Alex had his first day at work today. I drove him to Station Noord in the morning. I picked him up again shortly before 6. He was exhausted, barely able to talk. He ate a stack of pancakes and then collapsed straight into bed. Maybe tomorrow he’ll tell me what it was like.
This afternoon I scattered some peanuts and seeds in the back yard, and closed the curtains on our new sun room space to turn it into a makeshift blind. The magpies sent in some scouts that took a quick peek and then flew away. About ten minutes later the magpies arrived in pairs to pick the place clean. Then the crows showed up and took control. (They’re the Men In Black of the bird world.) They didn’t attack the magpies, but they certainly asserted their dominance.
I had my camera set to shutter priority with a speed of 1/4000 to try and catch the birds in action. Even though there was a good amount of light, I’ve been taking pictures with a lowered exposure compensation, and a lot of the pics came out dark and mushy. (I discovered the zebra striping feature on my camera, and I think it has been leading me astray.) I have an idea for setting up a blind in a different position tomorrow, if the weather holds up.
Daily self-care checklist:
- Sleep: terrible. Found myself unable to fall asleep & was awake until after 02:00. Got up early to take Alex to the station. Came back and had some more sleep, but it wasn’t great either. Paul recommended the book Why We Sleep a while ago, and I ordered it last week. It was delivered at 12:00 today, ironically waking me from my slumber.
- Walk: no
- Bass: 10-15 minutes.
- Photography: yes, quite satisfying. The magpies around here are very skittish, and the answer to photographing them is lots of patience.
- Snacks: I cleaned out my private stash of chocolate kruidnoten. I really shouldn’t have them around.
- Meat: no. Big plate of scrambled eggs for dinner.
