I’ve taken advantage of some of these unseasonally warm November days to clean up the perannial gardens.
Hidden under a carpet of fallen leaves.
And I’ve been surprised, more than once, at what I’ve found.
Tucked in among the grasses.
Just see what a little persistence can do.
Hope persists.
As I stepped off the front porch this morning at 3:30, Katie tugging on the leash looking for her favorite early morning spot to do her business, I searched the sky, as I always do, to find the big dipper.
And just as I found it a shooting star flared right through the middle of the constelation.
Then I noticed the pair of deer in the next yard, watching me watching them. When Katie was finished we casually walked back toward the porch, the deer walked casually off into the darkness.
Later in the morning I was tugged out the back door by Katie, intent on going to her pen the better to enjoy the beautiful early morning sun.
The doe, almost hidden by the forsythia bush, glances back toward her guy.
There, feet away from the deck, were our deer couple. They watched us for a moment, we standing still on the deck, Katie at full alert, fur puffed up, tail in the air, and they just on the other side of a small garden, tails in the air as well.
Then they raced off into the backyard. She went behind a forsythia bush, almost far enough to be hidden, but not quite.
He veered off to the left to stand behind a pile of brush along the back of our property.
Do you see him back there?
I didn’t figure they’d be there long, but I put Katie in her pen where she could bark protectively, and went for the camera. They both watched me as I circled the brush pile to get a better shot of him.
Here’s a better angle.
He watched me and glanced over at her. Eventually he snorted and lept into the air, headed toward her.
I almost got this shot. Looks like he got injured sometime recently.
One last look at me from over near her, then they bounded back into the woods.
See you later, lady!
Everything about this morning was pure magic.
Morning light.
I’ve been pretty distracted while waiting on election results. Day after day with seemingly little movement.
It’s been a dark and stormy process.
I’ve been trying to stay out of the fray on Facebook and twitter. Once in awhile I’ve weighed in with my opinion that the reason it was taking so long was the inordinate amount of mail in ballots, the record level of turnout for this election, and the care that ballot counters were taking to get it right.
But to be honest my nerves were frayed.
Everyone is feeling a little prickly.
I know that a good portion, maybe even more than 50% of my friends are from the other side of the aisle. I know that today, when the election was finally called, they feel the same gut punch I felt 4 years ago when I woke up to a result I didn’t expect and didn’t like.
Bits of sky show the promise of sun.
I know it will take them a few days, maybe longer, to process the results and decide how they’re going to move forward. I know they are just as scared about the future now as I was four years ago.
Most of us have some inner soul searching to do.
And I know that we will continue to be friends, and I hope, as the physical evidence of which side we’re on, those pesky yard signs, are put away that we can move forward together.
The winds of politics are changing.
The world won’t have changed so very much after January 20th. We’ll still have covid, economic hardships, climate change, world squirmishes, racial tension, job insecurities, and probably some stuff we don’t even know about yet, to deal with. If we work on these together life will be easier.
If you need a hug, I’m available.
Here’s hoping there’s a big table somewhere that everyone is invited to as we begin the work.
Lean toward the light.
This week I decided to explore a new (to me) bird sancuary over near Jackson Michigan. I’d heard vague things about it over the years, that it was filled with migrating birds, particularly sandhill cranes.
This path leads down to a space where lectures are held.
Every year I meant to get there, either in the spring when the birds were coming back or the fall when they were heading out. Every year time gets away from me.
The day was beautiful, with sunshine and a breeze kicking leaves out of their trees.
So this year I was determined and I did some research before I drove over there. Seems the migration period would be late September to the end of October. I was cutting it pretty close.
Heading away from the wetlands and into the woods.
The website also told me to be there at sunrise or sunset when the birds were moving from or back to their perches for the night. So I had a plan.
But you know how it goes with plans. I got a later start in the morning than I had planned, and it was later in October than optimal too. On the hour and a bit drive I did see a huge flock of sandhills in a field, about 2 miles from my house, but I didn’t stop for pictures because I was going to a bird sanctuary.
A few trees were hanging on to their color.
