A weekend of perfect memories that I should have gotten down, but also a weekend with Kurt here and seemingly little quiet, as to have Kurt home is to have a tv going somewhere.
Friday evening brought snow here and we awoke to a very cold Saturday, but one with sun shinning on buildings and plants of all sizes, topped with lavish layers of white frosting, outlining every branch and spent bud, roofs looking like gingerbread houses for Christmas. It was a magical world and later as we walked through that snow, bundled and well protected against the cold, we had no thoughts other than to enjoy the sights and be with our dogs, who like nothing better than to be with "their peoples" as I refer to us.
We enjoyed the back woods and walking in areas untouched by anyone else and the dogs were constantly sticking their noses into snowy banks and coming up smiling, a nose full of snow and immensely pleased with themselves. Single tracks across the pond showed the coyote that had passed since the snow had ceased, sometime during the night. Bunny tracks around the buildings also showed evidence of our "backyard wildlife" and the birds scolded me from the trees to let me know the feeders needed refilling.
It is has become one of the favorite part of my winters, watching the birds at my feeders. When I was about 12, at my grandparents they fed birds at a feeder about 15 feet from a sliding glass door. They also put down food for squirrels, rabbits and deer on the ground. Their kitchen table was at that window and they were absolutely mesmorized by the wildlife that would be at the feeders every morning. When I would visit I could never quite get that fascination with watching wild animals eat, but here I find myself, forty-five years later doing the very same thing and watching with the same anticipation as the birds hover at my kitchen window feeder and the one off my back deck. The back deck feeder is mostly populated by the bullying blue jays who will drive away the smaller songbirds and sparrows, as soon as they find a full feeder. Once they've had their gorging and flown off, the goldfinches, juncos, sparrows and occasional nuthatches and chickadees will appear. It varies year to year but the finches, sparrows and jays are a constant. The kitchen feeder off my window is populated by the finches who are shooed away from the deck feeders. Mourning doves will sit in the surrounding bushes and wait for seed to be scattered on the ground as they prefer that to the feeders themselves. One day last month I had 10 mourning doves lined up on the ground below the feeder waiting for scattered seed. If it is a good day I will see a cardinal couple and a Downey or red bellied woodpecker appear for the suet mix I put out along with the seed. Watching the birds is a window to the world if I am willing to take note. They care not for anything save finding food, and there is a certain joy they exhibit which while perhaps selfish in many respects is everything stripped down to its core in survival. "They toil not, neither do they spin", but they know what it is all about in its simplicity. I know too much deep thinking but I do know that Grandma and Grandpa would be smiling at my joy in the things they loved and I once thought only for "old people"....
So I look at sunshine and cold and know that we are fortunate here today as the snow and ice while perhaps not always welcome here, (though I like nothing better than a good blizzard, which on my side of the state are few and too far between), would be tolerated, and instead is doing its best to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting and befuddled South land, disrupting again the flow of life in the lands known for magnolias and not icicles. I only hope my friends down there are surviving and not without power and that warmer weather will soon be with them.
I think on many things this Monday morning as always for me, Monday is the time for quiet, for reflection and for planning for the week to come. I hope for my friend as she undergoes her biopsy and for others as they struggle with problems that seem to have no answer. Somehow I feel hopeful that there are answers for problems and prayers as its Monday and anything is possible....
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