I got up early enough this morning to load up the van and take stuff to the recycle center. One of these days, I'll figure out how to do it right. I don't get all gussied up because I know I'll just get messy and dirty heaving cutup boxes and newspapers around, plus the center is frequently muddy, so I go in near rags, no makeup, bushy hair. Then, it being a Saturday morning in the village, I see all kinds of stuff I want to check out on the way home. I visit outdoor stalls and yard sales, and stop for the Elks' take-home barbecue, looking like a bag lady.
I saw a very ugly woman at a yard sale this morning - you know, the floppy body, big nose, droopy lower lip, missing teeth, that kind of thing. She was smiling and laughing and flirting, and people were responding to her. I thought "Wow. She doesn't know how ugly she is, and no one else does either!" (I hadn't come under her direct influence yet.) And then I climbed in the van, glanced in the mirror, and thought "Ouch! I gotta smile and laugh more today!"
I stopped at three yard sales. Before you scowl at me, Daughter, may I point out that the New Paltz Craft Fair is this weekend, and I have decided not to go. So it could have been a lot worse!
I bought a pair of Brand-New-In-The-Box Crate & Barrel candlesticks for $1, a B-N-I-T-B leather accordion credit card wallet for $1, three hardcovers and one paperback book for $3.50 total, a good fillet/boning knife for $1, and the find of the day - a large original oil on canvas of a renaissance mother and child in a museum-quality gesso frame. It's beautiful. Old, but not "antique". Signed, but it's still in the van and I forget the artist. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. $20. The frame alone is worth ten times that. The painting was in a yard on a side road near home. If it had been out on the main road, It would not have still been there at noon.
The last place I stopped, the place with the painting, was filled with the sound of cooing. Across the end of the driveway was ... ummm, the one question I forgot to ask ... what's the proper term ... pigeon coops? cotes? enormous bird cages? ... full of pigeons. The lady mentioned that they were waiting for some birds, that had been released some 250 miles away that morning, to comein. There were seven more still out. Just then a man a bit older than I came outside, and she said that's her brother, and to ask him anything, they're his birds.
He was really easy to talk to. We sat in the shade in lawn chairs for over an hour, and he told me all kinds of stuff about homing pigeons, and racing birds, showed me how they get electronically clocked in, and how you determine who wins a race when the birds are flying back to different homes. He explained the breeding lines, how to encourage a bird to come home quickly, all kinds of good stuff. It was very interesting. He has about 250 birds right now, with adults, juveniles, and nestlings.
He took me inside the coop, and showed me how each bird has its own little roosting shelf, and that they always use the same one - and yes, there are occasional squabbles over the best ones - and the boxes where the ladies build their nests, and so on.
He spread a bird's wing, and explained how, close to the body, the wing feathers angle toward the body, and then the outer ten feathers angle out. When a bird molts wing feathers, they lose them in order, one after another from the body outward. Before you fly a bird, you have to count the outer feathers, and if any of the outer eight or so are missing, you shouldn't fly the bird. Not because they can't fly as well, but because when a wing feather is missing and a new one is coming in, it feels like a toothache, or teething, and the vibration of flying any distance is painful for the bird. Neat! (But I wonder how we know that....)
And no, he doesn't eat squab.
I stayed until a bird arrived. It was interesting that she flew directly in over the fields, and then circled the house and yard several times, lower each time, and then dropped right onto the checkin pad.
Now when I see pigeons flying over my deck, I'll know where they're going.
~~ Silk
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