A Murder of Crow

A mellow (if cool and soggy) Memorial Day weekend was had here in Ballard...We finally had a respite this afternoon starting about 3pm, after several days of persistent rain and temps that couldn't break 60F. Taking full advantage, we dashed outside, fluffed up our sodden garden beds (having turned under the rye/fava bean covercrop several weeks ago to begin its springtime decomposition) and stuck our poor tomato starts into the ground. Tough love in these parts, we need to get things going!

This morning, however, was not very mellow. Continuing our Mutual of Omaha spring melodrama, we awoke at 6am to the sound of many, many crows cawing and shrieking - looking outside I could see them gathering in the top of the big pine by the shed and in the neighboring trees. The chickens were joining in here and there but not nearly as alarmed as the crows. I watched to see if I could spot the raccoon that most certainly was the source of the cacophony, and spotted him heading straight up the trunk - but he disappeared into the canopy where my view of him was obscured.

Climbed back into bed, thoroughly awake, and listened for another 20 minutes or so before getting up again and walking out to make sure there weren't any others lurking around. I found a spot on the patio where I could see the raccoon high up in the pine, and he seemed to be eating something in the crook of the branch. I went back in, grabbed the binoculars and watched from the bedroom window. Long story short, had a clear view of him eating a crow he had clearly just nabbed from a nest up in the tree. It was pretty gruesome, entrails hanging down, his sharp white teeth tearing pieces off (just as they were designed to do), and his very pink tongue trying to spit out the feathers.

The crows were absolutely ballistic, at least 50 of them hung around for an hour or more, sounding the alarm endlessly - but nothing to be done, alas. It was disturbing all in all, but I couldn't help thinking about the fact that he was just feeding himself, as raccoons and every other animal must do every day. I was grateful that it wasn't one of our chickens, and we'll remain vigilante to ensure they don't show up on the seasonal menu...

Later, we looked around under the pine (in our compost bin area) and found a leg and entrails that had dropped - so sad.... The crows have been hanging around all day, as if they're holding a wake and all the relatives are coming in for the memorial service. We'd had a baby crow hanging around trying to join our chicken flock (they were having none of it) - we fear it might have been him, he was so dopey maybe he wasn't wily enough to avoid the raccoon.

So, goodbye May - we're hoping for a sunnier June in all respects!

Seattle Soccer

Last night we went to see our first Major League Soccer game at Qwest Field (our first time there as well), courtesy of some season-ticket-holding colleagues of mine: an international friendly game between the Seattle Sounders and the Boca Jrs. I know very little about soccer, but the Boca Jrs are a world cup-league team, and it was expected that they would dominate Seattle.

It was really fun, first of all because we woke up to one of the dreariest days of May so far (which is saying something) and watched it puke down rain all day long. Thankfully that little system spent itself out by 7pm when we got to the open-air stadium, and it proceeded to clear off and warm up a little, ultimately presenting us with a full-moon spectacle as we made our way to the car after the match.

Second of all, they have glitter guns that they use to shoot out huge wads of 2" shiny metallic confetti whenever something good (like a goal) happens, which was a surprisingly lovely effect...I was entranced (they never have glitter at baseball games)!

Finally, Seattle kicked the Boca Jrs collective asses 3-0! It was very exciting, a high-scoring game for soccer, but clean and well-played - it reminded me of hockey, except when they send that ball flying down the field they don't have blades on their feet to help them keep pace. Those players ran their asses off for 90 minutes!!

I think we'll go again, for sure.

What we've been watching

Not much, to tell the truth - but last night we watched Good Hair, a documentary narrated by Chris Rock. Fascinating topic - the role of hair in the African American community and the industry around it.

May: Razor Clams, Alpacas, Mothers

I suppose if I posted more often I'd have better titles for my posts...But that's how I roll, thus the random listing of disparate topics.

Since my last dispatch we've been busy - Bob's about to open a new show at SU, it's been an intense effort to bring it to fruition. Thursday will lay that to rest, and the quarter will be over before we know it, his second year coming to an end! Hard to believe...

Last month we made a quick escape to the WA Coast for some razor clamming - had a great time with the Britt-Dunlaps, and hit our limit (15 per person) both days. There's something about the ocean that really soothes the soul - and the bags full of clam meat are frosting on the cake!

At the end of April, I took a solo trip to Eastern WA to visit some friends who grow peaches and raise alpacas. I'd never visited the farm where my favorite fruits come from, and it was a huge treat to finally see it after all these years (I met them in ~1998 when we were vending our baked goods from the Cafe at the U-District Farmers Market)...I camped in the orchard and got to hang out with the alpacas while Marilynn took clippings of their fleece for a friend of mine who spins and wants to buy some fiber to work with. It was a nice break from the urban rat race - sagebrush, open sky, sunshine...

In between all that, working in the garden and enjoying the unfolding of spring. We have a bushtit nest in our pine tree, American goldfinches are passing through (bright yellow birds of spring), the raccoons have visited a couple more times, but no harm has come to the chickens. Neighbors are emerging, blinking into the light - the days are longer and the air is sweet with pollen and the scent of flowers of all sorts.

It was Mothers Day on Sunday, and Eleanor was much on my mind...A co-worker's mom unexpectedly fell ill last week and passed away on Saturday, and my heart was heavy with his sad loss. At the same time, I have been thinking of my own mom quite a bit lately - but with much greater ease than at any time in the past year and a half since she died. My thoughts of her have been less and less about the illness and hospitalization that dominated in the months after her death, and increasingly comforting, springing up randomly when I'm in the midst of the mundane chores of daily life - laundry, dishes, changing the beds, cooking.

I realized this weekend that I often think of her when doing things she taught me how to do in her inimitable way - likely learned from her own mother and aunts and passed along. Ruminating on this epiphany while folding the week's laundry, it occurred to me that mom was a crafty sort in her own way, and wholly encouraged these tendencies in me from the beginning. I subsequently had a long train of reminiscences - with windows desperately needing a Walter Parry washing flung open to admit the spring breeze, birds chirping away in the back yard - starting way back with my earliest cooking adventures and meandering along through crochet lessons (granny square baby blankets for one and all!), mail-order craft kits, story book writing/illustrating, tadpole collecting, violin instruction, shop classes (wood and metal), foreign language study & international travel, photography, etc...

And I realized that, while I rarely saw Mom actively engaged in any such hobbies while growing up (her main endeavor during those years was raising her children), my love of working with my hands was deeply influenced by her unfailing support of even the most outrageous ideas (green tuna noodle casserole, anyone?). Last year, during my first visit home after the funeral I was distraught about how I still missed her so much one year later, and my friend Amy said, "But Carol, don't you know that she's right here with you, and you can talk to her anytime you need to?" - at the time it didn't feel that way to me at all, I was still so immersed in the loss.

But, with every month that passes my thoughts of Mom grow easier, and I can see that she is indeed very much with me every step of the way. I'm sure I'll never stop missing her, but I'll never be completely without her either. Phew!