences from Warriors: Into the Wild, by Erin Hunter, Avon Books, 2003.

“After a moment’s pause, several of the cats moved forward to lick Redtail’s bedraggled fur. As they groomed they purred hushed phrases to the dead warrior.”

My contribution is from the novel I started late last week about a mirror that randomly plays back images it has reflected.

"Light bounced around the room from the mirror. In its face a man in his mid 30s slapped his forehead and raised his arms to the ceiling."

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be out for most of the day. In keeping with the theme of the today’s post I’m off to the U of A Hospitals for a cardiac CAT scan.