Attracting birds to our birdfeeder here has been much easier than it was in our old place. I believe that this time, I had help. You wouldn't think in terms of squirrels being of assistance, but until the squirrels found the feeder, it was bereft of birds. Since I live so close to the woods, I thought it would be impossible to find visitors to my feeder but that hasn't proved to be the case. It's also a big plus that I'm getting the kind of birds that I wanted to start out with but didn't get before.

We put up the feeder after we'd been here for a week and it didn't appear to have any takers. A week ago I purchased one of those peanut dough suet logs and hung it near the feeder. I don't have a suet frame yet, so I thought until I get the chance to find one, it would work. It completely disappeared in 2 days. Nothing at all left of it except the hook. I realized that the squirrels probably took it and observing the 2 that I see regularly, they have been in to more than the suet log. They're getting fat. Something told me it wasn't just the suet log.

I started noticing a big mess of birdseed on the deck below the feeder and 5 days ago I caught the squirrels feasting. One climbs the wall to get into the feeder, and sweeps the seed down to the other one. I opened the door to go out and the squirrels took off for the woods leaving a trail of seed in their wake. The very next day we were pleased to see birds. I suspect they followed the seed trail back to the feeder, but of course, can't say for sure.

Our first visitor was one lone Titmouse. It looked like a Blue Jay but was grey and white, and not as big. One Titmouse has become two. In addition, we have two Chickadees, and another bird that looks similar but lacks the black throat. Careful online investigation has lead me to believe that this is a Nuthatch. Specifically a white breasted Nuthatch. The information I gleaned stated that they flock to Chickadees in the winter for feeding. He's not exactly a songbird, but will vocalize something that sounds like yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder if it would answer if I sung "She loves You" (yeah, yeah, yeah)?

This morning they all arrived at the feeder at the same time. Birds and squirrels. The birds appear to wait until Mr. Squirrel has littered the deck with seed and then they peck at the seed on the deck side by side with Mrs. Squirrel. Once Mr. has eaten his fill, the squirrels leave and the birds take turns in the dining room. After the birds have eaten their fill and leave, the two squirrels come back and clean up the mess they make. Bless their greedy little hearts.

Hubby doesn't seem to be as amused by the squirrels in the birdfeeder situation. I will be going shopping tomorrow and while out, will look for something for the squirrels to feast on. Looking out the window and getting a birds eye view of squirrel butt wasn't quite what I had in mind. On the other hand, they did appear to bring me the kind of winged neighbors that I had been hoping for. They accomplished in 12 days what took 3 months in the old place. They're going to eat the birdseed anyway so I might as well just feed them too.

During the 18th century, there was a major vampire scare in Eastern Europe. This was the first recorded case of a vampire being other than female in gender. Even government officials frequently got dragged into the hunting and staking of vampires. The panic began with an outbreak of alleged "vampire" attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734. Two famous vampire cases (which were the first to be officially recorded) involved Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole from Serbia. As the story goes, Plogojowitz died at the age of 62, but came back a couple of times after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the next day. Plogojowitz soon returned and attacked some neighbors who died from loss of blood. In the other famous case, Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die, and it was widely believed that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbors.

These two incidents were extremely well documented. Government officials examined (and wrote reports of) the cases and the bodies, and books were published afterwards of the Paole case and distributed around Europe. The controversy raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-called vampire attacks, with locals digging up bodies. Many scholars said vampires did not exist, and attributed reports to premature burial, or rabies. Nonetheless, Dom Augustine Calmet, a well-respected French theologian and scholar, put together a carefully thought out treatise in 1746, which was ambiguous concerning the existence of vampires, if not admitting it explicitly. He amassed reports of vampire incidents and numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists, interpreted the work as claiming that vampires exist.

According to some recent research, and judging from the second edition of the work in 1751, Calmet was actually somewhat skeptical towards the vampire concept as a whole. He did acknowledge that parts of the reports, such as the preservation of corpses, might be true. Whatever his personal convictions were, Calmet's apparent support for vampire belief had considerable influence on other scholars at the time.

Eventually, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician, Gerhard van Swieten, to investigate. He concluded that vampires do not exist, and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies. This was the end of the vampire epidemics. By then, though, many knew about vampires, and soon authors would adopt and adapt the concept of vampire, making it known to the general public.



During the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. In this region there are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family (although the word "vampire" was never used to describe him/her). The deadly tuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member (who had died of consumption him/herself). The most famous (and latest recorded) case is that of nineteen year old Mercy Brown who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death. Her heart was cut out then burnt to ashes. An account of this incident was found among the papers of Bram Stoker and the story closely resembles the events in his classic novel, Dracula.

In popular fiction Lord Byron introduced the vampire theme to Western literature in his epic poem The Giaour (1813), but it was his personal physician John Polidori who authored the first "true" vampire story called The Vampyre. Byron's own wild life became the model for Polidori's undead protagonist Lord Ruthven. He had earlier composed an enigmatic story concerning the mysterious fate of an aristocrat named Augustus Darvell whilst journeying in the Orient - as his contribution to the famous ghost story competition at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in 1816, between him, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and Polidori. The story was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.

