Up in the Sky

I have been bemoaning the lack of birds at my feeder and suspected that the reason was that I was the equivalent of the lady who passes out Smarties on Halloween and by my current evidence, my guess appears to have been correct.
 
I am now the lady who hands out full size candy bars from an unguarded bowl. 

I had bought a less expensive bird seed, and it had made a difference, it wasn't the stuff the birds craved, someone else was passing out something better.  During my weekly grocery shop I picked up a bag of sunflower seeds, went home mixed them into my bird seed and voila two days later the diversity and population size of the birds in my backyard has soared. (pun intended)  The pine tree has a line of birds waiting for a turn at the feeder and the nearby bushes bounce up and down with all the avian activity.

Some poor neighbor is probably wondering where all the birds went, their mid-grade birdseed just isn't measuring up anymore.

I haven't even started with the suet cakes yet.

I've been out hauling manure for the garden again, I have extended the front garden bed by about six feet, with more to come, so that that back garden can be converted to a thin strip of veggies and the remainder converted into either currants or shade tolerant flowers or both.

It has been great working outside lately, the temperature is just right, there is little humidity and the blue sky intensifies all the other colors.  Up in that sky have been some interesting clouds, a new hobby of mine.  The library had had a book faced out on one of its shelves a few weeks ago called The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds  by Gavin Pretor-Pinney.  I remember the elementary lessons on the types of clouds, but the old lesson meant little until I spent some time reading about each of the types, the weather that it indicates and some of the factors that will determine its shape and type. 

I look up more now, I've always loved the varieties of cirrus clouds, but now I have names for them it seems even more fascinating.  It is neat to be able to see the patterns, like "mackerel sky", and understand why the sailors took their clouds so seriously.   Such a pretty harmless seeming pattern of high wispy clouds indicating that the next day will be windy and rainy.  Just as promised, it rains the day after I spot it or at least it has the total three times I've seen it since I could name it.

I hate when there are six different cirrus patterns in the sky at one time and I notice them while stopped at a traffic light, a couple seconds later I have to put all of my attention to the traffic and pedestrians.  Can't everyone just stop and check out the really cool cloud formations and lay off those horns?? Oh, yeah, reality.

My  husband told me that I'm getting even more nerdly. I bought the companion book, The Cloud Collector's Handbook, so that I can keep track of the types of clouds I've seen and have toyed with the idea of joining the Cloud Appreciation Society.  I noticed a few days ago that Gavin Pretor-Pinney wrote and Op/Ed article on CNN and that he had a TED talk too.  All of this media presence and I found him because a librarian turned the book to face outward, strange how things work.