Today’s Lesson is About Bunnies

Once I started seeing it, I couldn’t stop seeing it.

There are little bunny turds all over my front and backyard. 😂

I still don’t mind the bunnies. They are so cute. Everyone I talk to in the neighborhood comments on all the bunnies. And then I talked to someone in Portland who mentioned all the bunnies. Then someone in Seattle. Then an author I follow who is in rural Washington.

Is this a big year for bunnies?

I asked my search engine. This is the quick version.

According to WA Fish and Wildlife there are a bunch of species (rabbits and hares) native to WA plus 2 species introduced. Also there a number of articles about people letting their pet rabbits go in the wild. Why would anyone do this?

(There’s a neighborhood east of us that is known for its feral rabbit population. This is an older article about it.)

The most common neighborhood bunny is the Eastern Cottontail (even their name is adorable!) They were brought to WA a long time ago as a game species and they adapt well to urban living.

It is normal for them to have boom population years.

It’s funny how often I will pull clips from my camera card and there will be an animal in the front: raccoon, opossum, skunk. And the bunny will be in the background.

Here is an 8 page PDF from WA Fish & Wildlife if you want to increase you bunny knowledge.

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The Mange

Finally! Something I’ve never caught on camera before.

Little mangey raccoon kit. It is so funny and tiny. Other than being bald it seems active and curious.

The new camera has sound, too, so you can hear them drink and squeak if you listen carefully.

I only caught them on camera this one time which is probably a good thing. One website suggested I report it to wildlife officials. I don’t know where they went. Reporting their existence doesn’t seem helpful.

I recognize the mama. She didn’t look too healthy previously and she’s looking pretty ratty here.

Tough out there for urban wildlife.

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New Trail Cam

I can’t remember how long ago the trail cam died. It took me forever to replace it and then it took awhile for me to put it out there.

I haven’t seen shots of the backyard in months and the first time I pulled the camera card all the usual suspects appeared: skunk, both opossums, bunnies, and raccoons.

Look how many raccoons — five? Most of the clips don’t have this many. Busy night for the raccoon family.

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Woo! Girl

The Backstreet Boys are doing a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. They were big in the mid-90s and I was never a huge fan. But a clip from this tour showed up in my social media which is how I know they are still performing together.

I thought I had more posts about the Woo! Girl (Here’s One) but they aren’t coming up in my search.

The Woo! Girl is a person who we have run into at every concert we have ever been to. She’s usually sitting in front of us or behind us and she enthusiastically screams WOO! during the whole show.

When I was younger, I thought the Woo! Girl was there to punish me. But now that I’m older, I love having the Woo! Girl show up and do her thing. We can be Woo! Girls no matter how old we are — the Woo! Girl brings the enthusiasm and joy to the show.

A clip from this tour showed up in my social media and I cracked up when I heard the Woo! Girl still doing her thing.

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Cool Sightings In and Around the Garden

This is a public domain image.

From where I sit at my home desk I can look out the window and see the top of a very tall tree of my neighbor’s. I should probably go figure out what it is but I’m going to say it’s a Doug Fir and guess it’s about as tall as a 4 story building.

This morning I looked out just in time to see a bald eagle land in the top of the tree! I ran outside and watched it. Mostly it just perched there looking all around. It made shrieking sounds a couple of times.

I did not take a picture because my camera wasn’t made for that and it just looked like a far off brown bird in a tree. I watched for a long time but finally went in because I had things to do and I missed when it took off. It was a very exciting way to start the day.

Check out the different sizes of my blueberries. I have an early season, mid season, and a late season. The mid season is the small one and the late season is the big one. The late season isn’t especially prolific but it’s always exciting to pick them because they are so giant.

A thing that happened this morning that wasn’t exciting was when I unloaded the camera card from my trail cam and dropped it through the crack between the deck boards. No way of getting that back. I have lots of cards and also lots of clips of raccoons drinking water so it’s not a tragedy but still annoying.

I don’t think I’ve posted any clips since I got the new cam up so I will do one for later this week.

Seen while waiting for bus. Reaction was to gag. Other thoughts? The food industry’s ideas for getting more sugar into people have no end.

I have seen quite a few praying mantises (praying manti?) in my yard lately. Aren’t they good luck or something like that? The one’s I’ve seen were very small. One was white-ish — so maybe a baby? I’m to lazy to do praying mantis research right now. I am happy to have them.

I also have a lot of dragonflies. Aren’t those good luck, too? I like them. Also this morning while I was watching the eagle, a hummingbird perched behind me on one of the above ground wires. It was great.

