A Grackle is for the most part considered a "junk" bird, like a starling or a sparrow it is a bird that you really don't want at your feeder but you just have to put up with. But, have you really ever looked at a Grackle, in the sunlight, with the light bouncing off its feathers just so? It is a beautiful bird, while it looks black from a distance once you get it in the right light, with the right sunlight, it has accents of blue, gold, bronze, green, you name it, it is spectacular in its coloring... its metalic coloring is just wonderful and it does not deserve its caption of "junk bird"

This evening, as the spirits moved me, I have been listening to (and watching) the press release videos of the announcement of the discovery of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Now I know that for the majority of the population that news passed as no more than a blip on the headlines, whereas for me, a) a birder and b) an environmentalist it was the greatest news that anyone could have ever announced. As far as I am concerned the only greater announcement would have been that they had found a living dodo on an undiscovered island somewhere. What a joyous announcement, from extinct due to deforestation and womens completely irrational desire to wear their feathers in hats, to living, it LIVES, it lives and obviously due to the fact that there is at least one, it breeds (or at least it did a couple of years ago). I am one of those people who take an extinction personally, I believe that when an animal or bird or insect becomes extinct then we are simply, and yet again, screwing up the balance of nature. Mother nature put all these creatures on the planet for a reason, and you know even I can't figure out why mother nature chose to place earwigs on the planet but who am I to question her? I cannot stand earwigs, to me earwigs have no purpose other than to creep me out, but I trust mother nature to have some sort of purpose for them. Same deal with cockroaches, there appears to be no real purpose for cockroaches other than to invade my kitchen and force me to use pesticides which then completely screw up my sinuses. However, I am willing to go along with the fact that mother nature had a plan for them, and I am guessing that it is the same plan that she had for ants, maggots, vultures, and dung beatles, I am assuming that she created them for the sole purpose of disposing of the waste created by the other inhabitants of the planet. Anyhoo where was I before I went off on the earwig tangent? Oh yes the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, it should come as a lesson to us, many birds are becoming more and more rare because their habitats are being destroyed, one, as I have told you before is the brown headed nuthatch, granted it is not as spectacular as the Ivory Billed, but just cause it's small does that mean it is less important? There is no reason whatsoever that we should allow this little guy to go extinct, as smart as we are today, back in the 1930s we didn't think about what we were allowing to go extinct, these days we are smarter, we are wiser, and we realize that every species is precious... every animal, bird, bug and plant that we allow to go extinct is a failure on our part, as stewards of the planet, to do our job. Did you know that the Venus Fly Trap grows wild only in a 75 mile radius of Wilmington NC, in the Holly Shelter area, think about that, a plant that is almost universally known, grows only in a 75 square mile area ON THE PLANET, kind of makes you shiver doesn't it. Anyhoo, here is my favorite shot of the brown headed nuthatch, he hangs out with the chickadees (both the carolina chickadee and the tufted titmouse) and on a regular basis they divebomb the feeders in gangs to grab sunflower seeds. Hope I am doing my little bit to keep these babies alive.

Perhaps I am an idiot, perhaps I am uniformed, perhaps I am just naive, BUT I don't think any of the above apply. It appears to me that this entire knee jerk reaction against Dubai Ports World operating some of the ports in the US is a purely racist reaction. And I mean that most sincerely, there was no outcry when a British owned company ran the same operation. Oh, but the critics cry, that was not a government owned operation, okay so there was no outcry when a Singapore government owned operation operated some of the ports, Oh they say but they are not a problem, there was no outcry when a Communist Chinese company operated the ports, Oh but they say, ????????? This is racial profiling at its worst. What is laughable is that according to government policy you are not allowed to "profile" an arab male as he goes through airport security (instead you have to search a 65 year old white grandmother) and YET and YET you are allowed to profile a company owned by a government who has steadfastly since 911 stood on the side of this country on the war on terror. It has been stated that the British senior officials who have always been in control will continue to be in control, that things will not change, that security will continue to be in control of the US Coastguard, that the workers who are currently employed will continue to be employed, but for some insane reason everyone has a problem that the letterhead of the company that sends out correspondence and the paychecks have a different name? This is utterly utterly ridiculous, and more is the point it highlights a sad fact of the current state of affairs, that the US as a people are becoming more and more xenophobic, particularly when it comes to muslim countries. Muslims are not the problem people, terrorists are, and while the terrorists happen to be muslims it does not equate that muslims are terrorists. I never hated a catholic in my life, despite the fact that the IRA would have just loved to have killed me in my days in the RN, you have to be able to separate the radicals from the religion. If you do not then there is no hope for peace in this fragile world. The United Arab Emirates has done nothing to deserve this, it is shameful that they are now subject to this kind of racism.

