Flotilla of Turkeys

 It rained softly all day today.  Around 11:00 this morning a flotilla of turkeys wafted into our front yard and stayed for about 45 minutes.  The mother had 8 chicks, half grown ones, so I guess these are jakes and jennies, right?  They were mainly interested in picking things out of the grass around the gardens and out of their own feathers.  They were in perfect view of the bedroom window, and I stayed with them for about half an hour.  Lots of good turkey gestures, mainly involving grooming.

At one point our neighbor came walking down the middle of the street with her dog on a leash.  The mother turkey kept an eye on the dog but stayed put on the lawn while the babies all ran or flew out of view, up toward the backyard.  I got to see the babies take off and land!  After the dog and neighbor were gone, the mother must have given some kind of signal, because gradually all 8 babies reassembled.  I decided to go out on the front porch and see if I could get closer.  I stood on the porch, and to my surprise Jesse slunk out from behind the woodpile where he had apparently been lurking.  The turkeys ignored us, and Jesse watched them carefully but with no bristling fur or threatening noises.  Eventually the mother finished her careful grooming, and everybody took off sailing slowly down the middle of the street in single file.

For fans of the rice bag journal, here's the outside of the closed book.

 And here's the other side of it, showing the folded over opening and all the great edge stitching.  I've seen other cloth bags of rice here, but this one is just such a perfect size for me and has such a pretty graphic and stitching on it.  And a bonus-- the recipe for the good paella is on the inside covers and shows when you open the book.  (Ironic that I was just in Barcelona in April and didn't see a single wonderful bag such as this one.  All the rice bags in our neighborhood markets were cellophane or plastic with minimal graphics.  This one says clearly that it is a product of Spain, probably from a company owned by Whole Foods--)  I've checked Trader Joe to no avail, but Whole Foods carries it reliably.