Bird Bricks

I've always been a bird watcher. Being eternally thrifty, though, I don't like to spend a lot on their food. My mom and dad always successfully attracted many different birds by just putting out cracked corn and sunflower seeds. I use that mix, plus thistle seed, suet, and my homemade Bird Bricks.

Basically, Bird Bricks are a substitute for those suet cakes that you can pick up just about anywhere. They're anywhere from a buck to three or four dollars a piece. Mine cost about sixty cents a piece! And the birds seem to love them MORE than the commercially prepared ones.

Bird Bricks

1 cup of lard

1 cup of peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
2 cups of oatmeal

2 cups of corn meal

1 cup of flour

1 cup of raisins or peanuts-- optional

Mix well with your mixer and spoon into a 9×13 pan.
Freeze until firm (at least 2 hours). Cut into feeder sized pieces. I usually get 6 from one 9x13 inch pan. Store pieces in freezer in zip-lock bag until ready to use.

The Five

Sight

Duma Key by Stephen King
When you tell someone you're reading a Stephen King novel, you get one of two reactions. It's either, "Oh, I can't read his stuff. Why would you want to read that?" or "Cool. He freaks me out, but I can't stop. I love him!" I'm not a book snob or a music snob. I'll read or listen to just about anything. Which I think is the way to be. Some people stick to what they like and know and won't step out of their zone. Stephen gets me out of my zone. I can only read one or two of his books a year. He gets in my head and sometimes I can't get him out. But, I love it! This book focuses on a former construction company owner who moves from Minnesota to a small key in Florida. Since I love both Minnesota and Florida, I thought this would be a good read. And it was. Stephen didn't disappoint me and, in the five days that it took me to read this book, I didn't sleep very well. A little creepy, a little suspenseful, a real page turner. Thanks Stephen. I'll sit on this one for a while and revisit you again soon.

The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens
I think I read somewhere that this was Sharon's first novel. Well done, I say, in the best Irish accent I can summon. Set in Ireland, this novel reminded me so much of Maeve Binchy's work. Just the right kind of story to get Stephen King out of my head. I read this one almost in one setting. The story focuses on a tea house and it's owners and patrons. I'm not going to tell you much more than that. If you're a fan of Binchy's work and would like a nice little summer read where everything just works out the way it should, then pick this one up at the library.

Sound

Thunder. We need the rain and we needed a rainy day to stay home and have some friends over to play. There's something about a rainy day that brings out the imagination in a couple of young boys! (And me too!) This has been an old fashioned summer of playing with friends every day--and less scheduled activity. It's been a blast!

Scent

Hummingbird food coming to a boil on the stove. I better go shut that off! When it rains, the feeders get full of water and the food becomes too diluted to attract my little feathered friends. One part sugar to four parts water, bring to a boil, cool and fill your feeders. NO FOOD COLORING, they don't need it, nor are they attracted to it more if it's colored. Just get yourself a brightly colored feeder, I like the blown glass ones--I just picked up another one at a garage sale for a buck!

Taste

My afternoon treat of iced Kona coffee. It's a habit, I know I've talked about it before, but that's what I'm sipping on right now!

Touch

Tile samples. I think I finally found the tile for my kitchen. (insert Hallelujah Chorus here)

Simple Moments

Every once in a while a little bird will perch on my windowsill and peer into my house. Eye to eye, we share a simple moment. Now, perhaps, he is just looking at his own reflection, but I like to think we're connecting. Maybe he's trying to thank me for feeding him or maybe he's just wondering what in the heck that big, weird-looking bird without feathers is.

Simple moments like that sometimes creep into my day. Today, I was in a hurry all morning. There was laundry to do, the kitchen and bathrooms to clean, and some very dreaded vacuuming. Dreaded, because I had just done it yesterday, and young one had brought in some mud and tracked it from the backdoor all the way upstairs to his room. Isn't that how it is? You get something done, checked off that big list, and then whammy, you find you're doing it again. But, I digress.

This morning, my hubbie complained that he couldn't hear me on the phone. I was scurrying around trying to accomplish something, rather than just sitting and listening, as I guess I should have been doing. I was attempting to feed the dogs, not quite a quiet task. As the kibble dropping into the steel bowl, I couldn't really cammouflage the fact that I wasn't completely focused on, what for him, was a very important conversation. A missed, simple moment. (And yes, I am feeling thoroughly guilty about this!)

It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day clutter. We all have huge to do lists and so much that is yet to be done. I think our country as a whole has gotten caught up in the hurry scurry of being BUSY and we're not focusing on what is really important in life, the simple moments.

So, try as I might to be able to reach dear hubbie, to try to apologize or at least rid myself of some of the guilt, along came my little bird. Bright yellow goldfinch, peeking in on me. I stopped my rushed cleaning, thinking, what the heck am I rushing for, and stopped to look into his beady brown eyes. Staying as still as possible, I noticed a rare sight at my bird feeder just beyond my little gold friend. A bluebird, bright feathered with his signature orange breast, sat at my feeder. If not for my little goldfinch friend, I would have missed a Bluebird. They don't often come to feeders (they don't eat seed) and I usually only just glimpse them as they pass through my area in the Spring and the Fall. As the bluebird sat and preened, I watched a bright red Cardinal, a Purple Housefinch, and a black and white checkered Downy Woodpecker join him. My heart rate slowed down and I felt just a bit of peace in my busy day. Just what I needed, a simple moment.