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Me All Starry Eyed

Screenshot used w/o permission from artist’s youtube

Asia was a super group in the early 80s made up of people that only old people and the stray youth that likes classic prog rock has heard of from Emerson Lake & Palmer and Yes. I had their debut on cassette and listened to it a million times in my 1972 Karmann Ghia.

The Internet says there was a second album called Alpha that sounds vaguely familiar but I don’t remember following them after that. The Internet also says the band as remained active almost continuously since 1981. I did not know that and honestly haven’t thought about them in years until I heard them in Fred Meyer last week. Kind of like Gray’s Anatomy — this thing is still on?

I was delighted to be reminded of song. As we were leaving Fred Meyer I said to Bob: Do you think you can find Fred Meyer Friday Morning Playlist on Apple Music?” (I don’t have Spotify.)(I have Apple Music and don’t know how it works or how playlists work. I do manage to pull up obscure music from the 80s and Apple Music tries to find things to recommend based on that.)

I said: Did you hear that song by Asia, the supergroup from the 80s?
Bob said: I did. It was terrible. I wanted it to stop.

The song is called Only Time Will Tell. It starts out with a bright synthesizer opening, like a graduation march, that then slows down into a moving heartfelt ballad about an ending relationship. I remember driving around singing this to myself after my senior year boyfriend dumped me right before prom.

I love it.

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RIP OZZY!

Approximately 1990, Hollywood.

Can’t believe it. What a legend.

EDITED TO ADD:

I restarted my memory and came up with the story to go with this picture. The photo was taken at my job where we rented film cameras. This was for a video for Bill Ward who was the original drummer for Black Sabbath.

Here’s the video. You can see Ozzy wearing the jacket in the video:

I got in trouble because they asked us if they could do camera tests in our facility but really they were filming these inserts for the video and didn’t have to pay for it. I was in my 20s and an assistant. What did I know? Where were my supervisors?

We got to hang out with Ozzy for the day. I was too shy to ask for a photo. A colleague asked and that’s how I have the photo.

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Fated Mates Podcast

If everything goes as planned I will be on today’s Fated Mates podcast. Actually Pen Name is on the podcast. I talk about my romance books and writing as a Native author.

I really love this podcast and I was so thrilled to be asked. I enjoyed talking to Sarah and Jen. But also I’m paranoid that I’m not very interesting. I did my best!

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Potatoes on the Loose

I harvested my first figs yesterday. Four more today. And we’ve harvested 2 tomatoes.

Everything is delicious.

What do you think is going on here?

Bob and I went to see the new Wes Anderson movie, The Phoenician Scheme, a week or two ago and afterward had some dinner. This was outside the restaurant.

Potatoes escaping? A potato sack incident? A potato fight?

We’ll never know.

I had grand plans to write an actual post tonight but my administrivia took too long and I had a technical snafu and I need to get off the computer and off to do other things.

I did do a bunch of writing this weekend. More information when I get further in.

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Summer Berry Pie with Chocolate Surprise

I had so many berries, desperate measures were needed. I made this pie twice over consecutive weekends. Once to experiment and the second time for company.

I am not a recipe developer – I just love pie and make a lot of it. This is the result of reading about 20 recipes plus my experience of things I’ve tried and liked.

I use this crust recipe.

For the filling I mixed raspberries, blueberries, and Marionberries and erred in favor of more blueberries. I have found that too many raspberries makes it too seedy.

I aimed for about 6 cups of berries for a 9 1/2 inch pie.

Mix all the berries and add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 t. cinnamon and a good squeeze of lemon juice. 1-2 T.

The first time I added a bit of lemon zest — maybe 1/2 t. The second time I added a bit of orange zest — maybe 1/2 t. I think you could get away with a heavier hand on this depending on how you like it

Finally, I mixed with baking tapioca. The first time I used a 1/2 cup and it seemed like a lot so the second time I used 1/3 cup and it seemed better. Then I let the prepared filling sit for at least 30 minutes.

While the fruit was resting I made a bottom crust and blind baked at 375 for about 15 minutes. When I took it out, I sprinkled about 2 oz. of chopped dark chocolate in the warm crust and let it melt a little bit and then used a little spatula to spread the chocolate in a thin layer over the bottom. Resist the urge to overdo the chocolate. It’s really best as just a hint with the fruit.

When that was done I added the fruit and made the top crust. I have never added a top crust to a blind baked bottom before. I was sure how much it would “seal” so I just did my best and then made those giant slashes to give the berry juice plenty of room to bubble out so it wouldn’t come out the sides. It seems like it worked.

Also I should note that I had a timer malfunction so it was left in a tad too long. It tasted fine.

Let it cool before slicing. It’s really delicious — the chocolate is a nice surprise taste with the berries. I stored in the fridge.

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