My friend brought me flowers…bright yellow daffodils.
I set them on my window sill, and though the branches
of the trees outside aren’t showing a hint of green
(even the willows), these flowers assure me that
spring is on the way!
It’s Not Even Thanksgiving!
A couple of weeks ago, after a lot of snow, which uncharacteristically stayed on the ground but was finally leaving, I looked out at our bird feeder and this is what I saw! By the time I got my camera, about 25 turkeys had move away from the feeder, so you’ll just have to believe me—both the fact that they were under our feeders and that there were 25! They must have been starved. The farmers will soon be throwing down seed (I guess they don’t do it that way anymore, but you know what I mean) and the turkeys will enjoy what they can get.
It’s hard to believe we only have an acre lot, with a thin strip of woods and a creek and we live in a suburban neighborhood. Oh well, our back yard, little as it may be, never ceases to amaze me!
What Was THAT? March 17, 2010
The sounds of our Barred Owls are enough to wake the dead! They are happily noisy all night and often through the day. I always wonder what people think who hear them for the first time.
I remember the one right outside our bedroom window that went into a wild monkey laugh at three in the morning…the first time I heard it, I remember shaking and running to see what kind of animal was prowling our yard. Now, season by season it’s a sound I love to hear.
Has anyone seen one yet? September 3, 2009
It’s about time for me to start looking for the beautifully crafted egg sack of the common black and yellow Garden Spider. Well, nothing the Lord makes is really common…each and every thing He’s created is marvelous and way beyond wonder!
This picture is one I took several years ago, but I know that if I start searching my garden I will find this year’s model, and I always love discovering that early “sign of fall.”
A Fierce Glory August 23, 2009
Last night on a flag-snapping wind, stiff waves and a storm pushed at us from across the lake. It was fierce and glorious at the same time. We spent about 45 minutes playing on the beach…straining into the wind, racing, yelling though no one could hear us for the surf. We were having a great time, yet so different from the sun-warm beach with gentle waves and the light breezes of earlier in the day. Just goes to show…the beach is a perfect play-place, sun or approaching storm, and it takes so much of both to make an authentic “at the lake” experience.
Anything can be… August 7, 2009
This picture reminds me of the unlimited creativity that comes from playing outdoors. The adventure, the ability, for a few minutes, to lose yourself in imaginative play…is it a foreign land, is it the jungle, is it discovering the path to the castle? Whatever it is, it’s a freedom that we sometimes forget. Children quickly remind us though of the lines from a Shel Silverstein poem, “Anything can happen, child, anything can be.”
They Say Confession is Good for the Soul…Yes, I Can Be Scared August 5, 2009
If you already know me, you know that since I was about two, I’ve loved nature and I have wanted to see and experience as much of it as I could find around me. I have gladly handled snakes, held tarantulas, and looked at pond water under a microscope—which if you haven’t looked lately is on par with those previously mentioned endeavors! I have encouraged people to get out and see more and more of nature, and I still will…however, today when my faithful Golden Retriever, Ranger, “pointed” an object in the grass and then nosed it, something unusual happened.
Because a few might have thought I was a nature heroine, or that I’ve actually led some people to think in that vein (HUGE blush), and because I’ve heard that this sometimes happens to you, I wanted to be faithful and confess. Well, anyway, my dog nosed this thing and I looked down and I thought it was a toad. When I leaned closer (perhaps I wasn’t wearing my glasses) I saw that it was furry. Now something happens in a nature lover’s heart when they think they’ve discovered a toad and it has hair on it! And, indeed, many veteran naturalists would do exactly what I did—I SCREAMED my head off!
It just freaked me out. It didn’t even take a second to realize that my toad was a bat, but in that nano second, I think I was truly traumatized. I didn’t even want to look at the bat at all. It was over two hours later, when my husband took pictures of it, that I really ever got a good look. May, I say, in my weak defense, that I have always really loved bats. I think they are interesting. I love the fact they eat mosquitoes, and I really do enjoy seeing bats fly out at dusk, up over our trees that line the creek. But I DO NOT like to find toads changing into them…even in mistaken identity.
I Only Wanted a Rose August 2, 2009
I wanted a rose. So I went shopping at an x-mart store, and I found rows and rows of flowers. Each of the pots held bright colors…reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, whites, and there may have even been a purple one. But I don’t shop for roses by their color. I shop with my nose, and wait till I find that special one with an opulent, heady fragrance. The slightly faded blossoms of the white rose didn’t look as alluring or fantastic as all the other blooms shouting, “Me, buy me!” But I didn’t care…I found the one with the quiet, hidden virtue. You just can’t judge a rose by its cover.
Jane Claire's Nature Notes 