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In late November, there was a geography bee, which I won. Because I won, in early January, I took a test to see if I qualified to get into the state Geography Bee. 5,500 winners of school level bees across South Dakota took this same test. Out of that number, 93 children got to to the South Dakota state bee. I was one of those 93. April fourth I go to Brookings, SD (about one hour from Sioux Falls) to participate in the South Dakota State Bee.
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It’s official! I am a teenager! It was a beautiful day today, in the 50’s. I took a walk, and saw both my first robins and my first red-winged blackbirds. (Yesterday I heard, not saw, a robin.)
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This morning I was doing math, and I thought I heard the calling of a robin. I got up and went outside, and sure enough, it was a robin’s song. I couldn’t see the robin, but I clearly heard their unmistakable song. Hurray! Spring is soon going to arrive!
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Today I noticed that my first tulip is up. It is a little red riding hood tulip, the rabbits favorite thing to eat, and I need to go to the nursery to get fox scent to try to keep them away.
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I went out to my garden and I saw that my columbine is beginning to send out some shoots. Columbine is very hardy and one of my favorite flowers, so I am glad to have it back. Welcome, spring!
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Wee! This week isn’t supposed to be terribly cold, around the 20-30 degree area. Saturday, however, is forecasted to be 40 degrees from one weather website, 43 from another, and a whopping 47 degrees from another! If it turns out that way, March comes in like a lamb this year. Oh, I hope it does. Sunday was nice, with sun, gentle wind, and a upper 30’s temperature. The first touches of spring in the winter are beginning to come.
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Clover and Dad have gotten off to a good start. Clover will sit on Dad’s shoulder nicely, and let Dad pet her. She also tries to climb up Dad’s neck in order to get a better view of her surroundings. Last night, while Dad was playing with her, she saw a dark place to hide. She still wants to get into dark places to escape from us, so up she went. Dad had a bit of a hard time getting her out of his sleeve. This morning when she was in her cage she was eating. It really is fun watching her eat with her feet.
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Clover is warming up a bit to the family. She hasn’t bitten anyone hard yet, and she hasn’t made much noise. She still makes quite a fuss about being brought out of the cage though. We have fed her apple, orange, celery, grapes and raisins, and she really like orange and apple. In the pictures, you can see her gorgeous green back that shines in the light, one reason we named her Clover. She sits well on fingers, but if she feels like she is going to fall she tries to fly off. When you hold Clover to your chest, she likes to climb up your shirt and onto your shoulder and sit facing backwards. She doesn’t like sitting facing forward for some reason. She likes to climb into hoods, pockets, and under arms. We are trying to teach her to say, ‘You’re my favorite.’ by repeating it often to her. I like Clover, she is turning out to be a good little bird.
John Paul is always calling Clover by different names. Even though when we named Clover he said, “I love the name Clover!” he won’t call her by her name. He has called Clover Daniel, Popeye, Tarzan, and probably a couple other names I either haven’t heard, or can’t remember. Oh, John Paul.
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Here is a picture of my new haircut.
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Hurray! Today Dad took us to the pet store and we brought home a cute little bird. We have a nice little pet shop in town called the Ark that has lots of birds. Mom had been looking in to getting a bird, and the Ark happened to have the kind she wanted, a green-cheeked conure. Here is a good article about them Dad said yes, and so we piled into the car and went to the Ark. They had two green-cheeks, but one was a color mutation that didn’t look as nice in my opinion. So we bought the other green-cheek. It is very tolerant, and even though it is still scared of us, it lets everybody hold it without biting. We can’t tell if it is a boy or a girl without a DNA test, so we just decided to call it a girl since our Golden Retriever Isaiah and our Ragdoll cat Solomon were both boys. We named her Clover. I will post about her progress as she gets used to our family.
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Dad surprised Mom with some lovely tulips for Valentines’ Day! A little taste of spring.
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I have Strep Throat. Again. Exactly one month after my last strep incident. It is not quite as bad this time as last time, but it is comparable. Last Valentine’s Day we were having sickness in the house as well. I hope I don’t have another sore throat soon. The good thing about Strep throat its that one day after I get the medicine from the doctor the sore throat starts to got better, as it is getting better now.
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It was cold and snow, so I made a cup of tea and Valentines. First I brewed the tea, and then I added Cream and Maria gave me a cube of sugar from the sugar bowl she got this Christmas from Grandpa and Grandma Frederes.
Then I gathered things that I might use and spread them out of my desk. I got a couple of curious investigators while I began to work. First I cut red rectangles with a tool for cutting paper straight. I then cut pink hearts and taped them on the red paper. Then I cut creamy white strips out, on which I wrote ‘Happy St. Valentines Day.’
Happy Valentines Day!
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