Wrangling Turkeys and a Few Smiles

 

 Hi Everyone! At the moment, the wind is howling and the rain is coming down. I'm hoping I am able to get this post done before things get worse.

I thought that you might enjoy reading an account of my turkey wrangling. As you know, there has been a flock of twenty-one turkeys that have been roaming our neighborhood. Now, I am a live and let live kind of person, so as long as they were in my front yard searching for acorns, I was okay with the daily visit. Then the other morning after breakfast, I saw turkeys in my front yard, turkeys in my side yards, and turkeys in my backyard. . . lots of turkeys!!! So, with Emma on a leash and with me holding on for dear life we dashed around encouraging those turkeys to move on from our yard. Feeling very self-satisfied by our successful efforts, we eventually went back inside. Later that morning, my lawn guys showed up for a fall clean up and raked up leaves and acorns, and I was smugly confident that my problem was solved.

 Imagine my horror in the early afternoon to find those brazen delinquents had returned in force to my backyard!!! Two were atop my picnic table and the rest were scratching up my lawn all over the place.  So, once again I put a leash on Emma and began dashing madly around my backyard. There were wings flapping, a schnauzer barking, and turkeys flying around. There were turkeys on the fence and in the air. One stubborn group just kept circling my large garden with Emma and me in close pursuit. The photo above shows two turkeys who flew up to branches in a large tree in the woods. At one point, there were ten turkeys in the tree, a few on my neighbor's rooftop, and some in my other neighbor's backyard. It was like a bizarre scene from Hitchcock's The Birds." Yes, it was something to see. One of my neighbors watched the whole thing and found it very entertaining. My neighbor across the street saw me wrangling the rest of the group out of my front yard. (I had years of experience directing huge groups of students on field trips, so this was easy. I just walked behind the group in the front yard clapping my hands and flapping my wings! as they moved along down the hill.)

So far so good . . . the flock has not been back for another visit, but Emma and I are on alert and ready to spring in to action. (You might be wondering why I had Emma on a leash. She is truly quicker than greased lightning, and I didn't want any actual confrontation on either side.)

Okay, I hope that made you smile. Here are a few more smile items.

 

 

I have known my forever friend Cathy since we were toddlers . From time to time, she sends out emails to her family with old photos. I am on the list and laughed aloud when I saw she had added this photo to her Thanksgiving email. As you can see, it was taken in Plymouth, and if you are not from this area, that is the Mayflower ll in the background hence the Thanksgiving connection. That's Cathy on the left, my mom in the middle, and me on the right. Just look at that wild mop of super curly hair! Ever a would-be- fashionista, I was wearing a madras, wrap around skirt. Cathy and I agree that it was probably from the mid-sixties as she had a large Beatles pin on her bag. (It's not clear in the photo, but all four Beatles' faces were on the pin; I know this because my Beatles pin is still in the bottom of one of my drawers  :-)

 I hope you had a safe, as happy as it could be, Thanksgiving Day. My cousin Kristin and her family sent this gorgeous arrangement for my table for one.

Even more wonderful, my cousin and her girls came for a socially distant, backyard visit yesterday. It was a joy to see them. Kristin told me that a flock of wild turkeys is also called a "rafter."  She also lamented that fact that no one had captured my turkey wrangling on video:-)  :-)    :-)

Stay safe everyone. 

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The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2020 was reimagined for this year. Kudos to all who managed to pull this event off. It would not be Thanksgiving Day without the Rockettes. The members of the wooden soldier kick line performed their vigorous dance routine while wearing masks.