Journal of a Sabbatical

June 13, 2001

apple-blossom scented dawn

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
least tern (2)
common tern (2)
willet (1)
mute swan (2)
gadwall (6)
redwinged blackbird (10)
Canada goose (6)
bobolink (1)
tree swallow (2)
American robin (5)
savannah sparrow (1)
herring gull (3)
eastern kingbird (4)
double-crested cormorant (16)
gray catbird (2)
purple martin (1)
brown thrasher (2)
Herptiles:
eastern painted turtle (1)

Today's Reading: Tibetan Trek by Ronald Kaulback, A Flora of Essex County by Stuart K. Harris

Today's Starting Pitcher: Tim Wakefield (not his regular turn I think but Pedro has a sore shoulder)

Photos top to bottom:

Bianca

Kerri

Miss Newburyport

Rosa Rugosa

Evening Lychnis

Homer had his rosy-fingered dawn, but we have to make do with apple-blossom scented dawn. Dawn, the dish liquid that is. I'm not sure I like apple-blossom scented Dawn. By the time you mix apple-blossoms with bleach and cat shit the scent is not something you'd want your parfumier to bottle. And for some reason the apple-blossom scented Dawn gets way sudsier than the regular Dawn. It behaves kind of like bubble stuff.

No amount of scented dish liquid can overcome multi-cat diarrhea. Dougie's cage is particularly stinky. Something must be going around because a few of the litter boxes are really bad. Some days are like that.

Roy is telling a touching story of the moment he realized his daughter had become a better sailor than he is, but I'm only half-listening as the sweat drips off my brow, my nose runs, my eyes water and Savannah eyes me with evil intent. She's been sucking up to Roy all morning, acting the part of the cutest cat in the world. Bianca has been really affectionate with Roy this morning too. Boy has she ever come out of her shell. She used to be such a fraidy cat! Now she even seeks out affection from people rather than just putting up with it.

Two of those three adorable orange kittens with the Italian names have already been adopted. It's beyond me why Vito, the orange and white one, hasn't been adopted yet. He is just sooooo cute. He zips around the office under and over everything in sight and has already figured out that the door leads to a possible escape route. Smart kitten.

Fortunately, Angelina's has remembered how to make veggie subs again - that vinegar thing must have been an aberration. I suddenly realize I might not have the luxury of an Angelina's veggie sub and cup of Fowle's coffee followed by drive by birding too often once I become gainfully employed again. I set out to savor it, but then get absorbed in the moment anyway so don't need to make a special effort.

The sitting in the middle of the road thing has spread from the suicidal mourning doves and the woodcock to eastern kingbirds, or at least one eastern kingbird. I had to stop the car and wait for it to decide to fly away. It didn't look injured or anything. I guess it just likes the road. Again this is the same general vicinity as the mourning doves and the woodcock. Something about that part of the road must be very attractive to a wide variety of birds.

A gray catbird does a perfect imitation of a willet. So perfect that the willet answers it and I can't help laughing. A lot of sparrows flit across the road too fast for me to identify them. A painted turtle suns itself on the bank of the north pool. Flowers of all kinds are in bloom all over the place. The fields are a riot of color. It seems like we've waited forever for summer and now it's here all at once and in overdrive. Extreme summer.

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