We have Great Blue Herons fly over the house regularly. One of my favorite birds.
Tag Archives: yard
Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Anything that flies
Mom and her birds
On this Mother’s Day I’m reminded how much my mom loved birds. She kept a life list of birds she’d seen, and they figured prominently in her descriptions of travel around the world.
A busy morning at the feeders.
In the last week, here in Michigan, the summer birds are arriving. I have photos of some of them, taken in bad light, through a dirty window.
Still, I know if she had been here she’d have been just as thrilled as I am to see them return.
Mr. Oriole is a very nervous eater, twisting his head this way and that to see what we’re doing inside.
Whatcha looking at lady?
But he’s also a pig and can’t resist stopping for another bit to eat. Frequently.
Yum!
Mrs. Oriole is a frequent visitor too, a bit less nervous, but just as hungry.
Good morning lady!
Yesterday I saw the season’s first male rose breasted grosbeak. This morning he hung out at the feeder for a long time, not afraid at all even when my camera lens hit the dirty window separating us.
Don’t bother me, I’m eating!
And last night, with camera focused on the feeder, we had another visitor to our yard.
Backyard streaker!
Mom would have gotten a kick out of that too.
So…though I don’t have a recent picture of her, I still think of mom every day, especially as I share with her the wonders of my backyard.
Just like she shared with me her love of everything wild and beautiful.
Happy Mother’s Day mom. We miss you.
Another mom hanging out in my backyard.
I’m baaaaaaack!
Katie here! HEY! I’ve been gone a hundred million gazillion years people! And I’ve got stuff to say even though mama has been telling me to be quiet for four days! She must be delusional!
Me and my garden.
Anyway.
Mama took me to my park about a trillion weeks ago because she said she felt guilty. I didn’t know why she felt that way, I just noticed she was busy taking pictures of the clouds rolling in. They were making me a little nervous.
Maybe we better get home mama! Those clouds look dangerous!
Well, the very next day after our park walk mama took me on a ride and I figured it was to another park but I ended up at camp! She didn’t warn me or anything so to make her extra sad I pranced right in and tugged my way into the office and walked away with the nice lady there without looking back at her even once.
So there mama!
But then I realized maybe I shouldn’t have been so mean cause it was days and days and days until she came to spring me from the joint. I mean, it’s nice there, but nothing beats sleeping with my mama on her big soft bed!
Still, I needed to make her pay.
So every day since I got home I bug her until she takes me to a park. Every. Single. Day. Sunday she took me over to my park again.
It’s finally spring mama!
The dandelions were blooming! Mama was worried we’d missed our opportunity to take our annual photos with the pretty yellow flowers because the park people have mowed once already, but we got lucky and found some!
Mama says we got lots of rain here while she and dad were out of town. She was worried that she’d have to carry me through the puddles at the back of the park. Silly mama. I was so happy to be back at my park that I didn’t let a little puddle stop me!
I missed my park so much mama!
In fact mama had a hard time keeping up with me. I had to wait on her a whole bunch. She was so busy taking pictures. As usual. You’d think she’d have enough pictures of my park. But no, mama says it’s different every time we visit.
Come ON mama!
I guess she’s right. After all, I know that it smells different every time I visit, and mama lets me take all the time I want to read all the pee-mail that’s been left for me. So I guess I should be more patient with her and her stupid camera.
Still, it’s hard to hang around waiting on her when I just want to run run run!
Better get those treats ready mama!
We had a beautiful walk at my park. Just look at the crab trees! They were stunning, though not as stunning as me. Of course not.
Pink is one of my favorite colors.
I had so much fun that I was a very good girl when we got home and settled down for a nap. And then you know what mama did? She took me back to the park for another walk at the end of the day! Two walks in one day!!! And this time I got to show my friend Deuce and his mom all the pretty places.
Deuce and me hanging out at my park.
I even let him read my pee-mail, cause he’s a good guy and I’m nice like that.
Now that I’ve experienced the “two walks in one day” phenominon I’m demanding extra walks every day. Mama says I’m over the top and I need to settle down. I don’t think she understands that I’m the princess and she is just mama.
I’m not worried, I know I can wear her down.
Tomorrow I’m going to start at about 3 a.m. I find she’s most malleable at that time of the day. She’ll do just about anything to get me to stop bugging her. I think a walk in the park would be perfect.
What do you think?
Hey mama!
On loss and spring
I’ve been to a lot of funerals held in winter and I used to think the hardest thing in the world was to walk away after a winter graveside ceremony, bowed with grief, huddled in a coat against the wind and rain or snow. Though you knew your loved one couldn’t feel the cold it was just so hard to leave them there in the darkening light of a winter day.
I used to think that was the worst.
But yesterday, when a local family had to leave their young man behind in the cemetery, the sun was shining and the bright blue sky was filled with puffy white clouds. It was a perfect spring day.
And now I wonder. Maybe losing a young life in the midst of the hope that is spring is the worst.
Yesterday a family had to come to grips with a life ended way too soon. I don’t know them, or the young man gone, but I understand their shock. Accidents happen, but never to your family. Never to someone with an infant and a wife and loving parents and a huge extended family.
Never just as spring is blooming with promise.
How can someone just be gone when so much around us is bursting into life? How does a young wife with an infant son survive without the loving husband, the doting father, at her side?
How does a family walk away from a new grave, bowed with grief, when bright blue skies are smiling down? It just seems wrong. Certainly the sky should be crying too.
But this young wife is strong, and she has a strong family to help her. She has good friends to listen and provide support. They know that sometimes the road takes an unexpected turn; they know how to navigate grief. They’ve been there before.
She’ll be OK eventually. And her son will grow up surrounded by people who will tell him about his daddy. How he loved his family. How he will always be there in their hearts.
It takes family and friends to get through grief filled but beautiful spring days when life is bursting from every tree and shrub, every bulb and seed, but tears are hiding behind every eyelid.
May the beauty of spring moving on into summer give some comfort to a family whose hearts have been broken once again.
And may that tiny little boy know that he is truly loved.
WordPress Photo Challenge: Security
A woodpecker felt his family would be safer if they had a back door. So he remodeled a bluebird house in our yard.
Additional egress required a little ingenuity.
But then he never moved in. Guess he still had security issues.
Change Is Hard 