In modern times we are most familiar with Bram Stokers Dracula, not so much as a literary work but as the cinematic thriller shown on late night TV in the 1960's. No one knows for sure who Mr. Stoker based his character on, but it was written while on a trip to Romania, home of Vlad Tepes Dracula, ruler of Wallachia for 7 years during the 15th century. He is remembered for being utterly ruthless and causing the death of 40,000 to 100,000 people. His method was most usually impalement. Normally while alive, and then his victims were allowed to slowly bleed to death while he watched. It is rumored that he dined among the impaled corpses, however, there is no mention that he dined on their blood. There is one other candidate for the character of Dracula.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary. She is considered to be the most infamous serial killer in Hungarian history. Her victims were all young women, and they all appeared to have been killed in a manner that would appease the bloodlust of any vampire. It was reputed that the blood of her victims was collected for the Countess to bathe in. While arrested and imprisoned in 1610, she was never brought to trial. She was allowed to live out her remaining years as a prisoner in Castle Castiche. She died 4 years later and it is rumored that her son Paul disinterred her body long enough to place a stake in her heart. Did he know something that others didn't? We'll never know.

Tales of the undead consuming the blood or flesh of living beings have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries. Today we know these entities as vampires, but in ancient times, the term vampire didn't exist; blood drinking and cannabilism was referred to as the work of demons or spirits, such as Lilith, Lamashtu , Sekhmet and other monsters; vampires and the devil were closely linked in many cultures as well. Modern vampire mythology spread from Eastern Europe, however, early vampire creatures have been described throughout the world — and almost all of them were depicted as female.

Lilith or Lilitu



The Persians were one of the first civilizations thought to have tales of blood-drinking demons; creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery. Ancient Babylonia had tales of the mythical Lilitu and her daughters. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies. However, the Jewish Lilu and their mother Lilith, were said to feast on both men and women, as well as newborns. The legend of Lilith was originally included in some traditional Jewish texts, she was considered to be Adam's first wife before Eve according to the medieval folk traditions. In these texts, Lilith left Adam to become the queen of the demons and would prey on young babies and their mothers at night, as well as males. This practice of blood drinking performed by Lilith was considered exceptionally evil in Jewish tradition due to the Hebrew law which absolutely forbade the eating of human flesh or the drinking of any type of blood. To ward off attacks from Lilith, parents used to hang amulets from their child's cradle. In alternate versions, the legend of Lilith/Lilitu originally arose from Sumer, where she was a described as an infertile "beautiful maiden" and was believed to be a harlot and vampire who, once had chosen a lover, would never let him go. Lilitu or the Lilitu spirits were considered to be bird-footed, wind or night demons and were often described as subsisting on the blood of babies, their mothers, and being highly sexually predatory to men.

Some myths of vampires arose out of the folk traditions of the Jews in medieval Europe. In fact, it can be speculated that the legend of Lilith may have given rise to the vampire myth. Lilith possesses several characteristics of and in common with that of a vampire; the ability to transform herself into an animal, usually a cat, and she makes attempts to do harm, often charming her victims into believing that she is benevolent or irresistible, at first.

Lamashtu



Lamashtu, is a historically older image. Many wards against Lamashtu invoke her as a malicious "Daughter of Heaven" or Anu and she is often depicted as a terrifying blood-sucking creature, with a lion's head and the body of a donkey. Akin to Lilitu, Lamashtu's primary victim's consisted of the newborn and their mothers. She was said to watch pregnant women, particularly when they went into labor. Afterwards, she snatched the newborn from the mother to drink it's blood and eat it's flesh.

Sekhmet



The Ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was often associated with bloodlust, death and vampiric behaviour. Possessing the head of a lion, Sekhmet was considered the greatest hunter known to the Egyptians and was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt, who devoured humans and drank blood after battle. In Egyptian mythology Sekhmet was closely related with the warrior goddess Bast, although was often depicted as the more feircer of the two with names such as Lady of Slaughter, Mistress of Dread, Avenger of Wrongs and the Scarlet Lady, references to her bloodlust. Sekhmet also was seen as a special goddess for women and was patron god of menstruation. Usually shown in red to represent blood, Sekhmet was first noted for her bloodlust in an ancient myth about the Nile; to avert excessive flooding during the inundation of the Nile river at the beginning of each year Sekhmet was said to swallow the excess water that overflowed the river's banks. However, the water at this time of the year is laden with sand and silt from upstream, thus giving it a red, blood-like appearance.

A variation on this myth is that Sekhmet only drank the Nile river after being tricked by the sun god Ra. In this myth, Sekhmet's bloodlust was not quelled at the end of battle by her devouring of human flesh and blood, so the goddess decided to turn on man to sate her thirst. After nearly destroying all of humanity, Ra tricked her by turning the Nile red like blood (This can again be explained by the increase in sand sediment in the flood season's waters) so that Sekhmet would drink it. However, the red liquid was not blood, but beer mixed with pomegranate juice so that it resembled blood, making her so drunk that she gave up slaughter. This association with Sekhmet explains the goddess' depiction as a vampiric being in later mythology, and a festival to reinact this blood drinking was held at the beginning of each year to coincide with the Nile's flood cycle. At the festival, all the alcohol was coloured red in honour of Sekhmet and it was recorded that thousands attended the festivities.

