I can’t think about anything except these being the last of the Daily Post’s helpful articles, lessons, prompts, challenges, etc.
I’m still new enough that I feel like an enthusiastic and wildly curious elementary school child in my process and someone has told me my school is closing…..
“Hey I heard about this great new breakfast place. Wanna go try it out?”
“Sure, I could eat.”“Great menu but it gets pretty crowded.”“Yeah, check out the line waiting.”“And apparently they will serve just about ANYONE here!”
“Hey, wait a minute!!! I don’t think THAT guy had a reservation!”“Yeah, so what? Wanna make somethin’ of it?”
con·gre·gate
verb
gather into a crowd or mass.
synonyms: assemble, gather, collect, come together, convene, rally, rendezvous, muster, meet, cluster, group
Here’s my 1,000 words…well, maybe 973 word, but I can’t write in words what this photo is worth.
This is not some kinky cat-sex photo.
This is Lucy, our Woodpile Kitten, at about 9 months old here getting ready for a nap on top of Zorro, the former Alpha Cat…
Zorro, who is a very old, very dominant warrior cat with a lot of nurturing and protective instincts, must seem to Lucy, born in the wild, like a safe pillow!
Here in the Northwest, the word gorge is definitely a NOUN, not a verb!
It is a DESTINATION! And surely, one of the most spectacular Concert Venues in the world!
The Columbia River Gorge Amphitheater is a truly amazing place to see a concert.
My favorite Concert there so far was Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby and Shawn Colvin. What a great line up! They just drifted in and out of each other’s sets like musical butter, so smooth.
The jam they did at the very end was a once in a lifetime combo, so beautiful. Northwest concert goers are relentless in their demands for an encore and these musicians complied by first letting the stage go all dark and quiet, but after 5 full minutes of our insatiable hunger for more, Jackson Browne came back out, sat at the piano in the dark and started his cool song “Stay” (or “the Load Out”). There was an instant standing ovation in recognition from the very first notes on the piano!! The other three joined him, one at a time and they did a generously spectacular 20 minute encore! What a finish.
And it did not hurt our experience at all that we were given “Box” seats for this show. Best view in the “house”, cozy recliners to lounge in, and a button we could push to have someone come bring us wine or hot chocolate, and get this, a BLANKET if we were cold!!! We even had a separate parking area, just feet from where we sat. It was an unexpected bonus! You know how a post-concert throng can be!!
Shawn Colvin was impressive both musically and as a new Mom. To my delight as an old Hippie Flower Child, who proudly breastfed in public long before it was legal in most states, Shawn had to stop in the middle of a song to let her baby GORGE!
Disclaimer: I did not take either of these photos. I found them on the Gorge Amphitheater website.
I was so excited when I first spotted these eggs in the Rhododendron out in front of my house. I checked the eggs out every day for a while and couldn’t wait to show my Grandsons, who, at the time were about 5 and 7.
I took them outside, lifted them each up high enough to get a good look, and then we went back in the house to have the inevitable discussion about the problems of keeping the nestlings as pets once they hatched.
The next day, the youngest came running up all excited…”They HATCHED, Gramma!!”
Uh oh. I knew they couldn’t have yet, but when we went outside to check things out, there were the broken egg shells all over the ground.
I lied. Well, I agreed with them when, already heartbroken about the whole “no pet” thing, they concluded the baby Robins had flown away to a happy life in the sky.
I felt awful, for the tragedy (though as an adult, I can almost grasp the whole food chain thing in Nature) but also because I had lied.
A few days later I was reading about the habits of our local Steller Jays, about how smart they are. These cousins of the Crow have figured out how to watch other animals, especially human ones, as they discover and then repeatedly return to, a nest full of eggs….
Not only did I lie to my grandsons. Apparently I was also responsible for the discovery and destruction of those beautiful eggs!
Now I REALLY felt awful!
No Gold Star for this Grandmother today!
I have my own photo of Steller Jays somewhere but can’t find them right now. The above image was listed online as free.