Almost Full Moon

I was awake more than I was asleep last night and took this picture from the deck . I will pretend that it was taken today even though I really don't know what time it was. The full moon was a few nights ago, but because the moonlight was shining through a layer of mist and filtered through the leaves the image was blurred and looked full. 

As we were reading the paper and drinking our coffee this morning, we saw the turkey vulture in extras *preening itself on a branch outside.Turkey vultures are no threat to pets, children or the birds at the bird feeders below, because they eat only carrion, but they need to eat up to 20 pounds of it a day. They're ugly birds up close with tiny featherless heads and scrawny necks, but they are quite a lovely sight to behold soaring overhead and catching the thermals, sometimes in groups as big as eight or ten. One would think with the number of them around that the ground was littered with dead animals, but at our level it doesn't seem to be the case.

It's another beautiful warm day leading us to dare to hope that better weather is here to stay. We are flying down to San Diego on Wednesday to visit my brother and his wife. It is a testament to how long it has been since we went anywhere that we spent a couple of fruitless hours hunting for our suitcases!

*I forgot to add the picture in extras and now for some reason it won't let me, but I'll add it to Tuesday's entry when I write it later today...