Third Strike and Turkeys - My Life Is Never Boring

So I finally got my third strike in my writing group. It wasn't a surprise - I don't have a large group of people I can call upon to vote for my work. I probably would have taken a strike within the next week anyway, though. When Sharon is here, I'm not writing, I'm spending my time with her and that's the way it should be. She arrives on Thursday, and we'll be in high speed State Fair mode from then until I drop her back at the airport on Tuesday morning on my way into the shop. 

I struck out in my writing group, and it's a disappointment, 
of course. Still, I managed to get into the top 16, and 
I'm pleased about that. I don't have a large number of 
people I can call upon for votes, and it seems rather 
petty anyway. Writing should stand on its' own feet - 
good or bad. I know I'm a good writer, sometimes 
almost brilliant, other times just this side of the 
dumpster. I'm human. But I like to write, so I'll probably 
play in this playground again. 

Will this stop me from writing? Hell no. I've been writing throughout my life, one little stumble isn't going to stop me. And I did quite well for a newbie - I made it into the final 16. I'm quite pleased about that. I enjoy the challenge of writing to a prompt. I think that's one of the things that kept me active within the Tolkien community for so long - I just loved the various prompts and stylistic challenges that were thrown out there by various groups. Putting the challenges into a Tolkien universe was a delight - it's a universe I'm quite comfortable with. LJ Idol was different - the challenges weren't within a specific literary universe, they were solely prompt dependent. The world of the prompt was open to personal interpretation. 

As you can tell, the turkeys are actually getting to 
be fairly large birds now. I've been seeing them 
in the neighborhood since they were 1/3 of their 
current size. 

But it's time to return to real life. So I'm sharing some of my real life with all of you. When I came home from an errand last Wednesday, I had visitors in my front lawn. We've been seeing a mother turkey and her three hatchlings wandering around the neighborhood for a few months - holding our breaths when they were crossing a busy street, or just looking and admiring when they were strutting from one yard to another. 

They went down the bank towards the right, into our 
creek area and probably wandered up the creek to 
another yard or lawn. They wren't aggressive, but I was 
in my car and had no intention of getting out of the 
car and spooking the birds. 

Apparently Wednesday was their turn to visit my yard. Mom is no longer in the picture because the kids seem quite large already. There's at least one Tom, but I didn't get a chance to see all three close enough to determine sex. They wandered East on my front lawn and went into my drainage ditch (creek) channel. The water level is only high after a serious rain, so I'm sure they had no problem walking upstream and entering someone else's yard from the neighborhood. 

When I first drove into the driveway from my errand, I 
saw the two on my front lawn, the third was off 
to my left, past the photo. The one on the far right 
is a Tom, I think the other two are female, but can't 
be sure about that. At least one of them is, though. 

As neighborhood residents go, they're quiet and unassuming, and seem to fit in quite well. LOL. I'll add wild turkeys to my list of deer, foxes, owls, hawks, hummingbirds and raccoons who live in our immediate environment. This year has been a year of birds, and the turkeys were the crown to my year with feathered friends. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.