When I got to Haehnle the parking lot was a muddy mess. Leaves covered everything but it was obvious there were huge muddy holes that you wouldn’t want to drive through. I turned around and backed into a spot up next to a fence where I had a straight shot getting out.
As I left my car to begin exploring I did hear some cranes flying, but it was already almost 9:30, really long past sunrise. There was one flock of geese that flew over, but nothing really special.
In a meadow the sun glinted off the dried weeds.
So I decided to just walk the 1.5 mile trail and not worry about finding birds.
It was a pretty trail, that started out skirting the wetlands where I could imagine thousands of cranes visiting. Then it turned left into the woods.
Walking on all those leaves was fun.
There were still very beautiful colors in a few of the towering trees. The trail meandered through a meadow and then back into the woods. I didn’t see another person until I was almost back to the car. This mother and her two children were enjoying the sunshine and the crisp autumn air.
Taking a walk.
All in all this was quite a disapointment, but I think I will try again in the spring, maybe go at the right time of year and earlier in the day. I figure most of the disappointment was my own making.
The details were beautiful, I just had to look for them.
And the drive over there was often spectacular, roads through golden tree tunnels. You’ll have to imagine those as there was nowhere to safely stop.
This place could be interesting at the right time of year.
Regardless of the lack of birds, I can’t complain about a pretty walk in the woods. And on the way home I found a couple barns.
At the exit where I stopped to get gas.
Because what’s an adventure without a barn?
Not sure what a barn sanctuary is. Maybe I should have explored there.
Why, no adventure at all!
I don’t know what this was, but it was cool.
Yesterday was sunny, so I went over to a bird sanctuary I’ve been curious about. I was kind of disappointed, but that’s anther post. I did have one shot I immediately thought of when I read Cee’s challenge – patterns in nature.
There was a huge leaf on the trail, wet from the rain the night before, and the veining was so beautiful I took a picture destined for my post about the sactuary.
But I think it looks pretty cool in black and white too.
You all know how much I love birds. Any birds, really, but especially the birds at my feeder. I like to think they love me too, they certainly are all waiting in the trees above our deck every morning as I put out seed.
One of my favorite visitors.
One of my favorites is the red bellied woodpecker. He lords over the feeder, picks a favorite seed and flies up into the trees to eat it.
Then he’s right back.
So you can imagine my horror yesterday afternoon when I saw him dead on the deck. He’d obviously hit the window, hopefully was killed instantly before he knew anything.
My heart broke.
I was so upset I took Katie to a park for a long walk among the fall foliage, but that’s another blog post. When I got home I buried my beautiful woodpecker boy under a rosebush in my garden.
Final resting place.
I was sad all night, and this morning considered not putting out any seed. I felt like my woodpecker’s death was my fault, for enticing him to my deck in the first place.
So you can imagine my delight when this showed up.
“Got anything to eat lady?”
At first when I saw that red head I was afraid this would be my guy’s widow. I was still filled with remorse. But this one is a male too, and instantly began lording over the seed.
“I stopped by to make you smile!”
I caught my breath as he grabbed a seed and flew up into the trees. Fly that way, little buddy, fly away from the house.
Thanks for stopping by, stay safe!
You are healing my broken heart.
I’m thankful for the morning visit.
Katie here. Mama said I could hijack her blog again, even though you’ve heard from me a lot lately, cause since she and daddy got sick she hasn’t had a whole lot to talk about.
Hey everybody! This is one of my parks!
Me? I’m a sheltie. I always have something to talk about.
So anyway, mama scheduled an appointment for me to go to the groomer. It’s been a gazillion months (2) since I was there, and she said she was tired of trimming my foot furs.
I have so much fun when we walk here!
But she didn’t tell me that right away. Instead she took me to one of my parks, one where I can walk and run around without being on a leash so much, cause no one ever goes there. Plus it’s the right size walk for me, a trail between two picnic areas, it winds through a beautiful woods.
Mama says she never gets tired of watching me run through the leaves.
Mama says it’s just beautiful, no matter what season, but I say it’s the most beautiful in the fall when the trees compliment my coloring.
