Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Spring


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Birds at the park

Sunday afternoon I went to a park without Katie.  Don’t tell her, she’ll never forgive me.  I needed some time to myself and I wanted to walk on some nature trails where they don’t allow dogs.

At this park there is a heron rookery, and the herons were all paired up on their nests high in the oak trees out in the middle of a shallow lake. (Click on the pictures to see more detail.)

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There’s a boardwalk built through the lily pads and cattails where you can sit and watch the herons, and later in the season the egrets on their nests.  The most exciting time is when the youngsters begin to explore and test their wings.

But right now it looks like the nests are all occupied by pairs of herons, I don’t know if there are eggs in the nests yet, but  certainly there are a number of pairs getting ready to be parents.

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As I was watching from the boardwalk there arose a screeching to the left – sandhill cranes make such distinctive sounds.  A pair of them flew right toward us on the boardwalk, then across in front of us and on into the marsh to the right.  This is where I got the hugely cropped photo that’s currently my blog header.  In the photo below you can see the legs of the bird as he/she descends into the cattails.  It was so cool!

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THEN…on the way home I saw a pair of sandhill cranes feeding in a field near the road.  I turned around and went back.  They accommodated me and posed for quite awhile.

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Aren’t they beautiful!

I had a great day on my own.  Katie had a great day with her Dad.

Win win.

🙂

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Rewind

Katie here!  Hey remember last weekend when my mama took me to my park for the first time since we got all this snow?  And how much fun I had even though it was wet and cold?  Well today my mama was sitting on the sofa and she told my dad that it was too bad she was so tired.  Because if she wasn’t so tired she’d take me somewhere fun cause it was really pretty outside.

A trifle windy!

A trifle windy!

And do you know what my dad did?  He said to me…..”I bet you want to go to the park don’t you Katie, go for a ride?  Do you want go GO Katie?”  Dad was pretending not to notice mama’s evil eye.  Well!  I got so wound up that I could hardly stand it!  I began to bark and run to the front door and then run back and bark at my mama and then run to the door….you get the picture…right?

Mama yelled at my dad but she really didn’t have any choice.  So she put me in the car and we went to the park!  I knew that bribe I paid my dad would work and it sure did!  And it was worth every bit of my allowance too!

This weekend there wasn’t any snow left over at my park.  Well, a little bit, but I just kissed it goodbye!

Bye-bye snow!

Bye-bye snow!

We got to walk all the way around the park and my mama let me sniff wherever I wanted.  Except she wouldn’t let me go down the hill to check out the railroad track, I don’t know why.  Sometimes my mama isn’t very adventurous.

Can't we go down there?

Can’t we go down there?

She took a lot of pictures of the grassy meadow and the back pond too.  I don’t understand that, she should be focused on me!  But she’s weird that way and I tolerate it because while she’s doing that I can wander around.  I always come right back when she calls, though, because I love her.  And because she has treats in her pocket.

Pretty country at my park.

Pretty country at my park.

We got to walk around my pond too.  It still had some ice on it, but that just made it more pretty.  Of course it’s not prettier than me, but it’s nice.  In a chilly sort of way.

The water looks cold!

The water looks cold!

It smelled good too.  But I didn’t get too close.  I’m a princess you know.

Hello frogs!!!

Hello frogs!!!

I had a really nice time and even mama got over being mad at dad.  She says she thinks she might have heard a frog which would mean spring really is here.  There were definitely a lot of  birds singing there, and ducks and geese too.  I only chased one robin; mostly I was interested in all the great pee-mail that was left by all the dogs before me.  I left quite a few messages myself.

So anyway, I wanted to say THANKS DAD for getting mama off  the sofa.  I don’t think you should do it again real soon though.  You can trick a mama once, but twice in one weekend would probably be too much to hope for.

I’ve got other ways to get her to take me out for adventures, don’t you know.

We’ll talk later.

love, Katie-girl.

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Katie’s park

Katie here.  Have you missed me?  Let me tell you, I’ve been through the wringer!  Between my Dad being gone, and me being sick, it’s been really stressful here!  And did I tell you that our winter was terrible?!  I think my Mom showed you the picture of me in the snow with only my eyes and ears showing.

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(Don’t worry, I was really standing in my path and my person was over in the driveway, they didn’t really bury me!)

Well I’m happy to tell you that most of that darn snow has melted, my Dad is home, I feel great, and this past weekend my Mama took me to my park!  It’s been forever since I’ve had a real adventure.  I don’t count that unfortunate trip to the pet food store a couple of weeks ago when I accidentally wet all over the floor.  Mama doesn’t like to talk about that.  It was her fault anyway, so best not bring it up, OK?

Sunday I got to go to my park for the first time since last fall!  It was wonderful!  I did make my Mama carry me around this one big puddle, but other than that I had fun sniffing and checking out all the pee-mail that had been left for me.

 

Big cold puddle!

Big cold puddle!

It was wet and muddy, my feet got cold and I got a lot of stuff stuck to my furs, but it was still wonderful!  We walked way back to this little deck at the very edge of the park.

 

Mama likes this deck!

Mama likes this deck!

Mama spent a long time watching the ducks and geese out on the little lake until I reminded her that we were supposed to be walking around my park!

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On the way back to the car I got sort of tired.  After all this was my first long walk of the season.  But Mama had treats and we worked a little bit and that got me all excited again.  I was happy to get back in the car though and when we got home Mama and I took a nice long afternoon nap.

