lovely little swooping swallows

We always have had an abundant barn swallow population around here, but man, they've been wild as of late. I truly appreciate the enormous amount of insects they eat, and I shudder to think what it'd be like around here without them. However, lately they come swooping down so low by my head that I panic that they're actually AFTER ME (or is it just my ridiculous floral pony tail holder?)! I've never heard of anyone getting beaned accidently by a swallow, so I guess I'll just go about my business and hope they use their finely-tuned navigational instincts to steer clear of my noggin!


Here's a little interesting info. I found about them on birds.com:


A familiar inhabitant of barns and other outbuildings, the Barn Swallow is easily recognized by its long forked tail. It was originally a cave breeder, but now the swallow nests almost exclusively on man-made structures.


Description
Small slender songbird.
Tail long and forked.
Upperparts steely iridescent blue.
Underparts rufous.
Size: 15-19 cm (6-7 in)
Wingspan: 29-32 cm (11-13 in)

Song: a twittery series of squeaky notes, often with dry rattle in the middle.



Cool Facts
-The Barn Swallow is the most abundant and widely distributed swallow species in the world. It breeds throughout the northern hemisphere and winters in much of the southern hemisphere.
-The long tail of a Barn Swallow may indicate the quality of the individual bird. Females prefer to mate with males that have the longest and most symmetrical tails.
-An unmated male Barn Swallow may kill the nestlings of a nesting pair. His actions often succeed in breaking up the pair and afford him the opportunity to mate with the female.


That last part sounds like it belongs on a talk show! Naughty males!


This post wouldn't be complete without me mentioning one of my favorite Wailin' Jennys songs, Swallow, from their beautiful Firecracker album:

Oh swallow
What did you swallow?
You swoop so low
You come and you go

Dance by the Light of the Moon

From the Farmer's Almanac:

Full Sturgeon Moon - August
The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.

Friday's Quote

How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those that
are wise and of good will.

-Albert Einstein

What I'm Reading, Watching, Listening to

Reading: The Beach House by Jane Green and Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (a chapter each night to the kids). The Little House reading is going at an extremely slow pace because I have to keep pausing to answer various questions like "Why would Laura and Mary be so happy to play with a blown-up pig's bladder for a ball?"


Watching: Not much time for TV lately but still catching up on Discovery's Deadliest Catch series. Most recent Netflix movie was The Bank Job, which I didn't care for and stopped watching about 10 minutes in. I'm actually thinking of stopping Netflix for awhile - I feel like I struggle to find new things to put in my queue. I figure I can get any older movies I want from the good old library. The next movie I'll watch (or rather re-watch for the 5th time) will be the 50 cent copy of The Princess Bride I found last week at the thrift shop. Score! And what will really make it fun is that my husband's never seen it before.


Listening: Prince Edward Island Fiddlers, which I received as an iTunes gift from dear Nan over at Letters from a Hill Farm, Alison Krauss Lonely Runs Both Ways, and Thicker Than Water by Jack Johnson and Friends.

Spying Jupiter

Fly me to the moon
And let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars
In other words hold my hand
In other words darling kiss me

This is the song I have stuck in my head today, surely from my viewing of Jupiter last night in the southern sky. Have you seen it? It's easy to spot around dusk - it is the largest yellow dot in the sky that's not twinkling :)

Happy Birthday to My Dad

Today my mom and sisters are coming up for a visit. I've made a strawberry jello poke cake topped fresh strawberries, as it's my late father's birthday. He would have been 82 today. If we start to feel sad, we have to shake it right off, because that's the last way he'd want us to feel. Be happy, be together, I hear him saying in my mind. And that's exactly what we'll do. :)

Going Weekly

Now that we've FINALLY gotten high-speed Internet out here, I'm experiencing what it's really like to surf the web. I can blast through Amazon.com listmanias, scroll through 100s of pieces on Art.com, and go from email to email without needing a magazine on my lap to make the time between screens bearable. And now I have time to read more blogs and leave a comment if I wish without it taking 10 minutes to sign in. Because of this, I've decided to "go weekly" with my own blog and use my new found time for reading, not writing, more. I think my mundane life can only support one post a week anyway!

Friday's Quote

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep it to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

-Tao Te Ching

Song of Summer

Every summer, usually unintentionally, one song emerges as my "theme song" for the season. This summer there is no doubt that my song is "Constellations" by Jack Johnson. I play it every day after dinner, and it transports me from my hectic day to the calm of evening. It soothes me, makes me feel a breeze even if the air is still, and lets me savor the word "moonrise".
Ahhhhhh.

Constellations

The light was leaving
In the west it was blue
The children's laughter sang
And skipping just like the stones they threw
Their voices echoed across the way
Its getting late

It was just another night
With a sunset
And a moonrise not so far behind
To give us just enough light
To lay down
underneath the stars
Listen to papas translations
Of the stories across the sky
We drew our own constellations

The west winds often last too long
The wind may calm down
Nothing ever feels the same
Sheltered under the Kamani tree
Waiting for the passing rain
Clouds keep moving to uncover the scene
Stars above us chasing the day away
To find the stories that we sometimes need
Listen close enough
All else fades
Fades away

It was just another night
With a sunset
And a moonrise not so far behind
To give us just enough light
To lay down
underneath the stars
Listen to all the translations
Of the stories across the sky
We drew our own constellations