![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And it made you seem so human and it made it seem like you had hopes and dreams and plans
A week out from reading in Providence and five days after a crush of strangers in the house, I seem not to have COVID-19, which is the nicest thing I can say about this week. I may have some kind of ordinary cold. We have duly reported the further possessions we found missing and heard nothing from the property manager about the plywood sandwich that used to be our back door. Hestia has been checking in with me before bed, often trampling herself a nest on my ankles while I read. I stopped sleeping for three nights.
Halloween has sprung on our street. Our facing neighbors in particular have pulled out all the spooky stops with a fringe of cheesecloth ghosts and plastic skeletons hanging from the top of their porch and woolly-bear-like garlands and spiderwebs all through the railings and an array of mostly albino pumpkins and autumnally colored flowers on the steps. Since I have had an unobstructed view of their house from my office ever since the Bradford pear on our sidewalk was cut down in the spring, I appreciate it. I had such a dichotomous relationship with this holiday as a child. I loved the costumes which could be planned for half a year, the door-to-door of the trick-or-treating, the leaf-weather, the dark. It was full of bones and masks, the skull beneath the skin. Everything I read told me the world swung open and the in-between came through.
I was distracted from continuing this post by the sudden arrival of a small falcon in the yew tree outside my window. It was after the sparrows who scattered with a frantic twitter. Its slate-brown back and its buff-brindled breast and its black-banded tail were so distinct that the internet tells me it was a merlin. I had never seen one with my own eyes. It thrashed around in the red-berried needles and took wing again. I want to take it as a good sign. It perched briefly on the edge of our porch. It gave a small sharp cry.
Halloween has sprung on our street. Our facing neighbors in particular have pulled out all the spooky stops with a fringe of cheesecloth ghosts and plastic skeletons hanging from the top of their porch and woolly-bear-like garlands and spiderwebs all through the railings and an array of mostly albino pumpkins and autumnally colored flowers on the steps. Since I have had an unobstructed view of their house from my office ever since the Bradford pear on our sidewalk was cut down in the spring, I appreciate it. I had such a dichotomous relationship with this holiday as a child. I loved the costumes which could be planned for half a year, the door-to-door of the trick-or-treating, the leaf-weather, the dark. It was full of bones and masks, the skull beneath the skin. Everything I read told me the world swung open and the in-between came through.
I was distracted from continuing this post by the sudden arrival of a small falcon in the yew tree outside my window. It was after the sparrows who scattered with a frantic twitter. Its slate-brown back and its buff-brindled breast and its black-banded tail were so distinct that the internet tells me it was a merlin. I had never seen one with my own eyes. It thrashed around in the red-berried needles and took wing again. I want to take it as a good sign. It perched briefly on the edge of our porch. It gave a small sharp cry.
no subject
I hope you feel better soon.
Beginning to suspect that your property manager is a bit of a knob.
no subject
*hugs*
I hope you feel better soon.
Thank you. I just don't think I could have dealt with getting plague from the break-in. It would have been beyond rude.
Beginning to suspect that your property manager is a bit of a knob.
I suspect that you may be right.
no subject
I always take it that way when I see a bird. Everything else may be crappy, but at least I saw a pretty bird! <3
no subject
I like this philosophy!
*hugs*
no subject
You said "a dichotomous relationship" but I don't catch the dichotomy? Or I'm missing the direction in which you intend it? I see your love for the season, the holiday, the in-between. (I love that about this season too.) But so the dichotomy? Carried away by the merlin, maybe?
Here's to restful sleep for you.
no subject
I heard a kind of explosive noise in the yew and the next thing I saw was a falcon in the branches and a shockwave of sparrows in all directions. It was so close on the other side of the glass. It was about pigeon-sized. It had bright feet. The only thing I knew was that it wasn't a kestrel. I suspect it saw me moving behind the opened blinds. I was trying to get a picture, but I was also just enchanted. Hestia was asleep in the bedroom and missed this special installment of Bird Theater!
But so the dichotomy? Carried away by the merlin, maybe?
It probably was slightly rapt! The other half was the bones and the masks. I was upset by both as a child—not necessarily the bones themselves so much as the uninhabitance of bodies, but incredibly and specifically the shape-changers of masks. It made Halloween the only holiday I can think of with a real ritual terror in it. And I did love it. I read intensely about and looked forward to it. I didn't even like having my face painted.
Here's to restful sleep for you.
Thank you. I did manage some last night.
no subject
no subject
It's nice that your neighborhood is going all out for Halloween.
"Leaf-weather" is a beautiful phrase.
no subject
Thank you! I do not think we can legally not have a back door for very long.
It's nice that your neighborhood is going all out for Halloween.
