It is quiet on this side of town. No one is out mowing lawns or trimming trees in this heat. Only a few passing cars and the screeching jays break the silence. Looking out my window and into the branches of the bush alongside my house, I see the three baby birds who are responsible for the racket. They are quite large already, but still unable to fly. Their parents fly back and forth with bits of food all day. Every morsel that arrives is greeted by screeches. Neither of my cats has gone after these birds yet. Maybe they are waiting for them to get fatter. And, perhaps, it is a case of cat cleverness; let the parent birds work themselves into exhaustion fetching meals for their demanding brood in the heat. Then they'll be easy to catch! Whatever the reason, the cats just lie in the shade, paying no attention to the distraught birds that swoop and scream at them.
I am no longer hearing the lumber trucks which, for a few days, were rumbling along the cross street. They were carrying away the big logs from the patch of forest on the edge of town where the trees were being thinned out. I was hoping that enough trees would be removed to open a view of the mountains across the canyon. Yesterday, that hadn't happened yet. Now it seems, they are done with the cutting, so the view will remain blocked, I suppose. I saw only a few dozen trees lying cut, among the hundreds still standing. Some small glades have been opened up, which will make pleasant browsing for the deer, but no view.
The mountains nearby are quite imposing, but there is not a single place in this neighborhood where they can be clearly seen. The only clear view of Sawmill Peak that I can get is from the parking lot of the K-Mart, and the foreground view is, of course, cluttered with cars. light posts, utility poles, and other buildings. The town needs a few overlooks along the canyon, where the foreground would be nothing but meadow and treetops. But I don't think were going to get any.
