Sainted Blue Jay fowls orchid on New Year’s Day
“... close the back door!” Nazy commanded.
“Why?”
“One of our neighbors just walked into my kitchen. She wanted me to sign a petition to chop down all of our big trees.”
“What?”
“She opened the conversation by telling me that ‘no one likes me’.”
“No one likes you? That woman is a moron..”
“No one likes her.”
“I certainly don’t like her if she doesn’t like you. Besides, she just walked into the house.”
“Right. Walked in while I was exercising.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t exercise in the kitchen.”
“It’s my kitchen, Dan. Anyway, I told her that only the landlord can sign petitions. We need to close the door even when we’re home.”
“Yep, doing that would have saved me from the missionaries.”
“Missionaries? Maybe we live too close to the mission.”
“Not those missionaries. These were Latter Day Saints.”
“Saints?”
“Mormons. All smiley and happy and energetic and ready to sit down on my sofa. The objective was conversion.”
“Did it work?”
“No, I told them that I was very familiar with the Latter Day Saints, but that I liked caffeine too much to convert. They told me about their ancestry database and I told them about your family tree... the one that goes back to Mohammad.”
A few days later, I was busily constructing Tom Swift sentences for The Weekly Letter when Nazy called from the kitchen:
“Help! A Blue Jay is trapped in the kitchen,” she sung.
I flew to the kitchen. The juvenile bird was confused by a closed window. The mother bird was outside screeching. Since it seemed to be difficult to direct the Jay to the door, Nazy wanted me to remove the screen from the window.
I accomplished that task, but the confused Jay continued to pound its beak against the closed window instead of venturing left to the open window. Nazy tried treating the bird like domestic parakeet, but it would perch on her outstretched finger. Nazy finally threw a dishtowel over it and moved it to the open window. The bird flew away.
I looked at Nazy. “Let’s keep that door closed,” we concurred.
As you’ve probably guessed from the photos, we visited the annual orchid show last weekend. (With our friends Rob and Susie from Chicago.) We also celebrated the Persian New Year (1393) with the traditional display of seven items. In fact, we did better than tradition. We had
“Ten of the seven items needed for the table!” Nazy declared.
“Yes, it’s going along swimmingly, but what about the fish?”
Nazy looked at me.
“I guess 11 of 7 is even more lucky.” I concluded. “There is a fish store at the harbor.”
“Those are fish for eating, Dan.”
“Ahh! We want fish for swimming.”
“We want fish for good luck in the coming year.”
We also wanted a fish that could survive in Melika’s Koi pool after the celebration. The local aquarium store was helpful but confused...
“Why are so many people coming in to buy one goldfish?” He asked.
Nazy explained Persian New Year tradition concluding with an aside to me:
“I told you there were lots of Persians here. That’s why it was so hard to find a hyacinth.”
“At least the aquarium guy didn’t insist that we buy a tank, filter and family for the single goldfish.” I said. “Ah, but I miss Switzerland,” I thought.
Nazy’s Half Seen, Persian New Year’s Table
Nazy found all of the traditional ingredients during a quick trip to the Westwood district of Los Angeles. She even got some special Persian candy (called naan nokhochie).
“And look at this, Melika!” Nazy exclaimed. “You’ll love it.”
“Those taste bad, Mom. I don’t love them.”
“It’s candy.”
“Candy?”
“Made from chickpeas.”
“I rest my case,” Melika, the family lawyer said in closing. (“There was nothing I can say in defense of naan nokhochie - I had experience.” I thought tastelessly.)
Melika, by the way, is now at the 75% stage (week 30) in the pregnancy project. She and Tom are very happy and Melika feels ‘great’. A low key baby shower ...
“... and we expect about 150 guests,” Melika explained.
“Where are those people going to park?”
“Taxis and car pooling are recommended.”
“You didn’t even think of a shuttle bus or helicopter service?” I thought.
Lady slipper Orchid
