Another Walk, A Lot More Talk

Well it looks like Blogger isn't allowing me to reply to comments. I googled the issue and yes, it's real and I think I could do a work-around by changing my comment format but that's not going to happen tonight. 

I went on another walk (more on that in a minute) and took yet one more picture of the fally-down house. It really is close to being flat. I remember when I used to see signs that someone may have been camping in it and those days are long gone. Not even a toddler could walk freely in it, the ceiling being almost part of the floor in some parts. 

Here's another thing I saw on my walk this morning. 

Anyone know what those birds are? 
Here's a picture off the internet as a hint.

That, my friends, is a guinea fowl, and in this case probably a guinea hen. I am basing that supposition on the chick she has beside her. 
The funny thing is that just yesterday, I think, Hank sent us all a text picture of guinea fowl in their back yard in town! I love the birds. I think they're beautiful in their own way and there are many good reasons to keep a flock, one of them being that they are an excellent alarm system when it comes to any sort of predators. 
But. The very thing that makes them so good at that is the thing that drives some people crazy. They talk all the time. They're like the Rolling Stones once they get started up: they never stop, never stop, never stop...
Here's a very short Youtube that demonstrates their voice.

They are the funniest birds. My next door neighbor used to have about a dozen of them and they would make their way through my back yard every day, on their way out to forage and on their way home to roost and they would be making their rattling call every second of the way. 
They cracked me up when they got to the fence between our yard and the neighbor's. They would stand there, looking at it as if they had never seen a fence in their lives until one of them would remember she could fly (a little bit at least, not unlike chickens), make it into her yard and the rest would follow suit. As the days and months went on though, the flock decreased slowly but steadily and I suppose some predator was not deterred by their chatter and finally, there were none. It was so sad.

So yes, I saw the fally-down house and the guinea hens and all of the things I usually see and the walk seemed very easy to me and I also noted that after yesterday's walk I did not have my usual soreness and joint pain. This would make sense as I am not carrying around nearly as much weight and besides that, Zepbound is actually used to treat inflammation. So yes, I am still considering this drug to be somewhat miraculous and not just because I can wear Levi's again. I'll be getting bloodwork in May and will be interested to see what that shows as to changes in things like cholesterol and so forth. 
However.
Not related to Zepbound, but to kidney stones, one of the reasons I have been leery of walking and exercising in general is that whenever I do, it seems to jostle a stone into a less than optimal position which causes aching, pain, and other issues which I really do not care to go into here. Let's just say...
Well, let's just not. 
Now. Yes. I did go get scans of my kidneys almost three weeks ago and no, the doctor did not call me back to tell me about the findings and no, I have not called THEM back to make a follow-up appointment because calling Dr.'s offices is almost as hard for me as it would be to stick my arm into a viper pit. But today, I did. This morning. I screwed my courage to the sticking point and made the call. I just looked it up and screwing up one's courage to the sticking place comes from Macbeth which I am sure I knew already but needed to check which reminds me that Hank once said that almost every quote we use comes either from the Bible, Shakespeare, or the Beatles. 
Hank is smart and I think about that statement a lot because he's not far wrong.

Mr. Moon is home again. He was going on a duck hunting trip to Louisiana this weekend but it got canceled and rescheduled once, and then just canceled. Ice storms may be involved. So he's stuck here with me. Seeing as how it's Friday, martinis are softening the disappointment I'm sure he feels in not being able to go. He's brought me home some catfish filets he caught this week and I suppose I will be air-frying them tonight. 

I am sure you can tell I'm in a better mood today and I am so very, very grateful for that. Just as I do not know where the past few days' darkness came from, I do not know where this relief comes from. Chemicals. I guess. I believe I am heartened by the number of people who are showing up and protesting in Minneapolis, despite the frigid weather, as well as the one hundred clergy there who protested ICE despite knowing they'd probably be arrested and they were. 
And let us not forget the shut-down in Minneapolis today of businesses, schools, and shopping. 
Of course there are so many things that are not heartening including measles outbreaks, especially in South Carolina where 700 cases have been reported. But somehow I feel able to hear about the horrors without crumbling and that is a good day for me. 

After lunch I went outside to cut back the dead and blackened parts of the firespike and after that I decided to just add a few yellowed pinecone lilies by the big live oak in the front yard which led to pulling some vines out of the tree which had dead limbs entrapped in them and also cutting some bamboo and other things I didn't want there and picking up fallen branches in the yard but when the garden cart was full I called it a day, hauled it all to the burn pile and returned the cart to the camellia bed where I've been using it. 
I was going to cut some of the camellias in that front yard bush but then I realized that the dark spot in the center of these blooms were entire ant communities. 

If I were an ant, I would love to live in a camellia blossom which has to be one of the softest places to live in the world, not to mention the probable sweet nectar to be found there. 
Okay. Honestly, I have no idea why ants want to live in camellia blossoms. But they do and I have no desire to bring them inside where they might decide to move to the kitchen when the camellias turn brown and die. 
I did bring in a few of the last remaining camellia sasanguas. 

Sigh. 
We're about to get some bitterly cold weather (FOR US!) in the next week and I'm sure that any of the blossoms opening now will be killed while that's happening but I have faith that the buds which have not yet begun to open will be okay. 

One more picture.

The native azalea is budding up once again. That, to me, is hope. 

I better get my ass in the kitchen and coat some catfish with cornmeal. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon