How different it was to walk the loop this morning in the daylight of 8:30a.m. instead of the half-light of 5:00a.m. It's my first day of summer break (still hasn't sunk in yet--too much on my mind), and while I didn't sleep in (stepping outside at 4:30a.m. as always, to look up at the stars), I decided to do a half hour of yoga, then catch up on some writing before heading out to walk.
As I strolled through the campground, a young ground squirrel stopped to chat. I had to explain to him that his species is the most shy of the squirrels & chipmunks, and that he needs to scurry away when he sees or hears people. But he just flicked his tail in a pretty insolent manner and continued looking for fallen seeds.
All the babies are out now (except the raccoonies). I stopped by the natural spring on Falls Road and watched a young tanager sipping some water. The juvenile raccoons from last summer's batch of younguns still stop by in the early morning hours sometimes, looking for treats. At this point, they still wrestle and play on the back deck, knocking over the water dish I leave out for everyone and trying to climb the step-ladder that's out there. It's leaning on a wall near a kitchen window, and on that window are two perfect 'coonie prints. Mm hmm. Naughty. Later this afternoon, their mom will come by. When it's warm (which it has not been up here this week), she and I sit outside and talk about how exhausting it is to raise babies. She has a new passel of younguns now (indicated by certain tell-tale signs on her anatomy), and she'll be bringing them 'round in August I'm sure. When that happens, she'll chase all of last year's brood away. Such is the cycle of life....
Outside my kitchen window now is a hanging 'cage' feeder containing two seed cakes. The acorn woodpeckers (not like "Woody"--think of small penguins wearing bright red yarmulkes) love to hang on it and peck away at the big seeds, causing the smaller millet seeds to loosen and fall to the ground below--where beautiful 'pink' doves strut around, pecking them up. These are my little divas. They don't have to work; they just wait for the sugar-daddy woodpeckers to knock their breakfast, lunch and dinner down for them. That's the life I should be living....
In some sense, I will be for the next ten weeks. I don't have to go to work (which, by the way, even after 18 years of teaching, still doesn't seem like "work" to me). I can go have adventures... which, I assure you, will be posted here.
As I strolled through the campground, a young ground squirrel stopped to chat. I had to explain to him that his species is the most shy of the squirrels & chipmunks, and that he needs to scurry away when he sees or hears people. But he just flicked his tail in a pretty insolent manner and continued looking for fallen seeds.
All the babies are out now (except the raccoonies). I stopped by the natural spring on Falls Road and watched a young tanager sipping some water. The juvenile raccoons from last summer's batch of younguns still stop by in the early morning hours sometimes, looking for treats. At this point, they still wrestle and play on the back deck, knocking over the water dish I leave out for everyone and trying to climb the step-ladder that's out there. It's leaning on a wall near a kitchen window, and on that window are two perfect 'coonie prints. Mm hmm. Naughty. Later this afternoon, their mom will come by. When it's warm (which it has not been up here this week), she and I sit outside and talk about how exhausting it is to raise babies. She has a new passel of younguns now (indicated by certain tell-tale signs on her anatomy), and she'll be bringing them 'round in August I'm sure. When that happens, she'll chase all of last year's brood away. Such is the cycle of life....
Outside my kitchen window now is a hanging 'cage' feeder containing two seed cakes. The acorn woodpeckers (not like "Woody"--think of small penguins wearing bright red yarmulkes) love to hang on it and peck away at the big seeds, causing the smaller millet seeds to loosen and fall to the ground below--where beautiful 'pink' doves strut around, pecking them up. These are my little divas. They don't have to work; they just wait for the sugar-daddy woodpeckers to knock their breakfast, lunch and dinner down for them. That's the life I should be living....
In some sense, I will be for the next ten weeks. I don't have to go to work (which, by the way, even after 18 years of teaching, still doesn't seem like "work" to me). I can go have adventures... which, I assure you, will be posted here.
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