16 January 2014

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This is the “life is humorous, life is irritating, life is tragic, life is triumphant”  edition.

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HA HA

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When last in Suva, I tucked into a nearby cafe for a quick meal.  I saw the breakfast menu (photo above).   Would you like a  Bun of Contempt  with your tea?.

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(stock photo)

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IRRITATING

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The real reason I was getting desperate to ship my quilt to a safe location is that a blinking mud dauber started a nest on my PILLOW!   A few days later on Austin’s pillow.   Here is a one-day creation on our keyboard.

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On our bug light.   How’s that for irony?

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And on a louver in my mother-in-law’s room.

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Yes, everywhere I turn right now a new mud dauber nest in progress.   But if in some dimension the bugs have their version of a blog – then they are reporting me as an equal irritation…

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Or a disaster – I destroy the nests as I find them.   These are the grubs.   Ugh.

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TRAGIC

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This is a small shell I found under the clothes line late last month.  I found it charming.

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I put it together and took it to Austin.   He said it must be from a wild bird (DUH!).  And we went to the nearby mango tree and looked for the nest.

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It was up there.

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So I planned to watch for the parent birds, and later the babies, but I forgot.   Last week when I was hanging clothes beside a pen that had young chicks, red ants attacked my feet.  I saw them swarmed upon what I thought were 3 dead baby chickens.  I told Austin and he came running.  The bird corpses were not chicks but the hatchlings, and Austin guessed they were washed out of the nest by the heavy rains.   Who would have ever thought of the rain as being a danger to nestlings?

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TRIUMPH !

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Our heartiest congratulations to Betty Cat – who had the infinitely GOOD SENSE (finally) to find a suitable tomcat to sire her kittens.   She gave birth to four completely healthy and whole male kittens.   She is fiercely protective and ran off with one of them before I could get the photo snapped.   These lovely kittens are a source of joy to us now and will easily find very good homes when the time comes.    YAY !!

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