Soren's Vocabulary, This Time With Video

Yes, Soren can say English words as well as animal noises. The problem is, when I ask him to say them, he thinks he's going to get something. Cheese, for instance.



Grammy and Grampy Anderson were nice enough to visit us last week, and they took care of Soren while Chris and I went to Denali -- they taught him "This little piggy went to market," and now he says "weee weee weee" when you ask him what his piggies say (or when he sees toes). It's so freaking cute.

Leland

Chris and I just got back from a wonderful trip to Denali National Park, but I can't write about that right now. This morning, our bird-sitter called to let us know that our beloved Leland died yesterday. We feel lucky to have shared ten years with Leland -- he was a wonderful little bird, alternately sweet (to Chris and me) and fiesty (to everyone else he's ever met), and always funny.

As I've told anyone who's asked whether he could talk, he could make five kinds of kissy noises, squeak like the door, and laugh in a gravelly little bird voice. He would only laugh at funny things, too. Not sure how he knew the difference. He loved to ring bells, fight with bells, sit with his head under bells, drop bells off the side of his cage, and make the sound a bell clapper makes when he chews on it. He would generally make this sound while he was chewing on the clapper of a bell. He used to sit on my knee while I was knitting, imitating the clicking of the knitting needles. He was a much faster knitter than I was.

I loved giving him scratches before birdie bedtime. I loved watching him take a bath in the sink, splashing with his little wings and having fun. I loved just hanging out with him, talking to him while I worked.

I'll miss you, Leland.



Chris's Favorite Leland Story
It was always fun to try to coax Leland across the floor of a room, with his "walk" that was neither steps nor hops nor scuttle. However, any run of longer than a few feet would always be interrupted by side trips, where Leland would spot a bit of food, seed husk or fuzz on the floor that he'd want to pick up and taste. There were almost always enough side trips to ensure he'd never make the destination we intended, no matter appealing we made it (scratches, favorite foods, toys).

However, one night in Pasadena I got home from four days away at a conference. Leland was playing on the floor with Kirsten, and spotted me from across the room. I took a couple steps into the room and set down my rollaboard. I see Leland running around excitedly. Not randomly, or distractedly, but with a destination in mind. On this one occasion, Leland ran 25 uninterrupted feet--and around the couch--to my feet, and bit my shoe to indicate his displeasure with my absence (or, how happy he was to see me).

Leland never did that again, but at that time we'd only had him for a couple years, and he was still "Kirsten's bird" in my mind. That was the beginning of his campaign to convert me to a "bird person"...he considered me a member of his flock, and that was important to him. In the following years, I grew to see what a neat pet he was, and how well he suited me, and we developed a strong bond. I'm deeply saddened he won't have the opportunity to do the same for Soren (though they would undoubtedly have a rocky realtionship of tail pulling and biting for a while). He is missed. CMA

Just to let you know

Can't blog.
Reading.


[Harry Potter, that is]

Blue Poppies and Gold Mines

When summer's only two months long, you have to enjoy your garden while you can, and there are some amazing gardens here. I haven't been brave enough to take any shots of people's yards yet, so you'll have to take my word for it. Anyway, the majority of the yards around here (ours excluded) are full of all types of flowers, blooming like crazy. I'm familiar with most of them, and I always appreciate a nice flower, but there was a particular bloom I noticed one day that stopped me in my tracks.


(lifted from meconopsis.org)

It's a blue poppy -- the bluest flower I've ever seen. Not a trace of violet. At first, I thought it was fake, and wondered why there were fake flowers in the midst of a bunch of real pansies. But they're real -- and they're spectacular. (heh)

So I started thinking, Hey, I've never seen these before! I should find out where to get them and grow them at home, and I'll have the best garden ever! Well, DUH, Kirsten, there's a reason you haven't seen them in New England. You'd have to keep them in the freezer for eight months and then under a 24-hour grow-light in the fridge for the other four. It would be totally worth it, though.

In other news, we've been trying to do more cool Alaska things when Chris isn't off dealing with mortgages and inspections and other fun home-buying things. A couple weeks ago, we visited the Girdwood Forest Fair, which is pretty much a fair in the forest. Run by hippies. I haven't seen that many tie-dyed hemp skirts since my last Phish concert. There were lots of cool booths full of art and knitted items and funnel cakes and such, plus an AMAZING playground for the kids. It might be worth driving an hour just to go back to that playground. I don't have a picture that encompasses the whole thing, but here's one of the playground-tower-thingies against a lovely mountain backdrop:



And Mr. Baby in a swing:



Last weekend, we drove up to Hatcher Pass and visited the Independence Mine, which shut down in the 1950's. It's a beautiful alpine setting dotted with picturesque wreckage (no, really).





One of the notable things about the area was that recreational gold mining was allowed. Not panning, mind you -- mining. We're wondering how much TNT counts as a "recreational" amount.

What a Guinea Pig Says

Soren's Vocabulary

Here's what Soren's saying these days:

Hi! (the friendliest "hi" you've ever heard)
Mama
Daddy ("daii")
Cheese ("zheezh!")
Bath ("bap!")
Walk ("kkkkh")
Cookie ("kkkhi")

All the most important things in his life, as you can see. He may also say "truck" -- hard to tell right now.

And he also makes these animal sounds:

Elephant
Dog
Snake
Sheep
Guinea Pig
Duck
Bee (sounds a lot like the snake)
Lion/Bear/any other roaring animal

He is just so freaking cute.

For the record, I am really excited about our new house! Croquet at our place, baby!

Ichabod House

I returned to Rhode Island to supervise some students a couple weeks ago, and while I was there I found something interesting. The Chamber of Commerce in East Greenwich, RI, offers an online guide for a walking tour that features the historic houses and distinctive architecture of the town. Many are large houses of typical New England styles, but others represent unique or unusual styles that are not common in East Greenwich or elsewhere.

If you scroll down 80% of the way, to the part of the tour well after you've stopped for lunch at the Post Office Cafe and a round of Americanos at Main Street Coffee, there are a couple sentences describing Ichabod Northup house, an 1847 (not 1874) colonial with a mansard roof. It is one of just a few houses that do not warrant a picture on the tour page. Or in this blog.

On the tour, one might stand outside the house, with its unusual roof and a name that was not popular in any century, and wonder at the sort of people who might live there. The tour page adds to the mystery by adding that the origin of the name Ichabod is unknown. Are the residents descendants of this unusually named character? Do they sit behind the louvered door and collect dust at the same rate as their collection of doilies? Do the neighborhood children fear them, like modern day Radleys?

As casual passers-by, we would wonder the same things. But we are not casual passers-by, because as of today we are under contract to buy Ichabod House. We were not hurrying to buy something, but the right house came along at the right price for us to make it work, and we're quite excited.

The house has 4 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths. The Master and kitchen are in a 1930s addition off the back of the house. The original house is in pretty good shape for its age, with good-looking walls and floors. There's a living room with a fireplace taking up the right half of the downstairs, connecting to a dining room that will make a great entertaining space. The real highlight is the back patio, which is old brick raised 18 inches off the yard, and under the shade of an enormous old tree. The patio overlooks a yard, surrounded by hedges, that is large enough for a serious game of croquet. Many fine evenings will be spent in the yard.

Want some tension to add to the excitement of a new place? Only I have seen it. Apparently Kirsten trusts me enough to initiate the largest purchase of our lives (by a lot) to approve this based on my word alone. Let's hope she's right!