I’m not a tidy person. I’ve never been tidy and I doubt I’ll ever by tidy. I married a very tidy person. He likes things in their places and gets grumpy if things are not where they belong. These two facts sometimes cause some issues. These issues are compounded by having teenagers who, by nature, are not all that tidy either. The tidy person has been away for over a week. He comes home today.

Guess what the three not tidy people are doing today.

Choose the best answer:

a. nothing — we are not tidy, remember?
b. running around frantically cleaning the house
c. hiding things in closets and drawers
d. cowering in the corner with the dust bunnies
e. none of the above

Just kidding!

Reenadina Yew Wood ~ Killarney National Forest ~ Co. Kerry, Ireland

I just noticed, on my post editing interface I can insert photographs from Flickr.com — this is not a function on wordpress.com, so it is probably connected with a plugin I installed a long time ago and recently upgraded.

This is a photo of a stand of yew trees in one of the only ancient yew forests left in Europe. It is located within Killarney National Park and is one of the places I insisted on visiting. The magic you feel while surrounded by gnarled yews on mossy hills is very strong. Even folks who don’t believe in fairies come away with a little more understanding of the folks who do.

So the other day I heard the blue jays making their jay noises. I hear them sometimes, but not enough to consider it normal, so I often check on what’s going on when they start their calling. Not long ago they alerted me to an interesting standoff between a  hawk and a couple of doves. This time, however, all I noticed were the jays in the tree. I turned to go inside when I saw a small bird in the branch closest to me. I stood still, barely breathing, and it turned full circle to let me see it’s yellow undersides, dark gray back and black necklace. I also took note of its white eyering. We stared at each other for a while, then it flew off to the other side of the yard. I flew into the house and found my Sibley’s Guide. I knew it was a warbler because of the shape and beak. I looked at the prothonotary warbler first, because I thought that is what it was, but the prothonotary warbler doesn’t have the black necklace. After browsing the guide for a while I decided I’d had a Canada warbler in my yard — although the back seemed too dull for the breeding male and even the female. They are migrating now, so I think I saw a Canada Warbler, but if you have other suggestions, let me know.