{"id":2301,"date":"2019-09-10T13:07:39","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T18:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2301"},"modified":"2019-10-12T14:42:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T21:42:35","slug":"seagulls-come-sqw-wa-acking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2301","title":{"rendered":"SEAGULLS COME SQW-WA-ACKING"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE POST 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mom-gull was watching over about twelve fuzzy chicks who were mostly resting in the shade of the roof, except for the wandering outliers. Mom-gull was alert, but not moving. Knowing little that matters about seagulls, I wake up to their 5 am sqw-wa-acks, watch, make up stories and enjoy a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n

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Action Shot #7. Watching. The shadowed, coffee-d, tonsured watcher watches the mom-gull or dad-gull watching the chick-dots in the shade of the wall, except for the darker-dot outliers walking about.<\/p><\/div>\n

Charlie is convinced the mom-gull is sqwacking, \u201cGet up, Charlie.\u201d Fortunately, the NYTimes<\/strong> had a great article, sensible about seagulls, noting that mom-gull just might be dad-gull, sqw-wa-acks and all. Good to know.  Birder friend, Katie, said that one of her fellow birders said that seagulls are not a distinct bird; rather they are a combine, of some kind, probably with some herring gulls. Well, humph, I say. The NYTimes<\/strong> called this \u201cbirdsplaining\u201d. Perfect.<\/p>\n

Maybe a critic who wants to see abstraction might label Jamie Wyeth\u2019s paintings of seagulls<\/strong> \u201cvisual birdsplaining\u201d because he paints them with incredible knowledge of detail, which I appreciate, AND with keen awareness of personalities, which I am beginning to appreciate. Granted, in his series of paintings, the \u201cSeven Deadly Sins,\u201d<\/strong> seagulls are sinners (Aren\u2019t we all?), but also his companions, surviving with him in the wild on the far side of Southern Island. I figure you take companionship where and in whatever form you find it…<\/p>\n

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Action Shot #8. Showing detail of mom gull or dad gull as painted by Jamie Wyeth who is a friend and neighbor and really good painter.<\/p><\/div>\n

…especially when you are one among strangers, except for super-son, Charlie. All-purpose friend, Kathy, reminded me of the companionship that the gulls provided for the young protagonist who lived alone in Where The Crawdads Sing.<\/strong>  I loved the book, but didn\u2019t remember the seagull perspective.  Delia Owens, the author<\/strong>, is a zoologist who knows whereof she writes so well, which is a very good thing.  And I think the gulls like me. One walked to the ledge nearest my window, looked at me, sqw-wa-acked \u201dWhat\u2019s up?\u201d and waited for my answer.   And when the birds dive-bombed toward  me, out and about in my wheelchair, they avoided my spreading tonsure and landed instead on the sidewalk. Whew! Charlie said they were pigeons.  Humpf.<\/p>\n

So I am adapting. Ten years ago, I was asked about my hobbies. I listed adapting. I figured reading was more a way of life, and drip-drying was a long practiced super-power. Now, with my move to Seattle and the companionable seagulls so near, adapting has advanced to a way of life. Reading would have moved to super-power status, if I hadn\u2019t missed the \u201cgull as companion\u201d thread in the Crawdads book, but it is on it’s way.  Drip-drying, especially in Seattle, is by definition a super-duper power. And multi-tasking has reached hobby status.<\/p>\n

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Action Shot #10. Adapting, e.g. wearing the barf. Master dribbler adapts to scarf-like bib, hence the barf. Maybe, more accurately, I am barfing….and maybe becoming a monk-ess.<\/p><\/div>\n

Are adapting and becoming the same thing?  Can becoming ever be other than THE way of life?  Do I have too much time to think about things?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE POST 4 Mom-gull was watching over about twelve fuzzy chicks who were mostly resting in the shade of the roof, except for the wandering outliers. Mom-gull was alert, but not moving. Knowing little that matters about seagulls, I wake … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2301"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2350,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions\/2350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}