Mingling with the masses

Last week was Crescent City's Street Fair, which basically consists of stores open later with specials, giveaways and special activities for kids. I volunteered to sit out front of the Daily Triplicate office and hand out free packets of wildflower seeds and free papers and maps. My publisher, Michele, came out and snapped this shot of me waiting for folks to walk by. People did come by, this was just during a lull. It was a fine day with sunshine and a pleasant breeze. When I was finished with my task outside, I was hustled back to my little desk and computer in the back, windowless room. (It's not as bad as I make it sound...usually).

Call of the Wild

Rick and I are animal lovers, as many of you know, and we had a couple of exciting animal encounters recently. The first is shown in the photo. We woke up early the other morning (a rare occurance since I work late nights) and I looked out the back sliding glass doors as I do every day when I get up. I was surprised to see a young buck next to our fruit tree just munching away at the lower branches. We were thrilled that he chose our little backyard for his breakfast, but we were also curious as to where he came from and where he would eventually go when he was finished. We live in a residential area, and land-bound wildlife would have to travel several blocks to get back to nature. (On the other side of the guard rail in the background of the photo is ocean) Anyway, we don't know what happened to him, but I assume he got back to the "wild." No signs of him otherwise.

The second animal story has to do with our cat, Weezie. It's sort of weird. Rick and I ran an experiment with Weezie. About three times during the past week or two, Rick and I would sing the Mickey Mouse song while laying in bed (at night before we went to sleep) to see if Weezie would come to us. She didn't come when we called to her. I don't know why the Mickey Mouse song was chosen, but it was Rick's choice, probably because he could harmonize in it. (Those are his favorite kinds of songs to sing). So anyway, we would be laying in bed, and call to Weezie, but she wouldn't come. So we would start singing:
M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E.
Micky Mouse, Mickey Mouse...
...and so on. We always sang the slower, end-of-the-show version. Every time, she would jump onto the bed before we were done with the first Mickey Mouses.
Our conclusion? Weezie's favorite song is the Mickey Mouse song. Makes sense right? Cats like mice. But what's even better is that she only likes it when we sing it. We were like proud parents.

Yard tour

Here are all the loveliest natural features of our yard, front and back. Since there are several photos included here, I'll number them...
1. This big beautiful white flower is also very common around here.
2. We have a fruit tree in the back yard. But we don't know what kind of fruit it is! The tree was in full bloom about a month ago, and now the fruit is starting to grow.
3. This is the rose bush right outside our bathroom window. It's just about ready to bloom!
4. This is the tree in our backyard that is covered with hanging moss.
5. This is a lawn duck that I got from my Grandma Freed's house before she moved. It's happy here, and gets a lot of rain.
6. We have a rhododendron that Susan (Rick's mom) planted in front of our house. The rhododendrons around here are gigantic. Not only are they beautiful, but they've attracted the ants OUT of the kitchen. Susan said she thought they might leave the kitchen if they had a flowering bush out front to preoccupy them. She was right!