Cute as a Coot’s Patoot

Confession time. I’m in love with a coot. Two coots, actually. There is a mama Coot and baby Coot swimming in Echo Park Lake. Every day we walk there, when I get to a certain spot on the edge of the lake, Mama and Baby come swimming toward me.





Esmeralda likes them, too.



Coming from a gluten-free household, my breadcrumbs are not particularly enticing; they’re rice cracker crumbs. But this seems to be acceptable to the coots.



When I started feeding them, toward the end of June, Baby Coot couldn’t actually eat the crumbs. Mama had to pluck them out of the water and feed them to him.



But by the next visit, Baby was snatching the crumbs from Mama’s mouth. Baby doesn't look so fuzzy any more.



The next time, he was eating on his own.

And as of July 4th, he has learned to dive. And he is getting very shiny. He is also a lot less interested in rice cracker crumbs.



Or maybe it was because someone else had already fed them. Is my coot unfaithful? Is he leaving me for another crumb hustler? Stay tuned for the next episode of "As the Coot Turns."

No Parrots Were Harmed in the Making of This Necklace

Another fine walk around Echo Park Lake with Esmeralda, the World’s Most Fearful (and Skunk-Loving) Dog. Being gluten-free, it’s hard to rustle up breadcrumbs for the birds, so we brought some rice cracker crumbs for them, instead.

The last time we tried feeding the Mama Coot and Baby Coot, Baby Coot had a lot of trouble wrangling a rice cracker chip, and usually Mama would snatch it away from him and eat it herself. But Baby Coots grow up, and get smarter.

This time, Baby Coot gobbled up the tidbits. When Mama got one, he’d swim up and eat it right out of her mouth.



We didn’t see any of the blue herons, but this brown heron was hanging out, looking none too pleased with life.



This parrot, on the other hand, looks very pleased. He’s hanging out not at Echo Park Lake, but in my ebay store (http://stores.ebay.com/Cornerstoregoddess)



I’ve been experimenting with combining elements for the “chain” of the necklace, and really like the look and diversity of the elements here. There’s some vintage Czech glass, some artisan lampwork (including the parrot), a touch of millefiore, some cat’s eye… everything but the kitchen sink, and only because I haven’t cut that up and drilled it into beads. Yet.

A Stroll Around the Lake… and Some Cool Earrings

This morning, rather than torturing myself with Boot Camp at the Y, Chris and I took Esmeralda for a nice long walk, down to Echo Park Lake, around it, and back. Esmeralda did very well. No meltdowns while passing other dogs. And there were no skunks along the way, so she didn’t feel the need to profess her love for the smelly cats.

This is me, fired up and ready to go.



I conducted my usual experiment, saying good morning to everyone who would make eye contact, seeing how many good mornings I got back. (14 out of 21, with 13 no-eye-contacts)

The last time we walked around the lake, we saw two blue herons and a brown heron. No blue herons today, but there were some brown ones on the island. The island was inaccessible; it’s closed off so the birds can hang without being harassed. Not close enough for a good shot. And no loti are blooming in the lake. Very sad.

But the lake was full of ducks and geese and coots. Didn’t get close enough to any of the geese (which was a good thing, Esmeralda having the freak out temperament she has). But we saw a coot and a baby coot:





And a mama duck with her ducklings:





While we were walking, I finally figured out a story point I’d been fiddling with for weeks (huzzah).

On the way back we passed some urban art: a painted mattress, on the site where an apartment building collapsed a few years back, at the corner of Echo Park and Park.



And, lest we forget the jewelry angle, I think the moonstone earrings I made match the color of the June gloom sky.



I know. It’s no mattress art. But so little is.