Jul
30
2013
Where are the monarch butterflies? I really was not paying attention until someone remarked, “I have not seen one this summer.” I realized I had not neither. They are usually the most common butterfly to see. I will keep my eyes open for it. Something is wrong and I do not know what it is.
Jul
30
2013
Yesterday my wife found a nest in the garage. Some months ago I suspected a Carolina wren had a nest nearby. Usually when I spot the bird singing perched on top of our fence several times she has a nest nearby. I looked and could not find the nest. Once I found a baby bird flying around the garage. I made sure it found its way outside. I then suspected there might be a nest in the garage but, again, I could not locate it. Yesterday, my wife spotted a bird nest inside near the entrance of the garage. This is the third year in a row a Carolina wren has nested in our immediate area.
Jul
25
2013
It actually felt cold when I stepped out into my yard this morning. It was under sixty degrees. We had just gotten over a heatwave that lasted over a week. First every day was in the nineties, then in the eighties. I did not use the air conditioner in my bedroom last night. I know it will get hot again but this was a precursor of fall.
Jul
25
2013
I am a homebody. The grass is not, necessarily, greener somewhere else. One of my sisters loves to travel. I don’t have the same wanderlust. It is true I don’t have the financial means she has. Nevertheless, I like being home. I still make discoveries every day in my backyard and in my house. I am surrounded by my books and music. I like having them at my fingertips. I do have seven cats and four dogs that make it more difficult to just leave and go somewhere but I love my animals, particularly my dogs, and always miss them when we go away once or twice a year. Sometimes I visit my oldest friend in New Orleans. And I go by myself. It is just easier that way. When I return from a trip, home is just that much sweeter. As Richard Thompson says in a song, ‘Every heart needs a home.’ Even when I am home I only go out briefly.
Jul
22
2013
The Black-Eyed Susans were finally blooming. They come up each summer and are one of the last flowers of the summer to bloom. They are annuals, that seed themselves. I thought it was unusual this year that the flowers were all at different heights–from six inches high to two feet and everything else in between. They had too much competition this year with the other weeds. I love looking at them. We have several beds of them. The flowers last for weeks. Summer is on its way out. At least it seemed that way. Summer still had eight weeks to go. The heat wave we had finally broke. And we welcomed temperatures in the eighties.
Jul
22
2013
Two days ago we had a flock of three indigo buntings visit us. We have had one indigo bunting come to feed on the birdseed on the ground for weeks. This time he brought his friends. They are aptly named: it is a small bird deeply purple all over. I’ve read they feed in flocks but this is the first time in a long time I have seen more than one at a time. It is always a treat to watch one, for they are so beautiful and uniquely colored. There is no other bird like them here. They are “jewels.”
Jul
18
2013
Peace always revolves around grace. Each party commits mistakes. Conflict always exists. There can not be peace without grace. And grace does not come about without forgiveness.
If you talk about conflict between nations, there are always atrocities committed by both parties. Conflict is on-going. The only thing that breaks the vicious cycle is forgiveness. We don’t earn that. Only grace enables a nation to forgive the other. Then the cycle is broken. It is done one person at a time.
Let us get more specific. Let us talk briefly about Iraq. Thousands of civilians in that country lost their lives in the fray and civil unrest. No one talks about them. Many civilians died. Many people are mourning their close relatives who died there. Yes, many Americans died there or were injured, too. And their survivors are mourning them, also.
There is only one thing that will stop the carnage–forgiveness brought on by grace. And as I said before you can’t earn it. Each party has to forgive the other. Vengeance does not solve anything. That only happens by grace.
Jul
10
2013
Tilla, one of my dogs, has a new thing he does: he will nudge me to walk him and I find out he does not have to do anything outside. He wants another ride in my car. That is something new I discovered about him not too long ago–he loves car rides. And he keeps asking for another one. He loves standing on the passenger side and wagging his tail contentedly and looking outside the window and smiling at me. If dogs can smile?! He keeps hoping he will go for another ride. I decided tomorrow I would go fishing and take him along with me. He will get another car ride. Finally.
Jul
10
2013
The poem I write usually finds me. I just record it. Something happens to me. I just have to get it down. Or lose it. And in the beginning I do not edit at all. That comes later. I can never predict when my poems come. At that point getting it down and working on it is the most important thing in the whole world. I just obey my Muse. I usually know when I am done. There are no more words. The hard work comes later–the editing that is. I am lucky. I can run poems by my wife. She has good instincts.
Jul
10
2013
This was a meal fit for a king: large delicious, sweet local blueberries with a cut up banana with milk and cereal. It was a perfect breakfast. I had sampled the blueberries before buying them. And only then did I buy them. My wife ate two bowls of them with some sugar sprinkled on them. I thought that was overkill. I was glad I bought a quart of them at the local Amish store. They are disappearing quickly.
Jul
8
2013
I could not understand why the deer was standing stationary five feet in on the left almost on the crest of the hill. I stopped my car to watch and ten seconds later a fawn walked across the road joining the doe and both deer promptly disappeared into the woods. The doe was signaling her fawn when it was safe to cross.
Jul
5
2013
This big fat grey toad hopped into my garage as I opened the door of it. I checked later and he was still in the same spot. There might be a lot of bugs for him to eat in my garage. Finally he disappeared and I closed the garage door for all I know he is in some corner of the garage seeing what he could find to eat. Maybe, I will spot him tomorrow in the garage. We will see.
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