Another house has put tiny pumpkins all up and down its stairs. I forgot to check when I was out earlier this afternoon whether it is still possible to be mooned by the gay skeleton.
"Leaf-weather" is a beautiful phrase.
*hugs*
no subject
If the skeleton intends it, yes. It’s all in the gesture.
no subject
Whew. I wouldn't want to crimp his style.
no subject
Nine
no subject
no subject
Wow!
Nine
no subject
Mkay. Well. If anyone is lying about in ponds. Distributing swords. Just… just seize the day.
I’ll fetch TW’s little horned helmet.
no subject
Acies ad hostem!
*hugs*
no subject
no subject
Thank you.
no subject
Your property "manager" needs to be fired. >.< Perhaps from a cannon.
A clear view of good Hallowe'en decor sounds lovely indeed!
Whether it's a sign or not, I love that a merlin visited you. *hugs*
no subject
Thank you! I really don't want it! I am good on health issues for the foreseeable future!
A clear view of good Hallowe'en decor sounds lovely indeed!
It honestly cheers me up.
Whether it's a sign or not, I love that a merlin visited you.
*hugs*
It was so cool.
no subject
So: it seems the same merlin species, Falco columbarius, is found in both Europe and North America, and it's possible their habitat preferences differ over their range but I would be very surprised to see one in an urban or suburban garden—they're really only found in open countryside round here. If someone near me said they'd seen a merlin in their garden I would go, ah, that'll have been a (Eurasian) sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, and I was going to suggest whether there might be a similar species in your area but the taxonomy of Accipiter and their relatives seems to have got a lot more complicated since I last looked... hmm, Astur cooperii looks possible... OTOH the picture at the top of the Wikipedia page for the merlin was apparently taken in a park in New York City, so perhaps I am wrong about their habitat specificity after all!
Whatever it was, what a lovely sighting.
no subject
You're welcome! I am glad to be a distraction from your bathroom and very sorry to hear that the saga continues!
If someone near me said they'd seen a merlin in their garden I would go, ah, that'll have been a (Eurasian) sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, and I was going to suggest whether there might be a similar species in your area but the taxonomy of Accipiter and their relatives seems to have got a lot more complicated since I last looked... hmm, Astur cooperii looks possible... OTOH the picture at the top of the Wikipedia page for the merlin was apparently taken in a park in New York City, so perhaps I am wrong about their habitat specificity after all!
I appreciate the research! I got to merlin by looking at Mass Audubon—I saw that it was uncommon in New England, but nothing else looked like the black-banded pattern of the tail. (I stared for a while at pictures of the broad-winged hawk, but it was differently shaped and just not close enough.) I sort of assumed it was passing through.
Whatever it was, what a lovely sighting.
It made me very happy. I didn't expect it. My city normally just gets peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks, and ospreys.
no subject
ETA: And they're not closely related at all! It's a really neat example of convergent evolution how similar they can look.
I sort of assumed it was passing through.
It is migration season, that's true! Hmm, and my big book on raptors notes that North American merlins are the most strongly migratory of its world populations.
My city normally just gets peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks, and ospreys.
:O Those are pretty exciting! Ospreys are very much not an urban bird round here either.
no subject
And they didn't converge from different niches, either! You have both the sparrowhawk and the merlin. How cool.
It is migration season, that's true! Hmm, and my big book on raptors notes that North American merlins are the most strongly migratory of its world populations.
And they eat a lot of songbirds along the way! I had no idea.
Wikipedia actually includes a photo of a merlin taken in Mount Auburn Cemetery, which is not far from me in Cambridge. (I could walk there in about an hour.) So they have been sighted in these parts before!
Those are pretty exciting! Ospreys are very much not an urban bird round here either.
We have them on the rivers! We saw one on the Mystic Lakes as recently as August. They have those gold-ringed staring eyes.
no subject
I'm glad your neighbors are giving you some nice Halloween views! I always enjoy this season.
no subject
I will take it as one!
I'm glad your neighbors are giving you some nice Halloween views! I always enjoy this season.
I love how enthusiastically people decorate for it. I have seen everything from corn dollies to inflatable dinosaurs.
no subject
That ought to be a good sign, but it does anyway sound like a lovely unexpected thing!! <333
no subject
It made my day!
no subject
I'm glad you've avoided Covid I hope you feel better soon!
no subject
Merlins, almost as good as doors! (Better?)
I'm glad you've avoided Covid I hope you feel better soon!
Thank you!
no subject
I was distracted today when I glanced up and saw a heron flapping by. I've seen herons in pools before, but I'm not certain I've seen one in flight, and certainly not over my home town.
no subject
That's wonderful.