Jim Anderson

House finch, or soon to be killer diller bird killer…? So there I was, sitting at my kitchen table watching the marvelous
assortment of birds on my feeder (including three beautiful orange,
white and black spotted towhees) when all of a sudden all "you know
what" broke loose!
A small, innocuous-looking – albeit belligerent –
male house finch decided the feeder was his and went into a tizzy,
attacking bigger and littler birds. Everyone scattered to get out of
the way as the combatant finch exercised his territorial imperative.
(A
moment while I digress (again). Stay away from bird feed with Milo in
it. It is nothing but a "filler" that costs you more and ends up on the
ground under your feeder, which may or may not be good for your soil.)

I just finished reading a short story about a firefly and a spider by Bruce Sterling in his paperback, Visionary in Residence, that is just too good to keep to myself.
For
all my dear friends who read my column and jump out of their skin when
confronted by a spider speeding across the floor – or dropping in for
lunch – Sterling's neat little caricature will help you with your fear
of spiders. Honest! And with that, please let me help you to enjoy
yourself as much as possible and read on…
First, about the fear
of spiders…There is nothing wrong with jumping out of your britches
when a spider suddenly – or even slowly – appears in your life. Spiders
are, from a human being's standpoint, the original "creepy crawly
critters."
 

OK, time to quit complaining about the smoke, the cost, loss of timber, damages to the watershed and Cascades ecosystem, the lost scenic values and all the other negative things about wildfire. It's over; it's done. There ain't no goin' back. As of the end of September, no one seemed to have an idea how […]