An Interesting, Off-Beat Day

I did something fun and out of the ordinary today. I heard a rumor that there was a picture-taking project going on, so I went to check it out. I had heard a little about it, but it was third hand information, so I wasn't sure about details. Pictures were being taken for an exhibit at a local art gallery. It is to be titled Women Wearing Hats. Well, I'm a bit of a hat freak (I have probably upward of 50 of my own plus at least half-again that many of vintage hats inherited from older relatives), so I just had to see what it was about. I threw five of my hats, a wide variety of styles, into the truck and drove to town.

On my way, I noticed a little shop I'd not registered before, so I stopped in to check it out. It is one of those places that carries tons of unusual things, incense, oils, soaps and creams, unique clothing, books, CDs, etc. I bought some smudging sticks, and in the next day or two I will smudge my house, Native American style, to invite blessings and cleanse any bad left over spirits. I also bought a couple articles of clothing. One is a very frilly, low cut, feminine blouse in lavender; I haven't worn something like that in years! I put it on and felt so ... girlie!!

Then I continued on to the photo shoots. It was fun. A lot of fun! They had an assortment of vintage hats of every style imaginable, but they loved that I brought my own. They took possibly a dozen or so shots of me in three of my hats, and both photographers asked me if I'd modeled before because I guess I posed quickly and naturally without much direction. No, I haven't. I'm just a ham, I suppose! I forgot to ask if I would be able to have any of the pix, but if so, I'll post them at a later date.

Then I talked with the president of the Chamber of Commerce. I'd talked with him on the phone, but we'd not met. I remarked that it was unfortunate that this wasn't more publicized and suggested a newsletter to inform people about the events in the community. For a town so small, about 1200 people, this is a very active place with lots of really fun, cool activities. He said that since there is an extremely limited budget (almost nonexistent) he would have to find volunteers to do that, but he thought it was a great idea. Can you guess what happened next? yeah, I volunteered to do a newsletter.

By the time we got finished with the conversation, he had come up with a number of related points, including writing ads or short items for publication about the events that will be coming up over the next weeks and months. And while we talked, the owner of the gallery where the photos will be displayed was listening, and he approached me about doing some similar writing for him. He has several special artists' events coming up and wondered if I would write them up for him. And, yeah, I'm meeting with him tomorrow to go over specifics. I think this could be fun! And we all know I need something to fill my time, right?

Then I ran into Ruidoso to do a couple errands, one being at the hardware store. while I was there I saw some hummingbird feeders and bought a couple to replace the ones here as they are getting really old and brittle. They're plastic, and I decided to replace them with glass ones. I was wondering if there were hummingbirds as I hadn't see them, but this morning as I stood with elbows on the railing, just looking around, I was buzzed by one. I realized that I was right under on of the feeders, so I moved down a few feet. After that, he returned for a quick sip. That is when I decided to get some better feeders, because some of the perches on the old ones are so fragile that I'm not sure they'll hold the birds. Tomorrow, the tiny little guys will get some fresh food in their new feeders.

I noticed that I have several varieties of birds at the various feeders. I've seen sparrows, blue jays (both the big one I pictured a while back and some regular ones), a robin, a small bird that I think was a Cassin's finch (a pretty little bird whose red color and small topknot makes him distinct) and yesterday I saw something that looked like a finch, but I can't find it in the Audubon book. He was almost all light (nearly white, but no quite.) with just a few dark marking. I'll continue to search the book and see if I can't find something.

What a day! And the best thing? I did NO work today!! I needed it! I said I was going to take and R & R day over the weekend, but I didn't. This was my "day off"!!!

Hope tomorrow finds you all happy and enjoying a beautiful life!