Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Daily Pics #321.
Good morning and Happy Saturday to all of you! It’s a bit milder this morning than it was yesterday, but still feels cold. The humidity is high still so that always makes things feel colder once the temp gets below freezing. Apparently once the temperature goes below 50F (10C), then the humidity will make it feel colder. Its a quiet morning at the feeders, not much activity at all. That’s a bit odd. Usually first thing in the morning is a busy time, birds are normally hungry after a long night. Even Jasper hasn’t shown up. The blue jays are here however, though not as many. Same with the chickadees and one nuthatch. Those chickadees were sure busy late yesterday afternoon. I haven’t seen that many around yet this winter. They certainly like that new feeder I put up the other day. I haven’t seen any redpolls use it yet, but I’m hoping. It will just take one to find it and the rest will join that one very quickly. I sure hope the grosbeaks come back, but those rock doves scared them away again yesterday.
Those birds can be mean. Speaking of the rock doves, they just came flying in again. They sit in the trees all morning waiting for a chance to get at any food that might come out. I only put food out where they can’t get it now. But they still come down and scare away the other birds. They must be getting fed somewhere else in the afternoon. But that makes it harder to get rid of them. I might have to give up any thoughts of getting my grosbeaks back again this winter. Too bad really. They provide some nice photo opportunities for the winter. We don’t have many different birds during the winter, that are easy to find anyway. Right now I have 7 different species coming to my feeders. And today, as I mentioned, we have some pics of one of my favorite birds, the gray jay. This is a bird that looks and acts much differently than other jays. These birds are naturally friendly and fun to have around. Males and females look alike, and they are not colorful like other jays and yet they have their own beauty. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
20/20 Investigations, Inc. The Curious Letter. Chapter 17.
It’s a fairly big piece of metal and quite solid. The others gathered round to watch. This was starting to get exciting. I finally managed to pry it out of it’s hiding place. Hmm, just a large rectangular piece of metal, very thick metal and obviously very old. But on the bottom was scratched the word, “DOWN”. “That must mean to keep going down,” said Lena excitedly. My excitement stopped with that piece of metal. “Okay, I’ll keep digging deeper,” I said. At about 4 feet deep I hit some old wood, kind of rotten wood. That did not get me too excited. First thing I thought of was a coffin. “Hey, I remember, they had a child that died, perhaps that’s where they buried him,” said Lena. I definitely wanted to stop after that bit of news.
But everyone said to keep going, so I did. I finally had it uncovered and sure enough it was a coffin, a small one. Meow, meow!=Open it, open it! Meow!=Yes, don’t wait! “I’m with them!,” exclaimed Lena. Sigh. The lid just sat on top, no hinges for it. Surprisingly it was still fairly solid though the wood was getting soft and rotten. I lift the lid and…hmm, no body inside, just a black leather pouch. I pick it up and climb out of the hole. I untie the leather cord around the top and pour the contents onto Lena’s outstretched hands. The look on her face! “Rocks! I’m expecting gold coins and it’s a bag of rocks,”, she said sadly. I thought she was going to faint.
“This is far better than a few gold coins,” I said to her, “these are diamonds, very nice ones at that. And likely worth a small fortune.” Lena just looked at them, then at me, then her hands started to shake. I quickly grabbed her hands so those diamonds didn’t fall back into that hole. We set them on the ground so the cats could see them too. Meow?=Those rocks worth lot of money? “Yes, Mr. Cat,” I started to explain, “when these rocks are cut and polished people will pay a lot of money for them.” Mr. Cat looks at Muffin. Meow.=Human people very strange, pay lot of money for rocks. Meow, meow.=I agree, can’t even do something with them. Let’s go back to barn and look for mice. Meow.=Oh, now that good idea, better than looking at rocks. Meow, meow.=Yep, all that work just for rocks, very strange indeed.
Lena and I laughed as the cats went back inside the barn. As we sat looking at those beautiful diamonds again there was suddenly a very familiar voice. “Thanks for finding our treasure for us,” said the other Lena. We looked up to see Lena and Chantelle standing there, Chantelle with a rifle and Lena with a handgun, pointing right at us. That Lena didn’t look at all like the real Lena now. “I see you have removed your mask,” I said, “it was very realistic, but you didn’t fool the cats.” “They do make masks very realistic these days,” she said, “but it’s good to get it off finally, now toss those gems over here.”
To Be Continued.
Photos of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
Previous chapters of this story and other stories can be found on my home page under 20/20 Investigations, Inc.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 