Loose Leaf Notes

1. Sparrows are the chipmunks of birds.  They’re of the same stripe.

2. It’s like gluing macaroni to a piece of cardboard and painting it gold.  ~ Tom Waitts on songwriting

3. Looking at field guide of birds with my just-turned-six year old grandson Bryce, I read the words “Eastern Screech Owl,” and he said, “Maybe it comes on Easter.”

4. I’ve learned that when the grandkids come from the weekend you need to have lots of band aids and juice pops on hand.

5. Someone recently landed on my blog by searching “Colleen Redman Singing Wagon Wheel.” I thought it would be THIS but it was THIS.

6. On Mother’s Day I received a handpicked bouquet, an email from Australia and a hug.  I also took a walk with friends that produced a photo-op of a cow and her calf, which I used to wish Facebook friends a Happy Mother’s Day.

7. When I wake up in the morning I sometimes have the luxury of waiting to see what impulse will override my urge to drag myself out of bed and, instead, cause me to throw the covers off and jump out of it.   Recently it was THIS.

8. My readers don’t need to know that I have city driving anxiety, that I’m sometimes more comfortable wearing boys clothes, that my husband and I have the same IQ number but for different reasons, or that I’ll get up and dance no matter where I am if I hear Aretha Franklin sing “Respect.” I tell them those things because they’re part of the story I’m telling.

9. I like to fiddle with words and put them together like a safe deposit combination to see what they can open.

10. Yesterday the sky looked like a gallery of hanging clouds.

11. Working with a 6 year-old in garden is a guarantee that your hand shovel will be used as a ninja throwing star.

12. Bryce to me:  Do you think you’ll have more grandchildren when Liam and I grow-up? Do you think that could happen?

13. I call the picture below “Mother’s Day Walk in which I Thought My Friend Jayn had an Afro.”

__________Thirteen Thursday