I picked out this spot myself, just ran up on this little ridge and sat down. Mama said it was a good choice.
Don’t you agree?
Mama says she figures if she’s going to pay a lot of money to get me all nice and clean and white, well, we should probably go muck around in the woods the day before my bath.
Did you say BATH?
You’d think I’d figure this out by now, it’s mama’s normal mode of operation. Take me somewhere really messy and fun, and then drop me off for a bath. Yep. I should have known that was her plan
But instead I just spent a couple hours having the best time running through the leaves.
I picked these two red maple leaves just for you mama!
And since mama remembered to bring treats I was pretty patient when she asked me to sit in all those leaves. She said she needed photos for our 2021 calendar. Did I ever tell you I’m a calendar girl? Yep. Mama makes a calendar for her and daddy and my Aunt Beth every year from the Katie-girl photos the year before.
Coming in for a treat, mama!
I think she’s silly. After all these photos look just like the ones she took of me last year. But mama says she can look at each photo and remember where we were and what the woods smelled like and whether she was cold or hot or got rained on.
I look good in red, too, don’t you think?
She says every photo makes her smile, and I can understand that. These little adventures make me smile pretty big too.
Then after the park we drove back through a little town that always has a giant pumpkin on display.
What’s over there?
And every year mama asks me to sit next to it for a photo. It’s hard for me because it’s right downtown and people are walking by and worse, cars and trucks are going by too! Every year the people on the sidewalk stop and watch my photo shoot. They know a celebrity when they see one!
Posing pretty for all my admirers.
The next day after my park/pumpkin adventure I found myself at the groomer. Not fair. But mama has found a groomer that takes me right in at the appointment time and I get done in an hour and then I’m safe back in my princess chariot.
This is how I looked when I got home. Mama says she thinks I look like a boy. But most people think I look cute, so mama just needs to get over it.
I’m not sure about this, but I’m glad to be home.
Then this morning mama said might be our last sunny day for awhile, so she took me up the street for a mini photo shoot in a neighbor’s yard.
The morning light was sure pretty today!
She says she guesses my fur cut turned out OK, cause I look pretty spectacular today.
I have to say I agree. Otherwise I wouldn’t allow her to show you photos of me. A princess only shows the good stuff, you know what I mean?
Yea, I got a treat for this one too.
Of course you know.
Signing off, your princess-girl Katie.
Off to have mama polish my tiara.
Always something.
I’m a happy girl.
We’ve had it rough around here for a few weeks. Though the trees are bursting with color and we had a series of beautiful sunny and above average warm days, no one here was enjoying it.
Katie under the ginko tree with leaves falling in the early morning light.
That’s because husband, brother-in-law who was staying with us, and I all tested positive for Covid a little over two weeks ago.
Yep, no matter that we’d been careful, limited our travel to only necessary trips, washed our hands incessently, wore masks everywhere.
A young cardinal stops for breakfast.
We still ended up with the virus.
And worse, my brother-in-law didn’t survive. So on top of feeling tired with achey muscles and never ending coughs we had to work our way through grief and funeral arrangements.
That early morning light makes her glow.
Now that I’m feeling better, I am recognizing that there were a lot of moments, in amongst the heartache and chaos, that made me smile.
Neighbors and family leapt to help us, doing our grocery shopping, picking up Katie’s perscription from her vet, dropping off cases of water and snacks and flowers and fruit and fully cooked meals.
Red Bellied woodpecker enjoys a snack on the go.
And did I mention soup? We got lots of chicken noodle soup; it’s true that chicken noodle soup is good for the soul. We are proof of that.
Everybody gets into the breakfast act.
Even now that things are settling down we are getting numerous messages and texts, calls and emails from concerned family and friends.
The katsura tree dropped all her leaves at once too.
Covid is a scary, dangerous and unpredictable thing. But it’s possible to smile even in the midst of it if you’re as lucky as we are to have wonderful people surrounding you in love.
Are you pointing that lens at me, lady?
Images are from our backyard these past few days. Lots of smiling there too.
Even our first frost made me smile.
Change Is Hard 