While I Was On Vacation

Author: siggy

In the week I was gone the two tomato plants grew quickly. There were quite a few little green tomatoes while a week ago there was almost none. My wife had splurged and bought quite a few plants while I was on vacation–many still in their original containers and needed to be planted. She bought two beautiful budding fuchsia plants one of which I hung from the white pine tree in view from our large living room window. Every year we put one up there and the plant does well there as long as we keep it watered.

The weather finally became seasonal–sixties and seventies. I thought we went straight from winter into summer for a short time. At least it seemed that way. Today I was thrilled I noticed a flower that had little white snow bells. My wife said it was a perennial. The grass was also cut when I got home. All these things happened in the week I was gone.

I keep looking at the hummingbird feeder viewed from my living room window.  I never know when one is going to come.  Last week I saw three at one time jostling for position to sip the nectar.  The same weekend my wife saw five at one time.  That means at least five hummingbirds know where the feeder is.  I love watching them hover over the feeder.  They are amazing.  Sometimes you might see two feeding at one time.  They are very protective of their space.  All I do is make sure they have nectar and they keep coming.  I am really privileged I can watch them from my living room window.  All you have to do is recognize the diverse variety of birds and thank the Maker for the display.  And that is just birds.  A very small part of His kingdom.  It is as if He had nothing better to do but create birds.  For His enjoyment and ours.

My wife saw the first hummingbird of the season come to our feeder.  She tried to get my attention but I did not see the bird.  Now I have my eyes stationed on the feeder which is only two feet from our front living room window.  I expect to see another any minute.  To think the hummingbird flew thousands of miles to get here and also remembered the location of this feeder.

We love the large pine tree outside our living room window, which is the center of attention.  I placed a suet cage right next to its trunk.  There are a steady stream of woodpeckers mostly downy who feed on the suet.  The squirrels also come.

The downy woodpeckers travel up and down its trunk seemingly at attention.  Only one bird is allowed to feed on the suet at one time.  The others make sure of that.  Sometimes there is as much as two or three downy woodpeckers on the trunk of the tree at one time.

Occasionally a red bellied woodpecker makes its entrance.  The sight of it makes me gasp.  It is a bigger woodpecker with an one inch red stripe that goes from the back of the top of its head to its nape of its neck (at least the male looks that way).  I had never seen one before and now they are regular visitors.

The white breasted nuthatch also likes the suet as well as the Carolina wrens who I have fallen in love with.  I did not know wrens could get that big.  Occasionally a cardinal will alight on one of its branches briefly.

We get occasional visits by the brown creeper who has a long curved beak and is a small brown colored bird who appropriately creeps up and down the pine’s trunk.  And these are only the birds we remember seeing.

This year a large branch was brought down by an ice storm which became our Christmas tree when I cut off part of it.  We used the rest of it for our tree.  It was one of the most beautiful trees we ever had lit up by several hundred multicolored lights.  Both of us love this tree and consider it to be our friend.

There were certain birds I never saw before I started feeding them.  A red bellied woodpecker was one.  I never saw a Carolina wren before.  Those are two birds that quickly come to mind.

There are others like a white breasted nuthatch who likes feeding on the suet I put out for the woodpeckers.  I never had a large living room window facing the yard before from where I can watch the birds come to and fro several bird feeders.

Our window faces a large white pine and there are bushes on the edge of the porch.  When the frost is ended I will put out sugar water and watch the daily parade and antics of the ruby throated hummingbirds feeding on them.

I consider myself lucky to have this situation.  I have always loved birds and I get a lot of pleasure of watching the steady stream of them.

Nothing extraordinary happened yet a series of events followed.  And they all mattered.  I was depressed.  I did not know why but I got my body moving and focused on things outside of me.

I did mundane things like feeding our dogs and cats and filling their water bowls.  I stepped out of the house briefly and realized it was an absolutely gorgeous day in January–forty-four degrees and I wanted to spend part of the day outside.

I scattered sunflower seed and regular bird seed on the ground.  I filled one bird feeder with sunflower seed.  I know I will stare out my living window and watch the antics of the birds during the day.

I did other tasks like taking out the trash.  The discovery of my new mittens which I had misplaced brought a smile to my face.  I reminded myself we had dinner in the refrigerator.  I made a pot roast last night and there was still plenty left over.

I was still depressed but I was physically moving which was a good thing.  Sometimes you just don’t know exactly why you are depressed but I know it will end.  I did not give in to it.  That was the important thing.  I don’t always understand my moods.

It is so easy to take God’s creatures for granted.  I have been feeding the birds since I moved here.  I remember how excited we were when we first put up the finch feeder and the first goldfinch appeared.

