Stupid compassion

Monday the goslings at school were out. A goose pair comes to the patio (far off the ground) of the building where I work, to nest. This year they were smarter and picked a planter for a nesting area rather than a corner of the patio. The planter was closer to people, yes, but seems infinitely better suited for such a task as sitting on eggs. Then the signs go up: "Don't disturb the nesting geese." And then one day there are goslings tottering about the patio and they are nowhere to be seen the next day. The patio doesn't have a water source and so I think it's pretty important to get them to somewhere near water. I want to watch them and see how they get them down. I have a feeling they just launch them over the edge to the river but I don't know for sure.

As this was a new location for the nest and I noticed someone else out by the nest earlier in the day taking pictures, when I left work for the day, with neither adult or baby geese in sight, I ambled toward the nest. Stupid me. Inside was a gosling, floundering about on its back. I thought "Oh no!" and walked away. I got to the gate of the patio and stopped and thought "Well, those geese won't be back. They never come back after they've left with the babies." and "That gosling in the nest is going to die. I can't let it die alone." I quickly searched for information on what to feed goslings. It seemed like something I could figure out and make do with what I had at home. So home the little guy came for some gosling hospice. I was totally prepared for it to die, expected it.

I wasn't prepared for it to live. Flourish even. Here's the secret: Grape Nuts. Yep, I fed Pat, as it needed an androgenous name, the hardest breakfast cereal on the plant, smashed down to littler pieces and softened in water. Also, plenty of fresh water. I held it a lot that first night and tried to make it a little box of newspaper and fluff and trained a task lamp on it for extra warmth. Leo seems to be over me bringing in random animals. He gave Pat a few sniffs and then ignored me. Lily was far more interested. Lily who sits at the window in the mornings and makes cheeping noises to lure the birds closer because they would make such nice, tasty snacks (someday I will tape her doing this because I find it very amusing). She circled the box at night. She watched avidly as Pat cheeped and tottered.

So Pat got stronger and started walking and being able to right itself when it fell over on its back. I could feel feathers coming in under the fluff. By Tuesday night I had pulled out an old carpet that I was planning to get rid of for Pat to hang out on when it wasn't in the box. I wanted it to strengthen its walking and jumping skills. I tried to keep Lily away but trusted that she wasn't going to eat it. Pat cheeped and chattered and tried to follow me when I wandered away to the back of the apartment. I learned to wrap something I wasn't planning on keeping around it when I held it. Baby geese poop just like the adults. I think Pat just hatched a few days later than the rest and wasn't ready to go when the rest of the goslings were so it got left behind.

Clearly Pat needed a new home, one with other geese. It is illegal to have a wild animal (with a few exceptions, like pigeons) here and few rescue places are interested in taking in a common goose so it was up to me to find a goose family with goslings about the same age as Pat. Yesterday I walked around by the river and found just one goose family but the goslings had a good week on mine. This morning Pat and I loaded up the car with my adult goose distraction kit, an old english muffin, grape nuts, bulgar wheat, and went looking again. I did find a family with similar sized little ones so I went back to get Pat and inserted it through the fence whilst throwing bits of english muffin at the adults. Off it tottered, right to the other geese. There was no immediate killing of strange young which seems to be a possibility and, when the family wandered off a bit but Pat didn't immediately follow, one of the adults seemed to notice and slowed down to make sure it did. So I am going to call it shiny and good and successful.

Yes, I got a bit teary.

And now I know to not look in the nest. Never again.

Thrifting Thursday

  

I've found a couple of fun things lately out thrifting. Up first is this lovely vase - apparently I don't have a full picture of it. It's pottery with a nice, white glaze on it. There are little spaces along the bottom where part of the clay shows through and has a nice long neck, perfect for a single stem of something. It's been in use pretty consistently since it came home with me.

This little wavy fenton number was a gift from my parents. I think I may have shared it before actually. Milk glass love. Its big sister is on my mantle now with some tulips in it.

I found three luster tea cups and saucers recently as well. Here are two of them. The additional set is also pink and the same pattern as the grey set.

I really don't need additional cups and saucers but they were there and I couldn't resist.

Randomness

I was thinking earlier - what can I share for Made it Monday on the blog? - and realized that I haven't really done much making. I do need to make a baby boy quilt. Or maybe just an afghan. There is less hating the process with the afghan. I really dislike almost everything about making quilts, except picking out fabric and the end product. I really like the end product and I don't want to pay for someone else to make one so I make them and deal with the misery for a while. Afghans are more enjoyable. I pick out yarn, a pattern, and go to town. I can do things while I work on a blanket. I can't do much more than watch television when I'm cutting or piecing a quilt. Anyways, that was a rabbit trail.

Not much making happening around Casa de Hannita. That was the point.

