for the birds

Some people have noticed that my thoughts ramble from time to time and sometimes we go down rabbit trails to get to the final thoughts. Having heard this about my thought processes, I was accutely aware when I started looking up some topics for my post today. Actually, I was looking at the Botanic Garden website, because they had a recipe for bird treats to hang in trees. It wasn't on their website this year! They just said...well, the children should make their treats and bring them to the garden to hang on the trees and not expect to make them at the gardens. Well, they had the recipe last year and all. Anyway, after reading that shocking fact I went looking for a recipe for bird treats, but got stumped when it came to melting the suet cakes. I know what suet is, but not where to pick up a cake of it for the bird treats. So, I googled wild birds supplies in Fort Worth, and found a website close to me that specializes in supplies for wild birds. At last suet cakes were possibly within my grasp, but while looking around for the desired suet cakes I noticed they had hand tuned windchimes. Who knew they could be tuned. What a surprise. I bought some windchimes at Sam's Club for $20 a long time ago that are long and have a lovely sound when the wind blows hard enough for them to chime. Mine have had some tragic happenings in the past....like hubby knocked them down and broke the beautiful glass top that held the tubes. He fixed it with a piece of plywood. It still sounds beautiful, believe it or not. Anyway, if you would like to check out the sound you would like here is the website http://www.myperfectpatio.com/windchimes.html

My question is how does this work? At my house the wind blows and the tubes touch each other and make a sound. Granted the large ones are much nicer sounding than the little ones we have had in the past. My thinking is that the sounds are random, because the wind is what makes them make their sound. And how would you know whether they were in tune or not? I'm terribly musically challenged and wouldn't know a perfect C from an A, but I do know clanging.

So, I hope you enjoyed this rabbit trail and maybe later I'll get around to figuring out if I really want to lure the birds to my backyard. We have a LOT of grackles in our area and the goofy things are protected by federal law, because we are in their flyway. The grackles are such a nuisance. They crap all over cars downtown and roost outside the Kroger by me where they crap on most everything. The store has put mirrors in the trees and all sorts of things to try to deter them to no avail. The city has spent tons of money trying to get rid of them with tapes of distress calls from other grackles. Didn't work long. So, I'll think this over long and hard about whether or not I want to draw them to my yard. I wonder if it is sort of like the vampire rule where they can't enter your yard unless you invite them. hmm..