I never ever saw a tufted titmouse and now we get a steady stream of them every day.  Very seldom did I see downy woodpeckers until I placed a suet feeder near the trunk of the large pine tree which can be viewed outside our living room window.

I never saw the white-breasted nuthatch who has become a regular visitor to our yard.  It likes both the suet and the sunflower seed I put out.

And there are other visitors we get every day.  How easy does it become to become jaded.  And forget these are all creatures created from above and deserve our praise and wonder.

Somehow you need to restore this quality and see these birds again with true amazement.  How do you see things as if it was the first time?  I have no answers.

PS Thoreau in Walden said it much better:  ‘Nothing is greater than to have an expectation of the dawn which will never forsake you even in our soundest sleep.’  I am not sure whether this is an exact quote but it is close.

Every Thing Is By Grace

Author: siggy

Every thing is by grace.  God really does not owe us anything.  On Christmas eve, a gray partridge (a Chukar partridge) appeared and fed on the ground and stayed for at least an hour.  I spotted it from our living room window and excitedly called my wife so she could see it too.  I never had seen one before and it took me awhile to properly identify it.

Finally we let out our four dogs.  They had to go out and we delayed it so they would not flush the bird.  I was amazed the bird simply froze near our big white pine and the dogs never spotted it and ran right past it.  Finally the bird ran across the yard, through the fence and disappeared.  We were curious whether the quail-like bird will come back (very similar in size to a bobwhite).

I got up this morning and put on my L.L Bean moccasins my sister bought me.  I had forgotten how comfortable they were.  Now I have to keep them out of reach of my dogs.  They could destroy one in one bite:  they are leather, very temping for one to chomp on.

There are plenty of gifts still to be opened.  Lynelle is not up yet.  I was feeling very grateful and thankful for everything.  I know everything is by grace.  Over two thousand years ago a baby was born in a manger.  We do not deserve Him.  And He died for us.  And it is a free gift.  That is totally by grace.  I did nothing to deserve it.  It is only by grace.

The birds must be hungry.  There is a flurry of activity outside our front window.  I did sprinkle some handfuls of birdseed on the snow earlier in the morning.  I have seen many mourning doves and slate covered junco feeding on the ground.

We are getting a steady stream of downy woodpeckers feeding on the suet placed by the trunk of the large pine tree.  I am still waiting for the entrance of the red bellied woodpecker.  I am always awed by its sight.

There are usually a few tufted titmouse at one time coming to and fro the feeder just outside the window.  They like the sunflower seed I put out for them.  Once in awhile I see a chickadee or a cardinal.  I love watching them.

Maybe, today I will see an unusual species.  You never know.  Today I will have more time to watch the birds.  It is snowing and there is no where else to go.

I Find It Interesting…

Author: siggy

I find it interesting that sometimes for days I did not notice the birds that came to and fro feeding on my bird feeders viewed from my large living room window but sometimes I don’t.

And I know they have not stopped coming.  The sunflower seed in the bird feeder closest to my window keeps going down so I know there has been a steady stream of mostly tufted titmouse with an occasional chickadee and white breasted nuthatch feeding there.

To me it is interesting I do not always see what is right in front of me.  My mind is just elsewhere.  And how many other things do I not see which are happening in front of me because I am preoccupied?

All that is interesting to me.  I always wonder what am I missing every day because my thoughts are somewhere else…

Watching plants grow still gives me joy.  The latest discovery was observing new growth on the Norfolk Pine we had just brought in a few weeks ago.  I had bought it last year for a Christmas tree and had placed it in front of our large living room window.

It was full when I bought it but over the last winter it lost quite a few branches and became straggly.  When it got warmer (it does not like temperatures below sixty) we put it outside.

At the advent of the cold weather we brought it in the house and placed it in a different spot several weeks ago.  It must like this spot better for yesterday I noticed new growth on it.

It looks like it may survive this winter.  I really don’t take credit for this but this made me happy.  It was just a small thing but it made me happy.

Life is composed of many small things.  The big things only come along once in awhile.  If you can’t enjoy the small things you miss a lot.  It is just a question of paying attention.

I happened to notice looking out through my large living room window a flock of slate covered juncos feeding on the ground (three to be exact).  It was only the second time in months I have seen them–the first time more than one at a time.  The advent of Autumn seemed to have brought them here again.

I was passing a house in my car and I saw their young black goat for the second time.  It was crossing the road right in front of me.  For a second it reared on its hind legs as if to say “hello” and then walked across.

Another one of their animals a hen turkey stood for the longest time in front of my car before it made it to the other side.  I brought my car to a total halt waiting for it to pass.

Theses are just three incidences but they enlightened my day.  You never know what surprises lay ahead–usually when you least expect them.  All you have to do is face each day expectantly.