Editor's notes: Her name is not really Mayella, the piece of furniture was a dresser not a chifforobe, the word chifforobe is spelled variously with an "o", an "e" or an "a" as the sixth letter, said dresser was already busted up when I got there and I managed to salvage two corner columns and two claw feet from it which I delivered to a guy who uses found objects to make "art", and the rest of the dresser scraps along with a quarter ton of red oak caught fire nicely once drenched in gasoline.
I also burned up a big ol' mess of bamboo that I had cut down back in February. I figured that the fire would consume the combustibles then the rain would put it out before the whole neighborhood caught fire. So far, so good.
I saw a goldfinch in my backyard today - that is only the second one I have seen here in seven years. I like goldfinches which, along with bluebirds, I can identify with relative ease. Speaking of bluebirds there are now two eggs in my bluebird house, so mama bluebird is coming through in the clutch.
Mockingbirds winter-over here, so it's not unusual to see two thousand of them at once.
Writer's note: there is no editor.
