Something Christmas-y and "P and D (precious and 'dorable)"

I can't get enough of this video...I want to knit everyone in it a sweater. Who knew squirrels were so talented? And that grasshoppers had rhythm?

What happens just about every night...

Stella helps me with my computer...or helps me fill the dishwasher, or clean the other birds' cages, or do laundry. Stella always insists on helping me with something when she's fresh out of her cage. Stella just helped me write out a couple Christmas cards and success, none of the cards got a little chew. 

It's hard work maintaining your number one bird status when you feel you're always competing with two other birds as well as the two that have been staying with me as guests. This full attention I receive is flattering but it doesn't take long before she thinks that I finally got it, that she's convinced that I now think she is the most wonderful bird in the world, and that it's now time to find a good challenging project, preferably a new and fresh one. 

I'm not supposed to notice that she moved.

Or notice this either (right in front of me!!!). For as much as Stella is bonded with me, I know she thinks I'll never be as smart as her.

Hypocritical preening. She's on a mission but she doesn't want me to be aware of it. I've been through this with her for almost 18 years. I think I know what's up. Well I know what's up because she just found a new project a couple days ago and maybe she's right about how stupid I am, I never saw her do it.

She had held this pose for a long time. I thought for at least an hour.

And then I noticed this later:

She had been busy chewing on the electrical cord to a light in the kitchen...somehow managing a quick little chew without me noticing her because every time I looked up from my computer, she was still in her attentive pose. 

Gawd. I really don't know how she hasn't killed herself yet. Probably the evil in her. But tonight she was on a mission to complete her preening of the electrical cord...but I was on to her. 

This secret cord shredding is scary and I really should figure out a way so this will never happen again. I'm thinking this is probably the only solution for this constant chewing problem...

But how can you cover up a face like this?

No. I can't do it. Not a face like this:

I read once about an animal psychic who was reading animals' thoughts while she was being filmed for something on TV. She was reading the thoughts of a couple birds who shared their feelings about what was going on in their person's life but there was one however, that had just one driven thought. That bird saw all those cables hooking up everything that needed hooking up to produce a  TV show and offered to help strip the cable sheathing for her. "Just let me down and I can get those casings stripped off for ya." That would be Stella. On a mission to do some serious fixing and cleaning because according to her, she's the helper bird, and the best qualified to get things done.

Honeycomb paper postcards

These three honeycomb paper fold-out postcards are from the first decade of the 20th century. They were printed in Germany, which had the best quality printing in the world at that time (World War I and the resulting global economy changed that).

The color of this one is still beautifully bright since it's a folded card and has been stored away from sunlight for about a hundred years (!).

It's hard to read what is written on the back and front of the card but basically it's from a sister sending her brother a postcard with a bug on it because he is afraid of bugs. Ha ha! Kids are so different these days.

The dark purple gradated edging on the honeycomb is so delicate and pretty. I'm wondering if it could possibly have been hand painted or hand rolled on an ink pad because just the outer edges are colored.

This pretty swallow with the red epaulet has an added printed paper wing glued to the honeycomb tissue. It's very sweet. This one is fun to unfold and then fold again because it looks like the bird could sort of be flying. I'm surprised it's still intact. 

It's postmarked 1907. On the reverse side the sender wrote to tell the recipient to pull the string to open it. These cards are perforated on the edges so I imagine they were sealed on the outside edge in some way for mailing.

I'm now thinking these things must have been hand-colored  because how else to explain the red spot on just one side of the honeycomb?

Here is another bird (but flightless, so you can't play the pretend flying game by halfway closing the card and then opening it up again). Gold glitter outlines the legs and neck of the ostrich and also the sandy horizon line.

I just love these things. No editorial. No sending situation. Just some neat images. And lots of pointless delicate prettiness. I took a creative writing class in college once and the professor said that if our stories did not have a point (or a moral), they would be pointless. I know he was trying to make...um, a point....but if something has no point? I can't help to be drawn to it.

Postcards were incredibly popular at the beginning of the 20th century. On June 30, 1908, when the fiscal year ended for the U.S. Post Office, nearly 700 million postcards were mailed. The population at that time? About 90 million.  

1907-15 was considered the Golden Age of Postcards. People could not send enough of them and the quality and variety at that time was incredible. And the subject matter? Some of it was delightfully pointless. My kind of era. :-) 

Tracking

When I looked out into the backyard yesterday morning, I saw some tracks. There were some small ones, obviously from a cat, and some bigger ones, obviously from a.......raccoon? I sure was hoping for that but I have at least two stray cats that come to the back door for breakfast and dinner. One with small feet. One with enormous feet.

I really couldn't figure them out. They were much bigger than the cat tracks but I couldn't see the telltale little handprints you're supposed to see because the snow was in the process of melting...I had to go by how the animal was walking. That's what made it so confusing. When a raccoon walks, the foot in back will step in the hand print that was just made. I have no idea what was going on here. And the gaps? What on earth, if this was a raccoon, was he doing?

But then, this morning.......fresh tracks, fresh perfectly formed classic raccoon tracks.

Looks like somebody had climbed up my elm. I didn't see any tracks coming down so I'm hoping Freddie (if it is Freddie) is taking a nap up there and hopefully, I'll see him again soon. :-)

Woo hoo! Freddie might be back! :-D