January 9--Not an infomercial

[zyzyly]

I finished up the work necessary to get my students onboarded for their clinical experience in a couple of weeks. It's one of those tedious and time-consuming tasks that has to be done, and has to be done while I am on break. It all needs to be completed two weeks before the start of the semester. It went smoother this time than any other semester, which is ironic, since it will be the last time I need to do it. I'll pass it on to whoever. Maybe it's not really ironic, and there's probably someone out there muttering to themselves, "No, no--that's not irony."



A great blue heron from our drive around the delta the other day. We saw such a wide variety of wildlife that day. Malida saw a red fox in a field.

I have been waiting for the opportunity to get a COVID vaccine. Not because I think I am going to get it again, but because I think it will be necessary in order to do anything in the hospital, which I will need to do in a few weeks. Not to mention international travel. I want to go back to Thailand this summer.

I called my healthcare provider to see what the situation was. I'm kind of in a gray area between Phase 1a and 1b, and they said they didn't have any to give. I mentioned it to a coworker, and she told me that Kaiser was offering immunizations for nursing school teachers, and got me connected. So I'm getting the first jab on Monday.



We had all sorts of really bad fires this summer, and one of them was along a creek where I used to fish, back when I used to fish. I took a drive out along the creek to see what it looked like. You can see all sorts of devastation, but there is a lot of new green coming up that softens it a bit.



Some chickens inspect my left foot.

I walked down a trail to the creek and these two guys came out of the bushes and started following me around. They were the friendliest chickens I have ever met. I talked to them for a bit, and apologized for not having any dried corn in my pocket. I did remember, though, that I had some unsalted peanuts in my camera bag, and gave that to them.

I was curious about them--why they were there. I was nowhere near any farms or structures. I am wondering if they lived on a farm somewhere and fled the fire, ended up next to the creek, and decided to stay there. They look pretty healthy. There's probably someone out there muttering to themselves, "No, no--that's not how chickens behave." Ironic, isn't it?

Comments

Chickens

[tristesse]

They are beautifully colored but look skinny to me. I think you should re-visit them often and take corn and all kinds of goodies to them. See if you can fatten them up. Maybe move them to your back yard. :D

P.S. They will need names. Have you named them?

Re: Chickens

[zyzyly]

Haha that's what Malida said--"Why didn't you bring them home?"

I will name them Hunt and Peck

Re: Chickens

[tristesse]

Oh excellent! That made me laugh. I like your names. All I could come up with was Irony and Wrinkly. :P

[ranunculus]

Lovely, lovely pics as usual. I really love the heron.

Those ugy plastic fences are probably called "horse rail". Some is just plastic or PVC, some has electric wire embedded in it. It is touted as "trouble free" and "durable". I think it is extremely ugly, plastic pollution and clearly it doesn't do well in a fire!

[zyzyly]

I love seeing herons, and there are always some around.

[elainegrey]

Your creek scene is an image of hope for me, here the plants are, recovering from an inferno, and here the chickens are, coming out -- to me -- looking to get back to normal.

[zyzyly]

That's a great way to look at it!

[gurdonark]

Beautiful Great Blue Heron