When I first came to Blogstream in April of 2006 I was hiding from my grief over the death of my mother. I had plenty of support from friends and family but couldn't work through my feelings. I really needed time to lie down and bleed before letting my wounds heal but had no idea how to do that. Nothing felt normal to me in every day life. There was this hole, one that would have closed on it's own eventually, but I felt driven to fill it with something. That something was Blogstream and the many friends I found online.

The trouble was, not everything was what it seemed to be and with my inexperience I didn't know that. I got the point of blogging on some level but still had serious difficulties with those here who don't tell the truth. When you won't allow a wound to heal, when you try to frantically fill a void with something, and you're getting through the day; you don't realize how involved you have become with it. Each deactivation of a blogger I cared about caused more pain. It was a feeling that the rest of us just didn't matter after all, and that couldn't happen in my perfect place to heal. I didn't realize I wasn't healing, I was simply adding layers of bandaids to a wound that was daily growing larger.

I became blind to my own anger at the fact that Blogstream isn't the perfect place it used to be. The operative words here are "used to be". It never used to be perfect, it has always been exactly what it is now. It is a place of people who communicate through the medium of the written word, anonymously. It is a place where ego's exist. Where anger and dishonesty coexist side by side with creativity and passion. It is a place where friends can be counted and discounted by the click of a mouse button. It's a place where you can rely on...very little, except yourself. I'm a slow learner, it took me a year or more of bruised feelings and much anguish over bloggers behaving badly. Finally, thanks to my enforced absence, I realized that my problem with everything that was happening here was just that...my problem.

I simply was not dealing with myself in any real productive manner. Life, at least my life, was not perfect. Death and illness and more death seemed to keep following me. Does that, when you don't face it head on. I kept trying to escape it by holding to the idea of my perfect Blogstream world. I was holding on to something that didn't exist, and I kept trying to maintain my belief without a solid foundation to support it. In case you haven't figured it out, that doesn't work.

Three weeks of no internet connection taught me a very valuable lesson. It helped me to see what place cyberfriends actually have in my life, and what in my life is important to me. Blogstream is a forum where I can share ideas and concepts and my life with others that I have never met and am likely not to meet. It doesn't need to be perfect. I pick and choose my cyberfriends the same way I do my life friends. My life friends have similar interests. We have similar opinions and we place importance on integrity, honesty, and responsibility. I don't count as friend every single person I know in real life. I know many people that I no longer pass the time of day with because they have shown me they aren't the type of person I wish to associate with. Blogstream has done the same thing.

It was pointed out to me recently in a conversation with another blogger, that I have a strong personality and people are either going to like me or they're not going to like me. There's no middle ground there and I am aware of that, have always been aware of it. By the same token, I'm going to like you or not as I see fit. If I don't like you, I'm not going to pay any attention to you except to possibly laugh at the latest hare brained scheme you concoct for whatever reason you have. There was a time when I would have tried to convince you to behave like a true caring individual. Not anymore. You have shown your true colors to me, and I have learned that you don't make my part of the stream anything less than what I want it to be. We are responsible for our own behavior, and I intend to continue to behave with honesty and integrity. What you do with your part of the stream is your business. It's your own water you pollute, not mine.

I had fun choosing the tunes for this post. More fun than I had in awhile. Probably because I was unable to participate for so long. You do something week after week and after awhile it gets to be just something you do without thinking. This time I started out with a plan. Didn't stick to it, but that's the way it went. Still, I had fun choosing the tunes for this playlist.

They are:

1...Flock of Seagulls... Wishing (If I Had A Photograph of You)
2...B Movie... Nowhere Girl
3...Bangles... In Your Room and Manic Monday
4...Berlin... Sex (I'm A) and Take My Breath Away
5...Culture Club... Church of the Poison Mind, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me and Karma Chameleon
6... Cyndi Lauper... Girls Just Want to Have Fun and She Bop
7... Depeche Mode... Enjoy the Silence and Just Can't Get Enough
8... Janet Jackson... Control and Nasty
9... Katrina and the Waves... Going Down To Liverpool and Walking on Sunshine
10..Kraftwerk... Computerlove and Radioactivity
11..Madonna... Borderline and Holiday
12..Mr. Mister... Broken Wings and Is It Love
13..New Order... Blue Monday and Ceremony
14..Orchestral Manouvers in the Dark... Dreaming and If You Leave
15..Paul Young... Everytime You Go Away
16..Tangerine Dream... Midwinter Night and Toward the Evening Star
17.. Tears For Fears...Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Shout
18.. The Cure... Boys Don't Cry and Just Like Heaven
19.. The Go-Go's... Just Like Heaven and We Got The Beat
20.. The London Suede... Beautiful
21.. The Pointer Sisters... Automatic, Jump and Slow Hand
22.. The Smiths... How Soon Is Now and What Difference Does It Make
23.. The Verve... Lucky Man
24.. Thompson Twins... Doctor Doctor
25.. Yaz... Don't Go and Only You