California Quail

There is a family of quail living underneath the olive hedge next to our driveway. They are ground dwelling birds who prefer to run rather than fly. Their little legs blur like the proverbial cartoon circles when they dash across the driveway. They always post a sentry who keeps a vigilant eye out. The only difference between the males and females is the color of their crest, which, according to my Sibley bird book, is made up of six feathers which droop charmingly over their faces. This is a male for he has a black crest. the females have brown ones. 

The bush he is sitting on is a Melianthus or honey bush. It is a handsome plant with large toothed leaves and a spectacular red flower. In the case of this plant, the flower has bloomed and produced seed pods. They are very fast growing and this particular plant became so entangled with a large blue agave that we were unable to prune it. Jorge took out the agave last week and Mr. quail apparently found the flower to be an ideal lookout post. 

Today is our anniversary, and I told OilMan I had just ordered a toilet paper holder from Amazon to replace one we both tried numerous times to fix. After he tried once more to fix it,  OilMan announced that he didn't have the right tool to get the thing off the wall. It was almost our last anniversary when I happened to notice much later that he had left all the tools on the bathroom floor, including the flashlight which was still turned on! 

Dana saved the day (and our marriage) when she came over with her tools and got it off the wall. She was however unable to fix it, hence my present for OilMan. His gift to me was a roll of toilet tissue....