AN ADDENDUM TO A MEAL, AND SWMBO TELLS A TALE

SWMBO was complimentary about yesterday's post but said I had under-described her salad.  So she gave me the ingredients and instructions as follows:

Two Tablespoons dried cranberries (Craisins)
8 to 10 dried apricots, snipped into small pieces
2 Cutie tangerines, cut into small pieces

Mix together and add a Tablespoon of raspberry vinaigrette and let set for a half hour or more.

Slice cooked (preferably grilled) chicken breast.  (The marinating sauce and grilling was described in the previous post.)

Toss 4 cups of mixed greens with the fruit, adding more dressing if desired.

Divide onto two plates, top with sliced chicken and sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese.

Lick lips, eat and enjoy.

And then there is this, from her own hand:

A few days after we moved to our new house I was awakened by an irritating tap, tap, tapping outside my bedroom window.

Bruce had told me a day or two earlier that he had seen a Gila woodpecker clinging to the side of the house.  It didn't take long to put two and two together.

Day after day, at the crack of dawn, this bird pecked at the house and alternately screeched.  It sounded like frustration to me.

We investigated and found a round hole about an inch wide, high under the eaves.

I surmised that the bird was trying to widen the hole so a nest could be built inside.  If you have ever tried to drive a nail through stucco you know how hard it is.  Frustrating.  So . . . we had to plug the hole.

Bruce insisted he would be the one to climb the eight foot ladder for the operation.  I made a ball of foil, got out the Gorilla Glue and a spray bottle of water (this glue is activated by water.)

Bruce climbed the ladder and I handed him each item while steadying the ladder.  He sprayed the hole with water, sprayed the foil with water, put glue around the edge of the hole and stuffed the foil ball into the hole.  Voila!

We speculated what might happen if the woodpecker arrived before the glue had set up completely.  Picturing a bird trying to get his beak unstuck was quite an image.  It has now been 24 hours and the tapping has stopped.  Success?

Or maybe the woodpecker died laughing at two old human beings who would go to such lengths to "foil" his plans.

(Editor's note:  This is a Gila woodpecker.)