Thursday, August 7, 2008

the view from my window(s) - III

it's kinda like living in a tree house. but with windows. it's pretty small, but doesn't seem so because there are 24 double-sash windows. and virtually no blank wall space. very little furniture, too. i like it.

i did notice one drawback last weekend when my kids brought gifts.

my daughter brought one of her paintings. it wasn't easy to find a place to hang it. (josephine, i moved it to the "hall" closet door. so now i see it every time i exit the bedroom. so much better to see it. thanks.)

my son gave me a zapotec weaving he brought back from his latest adventure. the natural dyes and fixatives are all made from native plants and insects from the weaver's garden. the reds, of which there are many, are made of ground cochineal beetles. (he has pictures of the entire process at tides.sfasu.edu, or will soon.*)

it is currently hanging in the kitchen, but i'm afraid it's gonna start to smell like bacon, so am thinking of moving it to...the bedroom ceiling?

but wait. this post wasn't meant to be about my awesome and talented kids, was it? no.
it's s'posed to be about more of the views from my windows...


if the wind is even slightly blowing i can see it in the treetops. at eye level. and if it's below 96 degrees, i can feel it. (otherwise the air conditioner is on and the windows are closed, ok?.) at ground level it may be miserably still and hot. there is a not so sublime difference. tree house-living fucking rocks.

if i were a better photographer, or quicker maybe, i'd show you pictures of the young red tail hawk who recently visited. or the brown squirrel with the albino-white tail. or maybe i wouldn't have resorted to using the internet image of the ladder-backed woodpecker at the beginning of this post.

as it is, i'll just share these pics - these views from these bedroom windows:


i watched this guy hop around and 'round the trunk and peck, peck, peck for a long while before attempting a photo.



can't see it? oh it's there. left branch, 1/2 way down. (click on this or any of the window view I-III pics to see a huge version.)

i think it's a ladder-backed woodpecker. listed as "fairly uncommon" to "rare" in these parts. and i see it pretty often now that the red heads are gone. (the red headed woodpecker is "listed" as uncommon to rare, but i see them here and in austin. who are the peckerwoods who classify these beautiful critters? (hey, look it up. peckerwood is in the dictionary...)

can you see it now?








and then there are the trees. mostly pecan. but here on this property are quite a few china berries. (or at least a cousin of. they're not lavender, but otherwise they are just like a china berry...invasive, fast growing and damn good lookin'.)

in late spring they make these yellow blooms:



in mid summer the blooms turn to puffy balls. (are they male or female??)

same vantage point. same branch...


later on in the fall i think they turn into hard balls. i'll try to remember to report back on that...

-------------------------------

other birds - and even a bat:

the mourning doves and cow birds are plentiful. not to mention delightful. here's a dove warily looking at me from her perch not 3 feet away.




the feeder is a very cool goodwill plate with holes around the perimeter that i hung with twine. any bird that can get the food is an accomplished acrobat. or a stunt double. when they hit the plate most birds freak out from the twisting and spinning. (bad design flaw on my part.) but the ones that can handle the thrill are my buddies.

like mr and mrs dove:





and mr cowbird. he's so cool:





wait. i promised you bat, didn't i?

as seen from my window...........check out the hood of this tow truck.



i call it the bat-tow-bile.

3 comments:

josephine terese said...

a) tides.sfasu.edu
b) battowbile is freaking sweet

cornbread hell said...

the red "tides. com" is a link to tides.sfasu.edu.
but yer right, i should change that.

josephine terese said...

ps i love you dad