Sock Weeding

Here is a new technique for weeding. Wake up, look out the window at fawns. Run outside in your pajamas and socks with the camera. Sneak around behind tree trunks. Take lots of photos. Walk back inside for breakfast. Wait, first clean all the bur clover seeds off your socks and dispose. Repeat until the fawns lose their spots.

I have been hearing your weed frustrations. The weeds are going to seed and you have been working hard for months. It is too early in the summer to get a hint of the fall, and spring is far away. Please note that it is almost August. Next year in August, see if you feel the same way.

---hawk feather ---

It's okay. You are making progress, this is just the time of year when weeds and their seeds look the worst. Remember the tips from the Thistle Strategy: pick a small initial treatment area and repeatedly visit and groom that area before you expand to a new area.




<--- famous comma bird (or maybe an acorn woodpecker)




Take a break and enjoy the birds that are flying high up. They have been watching your bent back for weeks. Bend the other direction and watch the birds for awhile. I am not sure what is going on in the sky these days, but I am finding individual feathers everywhere. It is too early for the pre-migration molt. Maybe the juveniles are excitedly flapping through their first few thermal lessons. Maybe the parents are stressed about feeding the second batch of summer nestlings.

--- vulture feathers have a bit of iridescence ---

--- Stellar jay ---

The feathers are such a treat. Jeweled messages cast about. Reminding us of this huge space above. Full of life that we are nurturing with our careful weeding. Or maybe weeding is just an excuse to get us outside where we can see feathers.

feathers in da' cap
(Don't forget to play)