Mercy in the Mundane in Everyday Ramblings

Noticing a theme here? Me, in search of color out in my world. I have been a fan of these particular crocuses for a number of seasons. They are a bit late this year and then, poof, they came up and we had enough sun the last few days for them to open. Yay.

One of the things the coffee guys have talked about recently are our personal rituals we have in our lives, (either religious or not) and I was sharing how I have this whole routine I go through every morning putting the bird feeder out and filling the birdbath with fresh water just before sunrise. Whenever I get an order of cat food, I add on some wild bird food, and I have a wide selection at this point.

The ostensible reason for this was to provide reality tv for the cats.

But these two were only really interested in the squirrels and the bigger birds like scrub jays, (I think while Diego only had one viable eye, Carlo’s vision isn’t that great either) that come in for the peanuts. At some point in the last eleven years, it has morphed into a beloved ritual for me. I can see the birds at the feeder when I am teaching daylight classes.

When I was displaced last year, I couldn’t do this, and was sad about that and missed the whole process… a lot.

I have tried all kinds of feeders and food but have settled on a small one that is super easy to clean that I fill with small songbird food and then I put out on top of the cement retaining wall, a few peanuts, and a more generalized wild bird food.

The squirrels have a routine, and the jays and juncos are good about getting in before the squirrels wake up and scurry over. Since they cut down the closer in trees last year, I haven’t had a place to hang suet. I still get some woodpeckers, bushtits, and towhees to what I put out and no crumbles for rats. I do get an occasional mouse but only once a possum, and another time a mole.

Thankfully I have never seen a rat here.

A few days ago, I got an email from the dreaded property manager, the one that was the huge problem for me during the displacement saying they were going to replace the railing around the patio well where all this bird feeding goes on. She told me to clear everything off the patio. It had been raining at that point 11 days in a row and there was no way I was bringing slug and snail full of pots and tomato cages and the plastic cold frame inside.

I pushed them all aside towards the inside wall so the workmen would have room to do their thing. I tried to take down the rod iron bird feeder hook, but the screws had been painted in place. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, getting a new one and all the annoyance of having to replace things and change the ritual. I was pretty sure Delaney, that is her real name, Delay-ne was going to make me move all the stuff inside.

My nemesis from the displacement.

Anyway, the guys didn’t come on Thursday when she said they would. I stayed home from the coffee guys so as to move stuff as needed instead. So… no Mr. Pedantic for a week. I did email to tell him I wasn’t coming, but apparently, he didn’t share that with the group. The one amazing painter guy, (who did all those prostrations) I have a tentative artistic muse like relationship with now outside the group emailed yesterday to ask if I was okay.

I talked to my international yoga teacher friends instead on Zoom while waiting for nothing.

The workmen did come yesterday. I told them where the outside plug was, and they were grateful. The one guy had so many piercing in his face he looked like he had experienced a close encounter with shrapnel. Enough to set off a metal detector for sure. They cheerfully told me the post that held the bird feeder hook was not coming down. Double Yay!

They finished the railing before dark. The middle slats are a bit akimbo, but it is sturdy and that is all that matters. Just in case I ever need to crawl over it again to get out. It still needs to be painted but it was the last of the repairs held over from last year. The birdbath and feeder are out now, and the birds are back.

And Mrs. Sherlock and Frieda are coming over soon for a walk.

I am intensely grateful for the small mercy’s inherent in the mundane.

Last updated February 25, 2024