I survived, dare I say, really enjoyed a women's weekend with the Quakers a few weeks back. The pictures from last Wednesday, except for the last one, were taken there. I bought a sleeping bag and wee flashlight for the occasion and stayed in a cabin by myself. The facilitator was really good. If only I could remember her name... But I enjoyed chatting with her the last meal she had with us before she left for home. The focus, at least for me, of the weekend was self-care. Amazingly enough, even though I teach a class on it, I don't do this well. I keep having to wrestle with questions like what do I want to do with my life and what do I fear and that sort of thing. It feels daunting. I keep thinking about moving to New Mexico. I love New Mexico. However, not much in the way of higher education in New Mexico. It is a depressingly slim group of options for work or school. There are probably more institutions of higher learning in Chicago than there are in the entire state of NM. I could be wrong but my investigation thus far does seem to support that statement. And that was another rabbit trail.

Speaking of rabbit trails, I present stupid baby bunny:

On another church-y note. I would just like to state that the problem with going to church with old people is that they die. You get attached and then, sooner or later, they up and die on you! The audacity! A few weeks ago a lovely older gentleman that I had liked passed away. He had had an infection in a hip replacement, went into the hospital, had suffered a stroke I believe and never woke up. It was very sudden. He was a trombone player and at his memorial meeting several trombone players played for him. This makes me happy and sad at the same time:

But really, isn't that what you want at your memorial service?

Wordless Wednesday

Volcanic

Work has been trying. Wednesday was nothing terrible but nothing good and I kept breaking down in tears. I am angry a lot and I don't like being angry. I'm trying to figure out what the cause of the anger is (anger is a secondary emotion caused by something else like frustration or confusion). I'm not happy with myself that I have seemed to have given someone(s) enough power over my life that it now strongly influences my emotions. And I'm not happy that there doesn't seem to be much of an end in sight. Like most work situations, it is complicated and multi-layered.


I think tearing up at work because work is so crappy is never a good sign so I took a personal day on Thursday. The last time I took a day because I was so angry it was a bad idea - I was just too much in my angry head with little distraction all day. I let my supervisor know that I might be in in the afternoon if I got sick of myself. But this day went better. I got out and did some shopping, brought home some lovely flowers, found a Half-Price Books I didn't know of previously, did a tiny bit of cleaning. It was good. I am doing better. But I know my anger is there, just under the surface, ready to erupt.

I'm not sure what to do about it all. And that just sucks. If anyone hears of a job in New Mexico let me know!

Teary and Wordless

At least there was food

The shower happened. I don't know that I can say much more than that. I am still cleaning up the dishes but I hate doing dishes so that can drag on forever. If I do a new rack-full each day I may be done cleaning by next weekend. I didn't get many pictures because I was busy. I felt woefully unprepared as people started showing up. But, c'est la vie. However, if I ever think I want to do something like this again, please (please, please, please) remind me that I really don't.

But, now I have flowers at home. I was so happy to see delphiniums at the grocery store. Delphiniums are so fantastic and happy making.

A Different Kind of Easter

For the past few years I have tried to get out of Dodge over the Easter weekend. Easter, generally, is a holiday best spent with little people, or, people. At least in my mind. This year, for some reason, a baby shower I am hosting this Saturday, has caused some unforeseen anxiety. So I opted to stay home and see if I could accomplish some of the things on my to-do list. It will be fine. It will (she tells herself repeatedly). I actually had a dream of myself sitting in the middle of my floor when the first guests arrive, unbathed, food not ready, decorations not up. So, now that I have dreamt that, I can make sure it doesn't happen. I tried to hang decorations last night but the tape doesn't seem to be holding them. So much for trying to work ahead. But I did get the diaper cake all constructed and decorated so, yay for me!

Anyways, back to Easter. I think because I have gotten to know a few folks at Meeting I was much more comfortable sticking around for Easter than I was last year. They do an egg hunt for the kiddos and folks were encouraged to bring eggs or filler so I brought a dozen with me. Apparently so did most folks - they ended up with much more than they needed. After meeting and grabbing coffee we went outside and watched the kids swarm the side yard. The big kids were so good in that they, following instructions, left the obvious eggs lying on the ground for the wee ones. Even as folks pointed out the ones still left (the little ones are a bit slower) they left them. Such good kids. I overheard one older woman mention that later she would be taking a hot cross bun to a departed friend's grave. Apparently they made or enjoyed hot cross buns together on Easter. She is one of those people that I feel so blessed (please excuse the church-speak) to hear from on a regular basis in Meeting. I also got a dinner invitation which was so good. I would have just gone home and fixed something but this was much better. It was a small group of us but I enjoyed the company and laughed harder than I have laughed in a long while. We even dyed eggs.

I still missed my Easter people. I will always miss my Easter people when I don't spend time with them. But that is the nature of loving people, is it not?