I love weekends!  I hope the snow is gone for good, because I think my Mama will take me back to the park next weekend if the weather is good!  I can not wait!

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Was going to

Was going to blog about any number of things today.  Had them all lined up.  But I have to tell you a couple of things not related to any of that.

Even though my yard looks like this today, which doesn’t seem all that spring-like…

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1.  I SAW a pair of sandhill cranes flying over Katie’s park when I was driving to Ann Arbor to go to the symphony yesterday evening!  Their flight is so distinctive.  I got to watch them for quite awhile, and I smiled every second of it.

2.  This morning there was a red winged blackbird on my feeder, more proof they are really here.  Now this sort of makes me smile, and sort of makes me not smile.  They are such pigs.  They eat so much food they can eat me out of house and birdseed over a weekend.  But I know they’re hungry, just like all the rest of the birds, so for now I’m opting to smile.  Because they are truly signs that spring is not only on it’s way, it’s already here.

3.  I was just giving Katie a little shoulder massage while looking out the window and I saw a bird in my little redbud tree.  Then it flew to the ground and back up again.  I ran for the camera, but by the time I got back it had moved to the top of a small spruce hidden behind some bare branches of a shrub.  But you can tell it’s a bluebird!!   There were actually two males be bopping around the yard.  I couldn’t get a good photo of either of them, the light was bad, so you’ll have to settle for this one.

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I’m so happy I could sing….and I was…singing along with a clip of Jimmy Fallon’s show, but that’s another blog.

Happy happy dance.

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Spring? Are you sure?

Pretty

Pretty

This is not my garden.  Did you think maybe?  I can only hope.  First of all chipmunks have long since eaten all my crocus bulbs.  And second, my garden still looks like this right now:

Not pretty

Not pretty

This is, instead, a lovely handwritten note sent by a friend through snail mail, to surprise me on the first day of spring.  And it did indeed surprise me.  But more importantly it made me smile.  A lot.  The whole effect, the beautiful flowers and the getting something in the mail, made my day and I want to say thank you.  Thank you very much.  You know who you are.

In our part of the world it doesn’t look much like spring, though we got rain last night instead of more snow, so there is hope.  And a professor friend of mine posted on Facebook yesterday that the sandhill cranes were back.  She lives an hour south of me, so I expected I’d hear them soon.  They have such a distinctive cry you can’t confuse it with anything else.  And do you know what?  This very morning as Katie and I were out front slogging along in the soggy yard looking for the perfect spot there arose from the treetops across the street such a screeching that we both jumped.  The sound bounced off the houses and careened around spruce trees.  I never saw them, but it was evident they were right there!  I laughed out loud and Katie looked at me in question.  Did you hear that girl!?  Did you here THAT!  And what happened next just added proof to the pudding.

A red winged blackbird sang.  And sang again so there was no mistake.  Sometime last night, while we were lying awake listening to the rain on the roof the real spring arrived in my very own neighborhood.

Katie and I took the camera out back to see if we happened to have anything popping up from the ground.  All we found was this:

Faint hope

Faint hope

Do you see?  Let me get closer:

Proof

Proof

It’s not much, but in combination with my birds, well, I can finally let my shoulders fall back from up around my ears where they were shivering.  I can take a deep breath and taste the warm muggy days to come.  I can look out over my snow covered yard and envision the pear tree and redbud blooming.  Someday there will be daffodils after all.  I had so little faith.

Katie says all today means to her is that there is less snow on the deck and more sticks that need breaking up into sheltie sized pieces.  She thinks that’s good enough for now.

Sticks Mama!

Sticks Mama!

I think she’s a smart dog.

I know I am.

I know I am smart.


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Beyond brutal

If work last week was difficult, this week it is impossible.  Since mid February there have been three women in our department whose husbands have died unexpectedly overnight.  This past Sunday it was the husband of someone in my region.  The resultant pain and grief among our small group is overwhelming and we all feel so helpless.  Each of us wants to help her.  None of us can.  The work must still get done, and the volume of emails and phone calls has intensified as people hear and want to know what happened.  And, of course, how to help.    Today is only the third day of this never ending week.  We were exhausted before.  Now we are plodding, a painful slow hobble; we’re just getting through each day.  Our exhaustion and pain is all consuming but nothing like what she is living through right now.

So it surprised me a bit tonight to find I could still smile and sing, even tap my fingers on the steering wheel.  The CD from our spring concert arrived last night and I listened to it on the way home this evening.  What a great concert; it was full of happy, fun, upbeat music.  Stuff you can sing (or at least hum) along with, sway with, nod your head with, snap your fingers to.  Good fun, great memories, heart singing music.

Here’s a sampling of what we played (found on youtube and played by other groups for your listening pleasure).  For Lassie and Benji’s mom I give you Lassus Trombone.  (She plays the trombone so I figured she’d get a kick out of this.)   And New York 1927 was really fun to play.  We featured the trumpets in Bugler’s Holiday …including one of our oldest members at over 70 featured as one of the soloists.    We even showcased the clarinets with Pie in the Sky Polka…a piece I spent way too much time practicing.

The whole evening was really fun, and the memories of that concert kept me smiling tonight on my long commute home after another very long and sad day at work.  For the concert we invited 10 or so 7th graders to play with us on a couple of the pieces.  The kids looked so young.  The young man sitting with us in the clarinets said as he took his chair that he was nervous.   We said that was OK, we were nervous too.  Afterward his grin, and the grins of most of the other kids went from ear to ear.  Amazing what music can do.

I wish it was this easy to lift my friend’s spirit.