1) Never EVER, EVER feed a boxer with a gas problem left over refried beans after dinner of burritos.... even as I was doing it I was thinking this is not a good idea. Yankee doesn't have enough candles to help me at this point...

2) Do not give a boxer (or any dog) a beanie baby to play with (even if it came in a box of other stuff that you bought at the auction for $1.00). Believe me you will regret it, you will be sweeping up beanies for weeks, months or even years, you will find beanies everywhere, even in your shoes and underwear for some strange reason.

3) Do not get dressed to spend a day in the garden in the summer wearing shorts, and a belly baring halter top THEN go and make breakfast of bacon and eggs, hot bacon fat on the belly is no fun whatsoever.

4) Do not assume that because your husband has a closet full of clothes that he will actually wear those clothes, nope, he will insist on wearing the identical 5 outfits week in week out, despite the fact that he has at least 15 pairs of pants and just as many tops in the closet, nope your darling husband will whine like a baby if god forbid you do not get a chance to do laundry one weekend and his favorite five outfits are unwearable for a whole 5 days... (and while I am at it, why is it that men, or my man in particular will dig through a pile of neatly folded underwear in his underwear drawer to get out one particular pair and then stuff the rest of them back into the drawer higgedly piggeldy so it looks like the underwear drawer has just exploded, what the hell is wrong with the neatly folded pair of underwear on the top of the pile? Anyone? Help?)

Do not allow a female cat in your household to go unfixed for more than about 3 nano seconds after her first heat, because invariably you will end up with a pregnancy and you will end up with kittens that you cannot give away and you will end up with 38 cats (been there done that), make sure, without fail that you get your females spayed at the first possible opportunity. All my girls are fixed now, and all my boys are too (other than Arnamade and you know his problem).

Never assume that your co-worker who you viewed as a completely competant, able person, who has everything under control, is NOT snorting cocaine in the bathrooms on a regular basis and letting her entire part of the ship go to a ball of chalk, eventually leaving you with the task of unscrambling scrambled eggs, 12 hour days, stress levels that would kill a bull, and clients with issues.

Never forget that our time on this planet is finite, that you will not go to your deathbed saying "gosh I wish I had done more housework" or "I wish I had spent more time at the office" you WILL go to your deathbed saying "I wish I had taken that photograph" (in my case) or "I wish I had skiied down that mountain" or "I wish I had climbed that mountain" or "I wish I had seen King Tut's tomb" or "I wish I had seen the barrier reef" Stop, sit, think. No matter how hard things are, financially and time wise, stop and think, when you are on your death bed what are you going to regret not doing, sit, plan, go ahead and do it, our time on this planet is finite people, don't waste it. One of the most wonderful songs I have heard in recent years is believe it or not a country song (I generally do not like country music) but it is called "Live like you were dying" Read the words of Tim McGraw's song it should be an anthem for all of us

He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options
and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how?s it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what?d you do

and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I?d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn?t
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn?t such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I?d do if I could do it all again

and then
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I?d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about
what?d you do with it what did you do with it
what did I do with it
what would I do with it?

Sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I watched an eagle as it was flying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying

Stop, sit, think people..... you have a year left to live, what are you going to do? Don't wait until you have a year left to live, do it now, spread your wings.

knocking on the moonlit door, and his horse in the silence champed the grasses of the forest's ferny floor." So begins my favorite poem "The Listeners" by Walter De La Mare. The first time I ever read it I was enchanted by its sheer brilliance when it came to telling a complete story. I remember studying it in English class and I enjoyed unraveling the entire story that appeared to lurk behind the words. Ghosts. Can you see him? I was taking photos of my dahlias one day and at the end of the day I uploaded the photos and noticed something not quite right in the background. Can you see him? It was the week of the anniversary of the Beirut bombings and there were many memorial services going on. My house was previously owned by a Marine Corps Helicopter Pilot who was killed overseas, in fact he and his wife's initials are still carved in the tree at the bottom of the yard. Can you see him? I have always been psychic, a gift given to me by my grandmother who has been a constant presence by my shoulder since I was born. I think he came home, that weekend, to look at the house, and to gaze at the tree where his initials are carved. Can you see him?



okay look closer, he is tall, dark hair, wearing a white hooded sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled half way up his arms can you see him now?


Can you see him?