pdate on the baby bird:
I ended yesterday's "Are You My Mother?" post with "We'll see how things turn out…" Unfortunately, for the bird family they have not turned out well.
This morning I took a look into the nest and discovered that it was empty. How strange… So Ami and I started searching through some bags of potting soil that sat beneath the hanging basket to see if any of the baby birds fell out. Nothing. So we moved our patio table, and then the bags of soil, and then Ami jumped back in terror… Guess what we found!
Yes, a snake with a conspicuous lump in the middle of its sinuous body. Thea put the pieces together right away, and began mourning ceremonially for the baby bird (loud mourning that lasted for about 90 minutes). And her mourning sobs were interspersed with calls for eye-for-eye justice, "Kill the snake! He ate the baby bird!" Petra looked at the snake with distance and indifference (she had a kindergarten entrance test to take in about half an hour). And Ivy, perhaps to directly contradict Thea, perhaps to express her love for her snake-fascinated father, or perhaps from genuine herpetological interest said, "I lub [love] snakes."
