I sat on the deck the other day, watching the comings and goings. I was thinking about my girl, of course, but also just enjoying a beautiful day.
Here’s one of the many tales from my backyard.
Tales from the backyard
Tag Archives: yard
Wordless Wednesday in my yard
Backyard fun
The squirrels have taken over. Katie would be incensed.
They do provide entertainment though.
And distraction. They all take flying leaps over to a hanging birdfeeder, then eat until they are full.
Or until one of us goes out and chases them off.
But they come right back. So mostly we just sit and watch the antics.
And then this guy showed up. I thought he was a female, one of the mama deer who are hanging around with their babies.
But I guess he’s not a her.
Sure is beautiful though.
Wordless Wednesday
Blue Wordless Wednesday Joy
Hope
I’ve told you about this fluffy bit of joy before. But I just have to tell you about my experience this morning.
Even though I stopped filling my bird feeders this spring, due to the bird disease in our state, many of my little birds are still stopping by. I watch them check out where their feeders used to be, or be-bop among the branches of the trees and shrubs we planted just for them.
And lately whenever I go out on the deck one particular chickadee arrives, almost instantly, and looks at me intently.
So I go down the steps to the seed bucket and grab a small handful. By then the little bird is waiting expectantly in the beech tree near the bucket. He won’t come land on my hand, but if I move it toward him he doesn’t fly away. And he will move closer and closer, until he’s on a branch within my reach. Then he carefully leans over and selects a seed from my palm.
Generally he flies to a higher branch and eats it, then flies away. He has never come back for a second helping, though he always makes me smile.
But this morning, as he was hopping down the branches to my hand another fat chickadee landed near the top of the beech tree and started to make a lot of noise while flapping it’s wings. I thought it was admonishing my little guy for getting too close to me.
Still, he reached down low, hanging almost upside down and carefully selected a seed, then flew part way up the tree and cracked it open. And then he flew up next to the noisy chickadee and fed the precious treat to the other bird!
By now I was smiling ear to ear as I stood still, hand still out, more treats awaiting. Would he come back?
And he did; almost immediately he bounced back down to the branch near my hand, grabbed another seed, moved up and opened it and then took it to the chirping fat bundle of feathers near the top of the tree.
Then he came down a third time. This time he and his friend (or mate?) took off with the seed, maybe to their new home.
I think there’s something right in the world when a tiny little bit of nature can trust us scary humans. I’m still grinning hours later.
I hope you’re smiling too.
Wordless Wednesday joyful yard
The gift of time
I woke up this morning and watched my girl sleeping curled up in her bed at the foot of mine. These days I watch her breathing and feel grateful for another day.
She’s doing so well, we have her stabilized and she’s been good for several months now. She’s eating meals and doing her jobs regularly. Her poo passes the ‘looks normal’ test, and she’s drinking water on her own again.
I know she’s still in stage 4 kidney disease but you wouldn’t know by looking at her. What you will notice is she walks more stiffly, and her back legs give out if she tries to jump, or goes around a corner too fast.
I take her to her parks as often as I can, knowing that she loves to be out and about, especially in her woods, on her trails, checking under her picnic tables. Her ears don’t hear much anymore, and I suspect her eyesight isn’t perfect. But her nose works just fine.
And she’s a happy girl.
That’s the most important thing, that she’s happy.
She still barks at squirrels on her deck, at diesel trucks going by, at neighborhood dogs, at people walking on her street without a sheltie permit. She loves her meals, all five plus one late night snack of them. She still loves her walks through her neighborhood.
Two days ago I took her to one of her parks and we walked the earthen levy at the end of the lake. It was a windy day, no one was out there but us and she got to roam freely. She wasn’t at all ready to get back in the car when I was. She’d obviously dressed better for the adventure than me.
This morning she received a special gift. It snowed. My Katie-girl loves snow. She loves it’s cold. She loves to eat it. She loves to chase a well thrown snowball. She loves everything about snow.
We went on several walks today, and explored the backyard too. While out there I grabbed some pictures because in the back of my mind I wonder if this is her last snowfall.
Not that she looks like she’s going anywhere just yet. But will she still be here next November or December when winter closes in on us again? Probably not.
So for now I toss her a snowball. I watch her twirl in happiness. And I take pictures to save the moment.
Because each day is a gift, and I’ll want to unwrap this one again some day.
Change Is Hard 