For the Birds

    I just gave the dogs their biweekly baths, brushed their coats to reduce shedding in the house (Futile? Maybe.), and trimmed their nails. The dogs don't mind any of it—at least from the point where I turn off the water in the tub and allow them to shake dry. You can see it on their faces; they gleefully await the moment when I lift them from the tub and they shake so vigorously they often lose their footing, desperate to get the evil water off their backs!
   We're all hanging out on the deck (all three of us need to dry off!), enjoying all the sensations of late summer. The sight of the overgrown clematis, finally in brilliant bloom again, illuminated by the setting sun; the smell of fresh lavender; the sound of crickets softly chirping, outdone by the official soundtrack of summer the noisy cicada.
   A hear another sound that I love: the hummingbirds are back on their migration route through the Midwest and are especially active at dusk, when other birds have quieted. I always hear them before I see them; they're quite chirpy, chatty little birds. They light on the mulberry tree branches or the cable lines to stake out the best perch from which to approach the feeder.

   I stood on the deck less than eight feet from the feeder and watched them zip by, buzzing like a live wire, chasing each other out of their territory. (In the next photo, the blur on the right side is another bird swooping in to dethrone the poor lil' guy trying to take a drink!)

   Suddenly a female swooped down and hung in the air just inches in front of me—close enough to touch—wings beating so fast they were imperceptible; body barely bobbing in the summer breeze. I was wearing a vibrant red shirt, and she seemed to be sizing me up: was I a threat, or a tall drink of nectar? She pondered for several seconds--until a ruddy male swooped down and chased her off from "his" giant flower. They buzzed off into the weeping willow tree and disappeared. 

   I waited quietly and watched for a while, snapping photos, hoping to capture the fleeting creatures. They seemed fairly carefree about the dogs and me being so close. Their tiny heads were too full of thoughts of warmer climates, love, battles with rivals, and... pure sugar. 

Nothing sweeter than enjoying wildlife so close to home!

More hummingbirds

It's hummingbird migration time in the Midwest, and I have several very active birdies in my backyard. Aki seems to think they're bees & chases them around the yard, snapping her jaws at them.

I caught a couple of ruby-throated hummingbirds having breakfast:

They're fascinating creatures. If I sit very still on the deck, they'll come within a few feet of me and I can hear their tiny chirps & the buzzing of their wings. They DO sound like bees! They look remarkably tiny & delicate, but don't let that fool you... they have the chops to back up their fiestiness! Mine are constantly dive-bombing each other to protect the nectar. A couple of males nearly grazed my head as I was sitting at the patio table & they zoomed up under the umbrella to fight. Watch it, boys! I'm not dying to be impaled in the eye with one of your beaks!
   Mike sent me this cute video (turn your sound off if you dislike Jack Johnson as much as I do!)

Read All About It!

   I read a book this weekend. A whole book. In 2 days. This is unprecedented for me. Usually when I start a book I languish over it for weeks. Months. Years, even. Part of it is because my days are usually so adrenaline-filled (running around the office attending to "fire drills") that by the time I sit down, it's lights out. I don't do sedentary activities, even if said activities might be good for me. The other reason is that I am highly experiential. I'd much rather learn something by doing rather than by reading about it. I quickly get bored & my mind starts wandering as my eyes skim the words, and when I get to the bottom of the page I realize that I have no idea what the *H* I just read.
   But this book ("Leaders Make the Future" by Bob Johansen of IFTF: Institute for the Future) was important. I was assigned to read it for a class in which I'm enrolled at work; a class that is actually a ginormous honor to even be invited to attend. So I resolved that I'd finish this one before the class started tomorrow. I read some on Saturday afternoon & evening, but with an unexpected foster puppy in the house, it's not terribly surprising that I didn't get far. It was all up to Sunday.
   Mother Nature had my back. The heat wave finally lifted, and this morning was absolutely gorgeous. I got up at 6:30 (actually, the puppy had me up at 4, but I managed to get back to sleep for a bit—after relegating him to the garage!), made coffee, fed the dogs, and we all headed outside. I sat at the table on the deck, my feet up in a chair. (Next to Lobo, who pretty much behaved himself.) The temperature was perfection. It was bright & sunny, but I had shade until noon under the umbrella where I was sitting. The hummingbirds were especially active, so I took occasional breaks to try to catch photographs of them, which helped capture my interest.

   And much to my great relief, the concepts in the book were actually quite eye-opening. It poses that tomorrow's world will be even more volatile, uncertain, complex & ambiguous than it is today, and forecasts 10 years into the future to what the 10 most critical leadership skills will be. I was happy—and a little surprised—that several of them are traits that I feel are innate to me: immersive learning ability, bio empathy, quiet transparency, clarity, rapid prototyping & maker's instinct. Of course, the challenge is to determine how to best leverage each of them to improve my skills as a leader, which can be trickier in a work context than a personal context. But I was glad that I had been recognized as someone who has these traits, and that Hallmark was investing in me (again). I'll get a lot of hands-on practice in the all-day work sessions with Bob & his colleague Rachel in the next 2 days.
   I'll share my favorite quote, which served as the introduction to one of the chapters: "One should... Be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.". -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

   Turns out that leadership runs in my family, too. My aunt Martha just sent me a link to an interview she gave to Cleveland Foodie blog. Re-reading it, it's interesting how the same skills apply in such a different context: social expression product creation vs. seafood sales. Go Marty!

   And I should mention, too, that in his book, Bob calls out the bio-empathy & the leadership of my hero Cesar Milan, famous for his "exercise, discipline, affection" approach to dog (and people!) training. So without further ado, a few more photos of Lobo: