Betty Birney’s Blog

As my family knows all too well, holiday music is a big deal with me, both listening to it and playing it on the piano.  It’s a key element in the enjoyment of the holiday, going back to my childhood. I’ve amassed quite a collection of holiday music for the CD player, including my beloved and obscure novelty songs, “I Yust Go Nuts at Christms” and “Yingle Bells” by Yogi Yogerson and “Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey” by Lou Monte.

Then there’s my tattered Christmas sheet music from the 50s. They’re all in pretty bad shape. “White Christmas” disintegrated completely but I managed to copy it and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (one of my favorites) is partially gone. There are so many carol books but I far prefer one from my childhood. It’s in shreds but still playable.

Playing piano always makes me nostalgic, though, and last night I thought so much of Mr. Ehrhardt, my wonderful, patient, intuitive piano teacher who taught me theory at age 7 and taught me to improvise. He died in his 40s, a real loss, but his memory is always with me when I play and see his pencil scribbled shorthand on my music. I can still hear him chuckle and say, “That was great! Now let’s play it the way it’s written.” He saw early on that I had a knack for improvisation and he led me that way, while always insisting I also had pieces that had to be played the way they were written, too.

So, humming as I write, I say “Happy holidays” to one and all. Whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope you have a song in your heart this year.

Answer to last post’s mystery question: it’s a magnolia tree seed pod. The tree is actually in our neighbor’s yard. We frequently see the pods themselves but I’ve never seen those red M&M looking seeds before. Except for the skunks (and mosquitoes, etc.) nature is pretty grand.

Especially the owl I hear at 3 and 4 in the morning when I take Desi out in the front yard. It’s usually off in the distance but was really close night before last.

But there’s more drama than skunks and owls. Sitting in my quiet little office in the back of the backyard, I heard the loud crash of an avocado bouncing off the roof from the nearby (giant) tree. Actually, we have a very poor crop coming this year because we had the tree trimmed last year. But there was at least big one. I went to my (new) door and was face to face with one of our big, fat, smart squirrels. They really are the hugest squirrels I’ve ever seen, so avocados are definitely fattening.

He took the measure of me, decided to risk everything and check out the fallen avocado. And for the first time, I saw a squirrel carry a very large avocado up the tree. Here’s the sequence:

Squirrel hears the avocado fall

Squirrel sees me, sizes up the situation

Squirrel goes for it anyway

Squirrel gets the prize

By the way, my apologies to those who are iced in. This is Southern California in December but we’re supposed to have cold temperatures (highs in the 50s) the next few days and much needed rain!

Around our house, it does, anyway.

Early this morning – still dark outside – I foolishly let our dog, Desi, out in the back yard and she got sprayed by a skunk. I’ve lost track of how many times she’s been skunked. The first time was the worst – it soaked her face. If the skunk sprays the nose pad, the odor lingers a long time. She retaliated by, um, eliminating a few skunks. She also managed to get sprayed in the daytime (skunks, like hamsters, are nocturnal) twice in the same day! Okay, we were a little slow to catch on but for the last few years, we take her out in the front yard, which is smaller and more protective, when it’s dark out. But this morning at 5:30, sleepily slipped up.

Our neighborhood is obviously full of skunks – there are certain times of year where we are awakened every night by the strong odor of skunk somewhere or another and have to run around and close the windows.

Some years ago, I went out to get the morning paper (I arise anywhere from 4:00 to 6:00 – usually around 5:00 – luckily the paper comes early). There, not far from the front door I found myself face to face with a skunk! We looked at each other in alarm. He was huge! I’m guessing they can puff out their fur to make themselves look bigger. Nothing like Flower in Bambi, I assure you. I quietly backed into the house and when I peeked out the window a few seconds later, he was gone. I think they go through a hole in the hedge to the yard next door – don’t get me started on that.

Everyone in our neighborhood has mature fruit trees, so that’s the attraction, and we’re fairly close to two wildlife parks/hiking areas – less than a mile (straight up the canyon). When I travel out of town and talk about our wildlife (possums, owls, rats, skunks, coyotes), people say, “Oh, so you don’t actually live in L.A.” I assure you I do. L.A. just isn’t the concrete jungle people imagine it to be.

Desi’s smelling much better. There’s some stuff we keep on hand- our Petco on the corner says they can’t keep it in stock. And forget the tomato juice myth. We tried that. It didn’t get rid of the smell at all but it turned her fur pink! I tried a homemade remedy I found on the internet – it doesn’t work. Buy the stuff at Petco. It’s for humans who get sprayed, too.

The house is smelling better but my office got it the worst. The face-off must have happened right outside. In fact, they might live behind my little writing house but I’m not going back there.

As for coyotes, we live on a busy street but twice in the ten years we’ve lived here, I’ve gone out to get the paper and had a close encounter. Once in our front yard - he hurried out through the hedge – and once in our driveway. Really, maybe I need to arm myself with a broom or something when I go out to get the paper!

Speaking of nature … I found this in the yard this week. I know what it is – do you? (Answer to come but take a crack at it if you like.)

It’s December here in Southern California and as you can see, the world is bursting with red and green!

And gold, too, as our crop of Meyer lemons has started coming in. I’ll be able to go out and pick them for the next 9 months or so, even as the bush blooms again.

Yes, it is a little hard trying to figure out what season it is here … and to complicate things further, I’m writing a summer book about Humphrey. So while it’s snowing in the midwest and Christmas trees are in every shop window …  while the supermarket aisles blare “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,” Humphrey is … well I won’t tell you where he is but there’s no snow there because it’s summer!

I once wrote a holiday TV movie called “Mary Christmas.” I wrote it in July. I had to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” a lot for inspiration. Not only that, when they shot it (years later but that’s another story), the scene where the snow falls was shot on one of the hottest days in July. Ah, Hollywood.

But even though the roses and lemons are blooming, so is a holiday favorite, also in our backyard.

Trust me – an arrangement of lemons and holly (with a little fresh blooming rosemary tucked in) always looks appealing on the table for the holidays!

(But don’t eat the holly.)