You Just Never Know

Here's a newsflash---I put on makeup this afternoon! And just how long have you been without, you ask? The short answer is, far too long. The truth is, between the heat and just plain laziness, I've been looking not great lately. I wanted to look better for my darling husband when he returns from his church work. Let's see if he notices!

And while church is taking up a lot of his time, he still managed to finish this for our living room and I could not be happier with the color. Or having the television hanging on the wall.  I can't wait to show Roger, over at Ace, a photograph. Don't know what I'm talking about? Here's a link to my last post in case you missed it.

Speaking of which, have I told you that I'm an administrator for the Lake Pineloch Village Community facebook page? From that involvement I have learned a lot about engagements, page views, reactions, and what have you, all related to whatever I post. For my personal page, I am not privy to all of that information, but I can tell that a lot of regular readers are not seeing my posts. How else to explain no reactions to some of the most interesting photos I've ever taken? The point is, there is a lot going on behind the scenes of facebook, that's for darn sure.

A lot goes on behind the scenes of Days for Girls, thanks to our fearless leader Sharlene, who works tirelessly throughout the year. Monday we packed kits for an upcoming shipment to Malawi. I began the day, along with other volunteers, counting bars of soap. Lots of soap. 700 went back into inventory with the rest packed tightly in boxes for the trip to Africa. Next we filled the shields with liners,

which made their way into Ziploc bags, heading down our assembly line. The bags have five more liners, two pairs of panties, a washcloth, instructions, and an additional Ziploc that the girls use as a washing receptacle. The final step is closing it all up and stuffing into small drawstring bags.

Before long our boxes of menstrual kits will be loaded on a container ship, headed to West Africa where Helen will distribute them. Should this charity interest you, here's a link to their webpage.

Because we finished an hour early (!), I went to see Maureen. It was Bingo day and that is always fun. Although Maureen had three cards, she was not one of the winners. When someone does win, they all sing, B I N G O....

It was the first time I'd seen that young man who is helping the woman in purple hear the calls. He's been volunteering for four years which I find remarkable. Unfortunately I cut Maureen out of the photo! She is adjusting as well as she can to her new life in a wheelchair.

Holy cow...we have a small tomato!

We've no clue if it will ripen in this blasted heat though. Speaking of which, well, it is hot. With rain sometimes. Which is why I try to walk as early as possible. Do you see what I see in the big tree?

Stay tuned...

My Green Heron seems to be hanging around and since he got no love in my last post, here he is again. Of course it could be a girl, couldn't it?

Remember we talked about bird identification and how there is so much to learn? To the casual observer, these two look very similar,

however, the foreground bird is a Little Blue Heron while the other is a TriColored Heron. Now you know.

Well, the nearly grown up Cygnets are changing colors, little by little. This took me so by surprise that it is not very crisp but it does the trick of showing how they are changing.

Speaking of which, another tricky part of identification is the molting stage. This Wood Duck couple looks way more similar at this time of the year. The male is on the left although it is hard to tell given that he does not have his brilliant colors.

Those eyes give it away!

When I've not been out looking at birds, I have been thinking about, or working on the bedroom. I got all of the dark blue done, however, we aren't certain about that soffit.

As you can see, I put some green paint on one wall trying to pick the color for the rest of the room. It is Georgian Green by Benjamin Moore. I painted more of it,

however, Bruce remains unconvinced, voting for the color I auditioned on the other wall. Wyeth Blue by BM.

Input from you would be most welcome!! Next week the crown molding will go in, and then we will actually do the final painting. Hoping to have a decision by then!

One of the projects Bruce has been working on at church is the rehabilitation of the large front porch columns that are in serious need. Peeling paint and deteriorating sentinels is not a good look. He's interviewed several contractors, or at least as many as do that kind of work and put a budget together. In other words, project managing for no pay, and he couldn't be any happier.

While he keeps on working, I keep looking at birds. This morning I saw one of my favorites, the Limpkin picking up a snail.

Apparently, one of many, many eaten in this same spot.

For the most part I've been confining my walks to Lake Davis, mainly because of the shade, but this morning I walked around Lake Cherokee as well. And you know what? Not a swan to be found. Where could they be? Part of the lake is inaccessible as far as sight lines, but once around the houses, I peered through my zoom lens, seeing a little white, but alas, it does not look like a swan to me!

Green, green, and more green! But no swans. Where could they be? I'll keep you posted.

While leaving I decided to go a different direction and am I glad I did. You just never know what you will see, and in this instance, pulling the car over to the curb, I hopped out because, by golly, there was a pelican on Lake Davis. (not there during my initial walk around the lake)

Now that I've had time to do research, I've discovered it is a juvenile who, apparently does not know that she should be closer to the ocean. Watching from the shore, I knew when some ducks came into the picture,

that the Pelican would do something. It sure did!

Took off, flying towards downtown.

As an aside, so wondering what the SunTrust tower will become when the sale of the bank goes through. Anyway, I kept my eye on the bird and sure enough, it came back for a fish, plunging headfirst from the sky. As they do.

By now I knew I had to get going, having errands to run. As I walked back to my car, who should I see but Harris sitting on his big front porch. We chatted, and it was he who said, "you just never know" what you will see on a lake. Isn't that the truth?

your friend,

Gail