It seems as if all of nature has arrived on the Cutoff.
In between the weeding and pruning, my head bowed down to the soil, three flashes went by. Runner in sync, perhaps training for the Chicago Marathon. As they went past, headphones on, gait measured, I heard the clop, clop, clop of horse hoofs. My own Belmont Stakes on a sunny Saturday morn.
When it rains here, the ground sways with the movement of toads. We’ve had no rain here in quite a spell, so the hose was employed on Saturday morn and this little guy, as if prescient to my reading The Wind in the Willows, just missed my footfall as he hopped under a hosta leaf.
Several families of wrens have arrived: some just setting up housekeeping in a discarded bird house, others already tending a family in the bluebird house, and yet another couple working a hole in the overhang. They chatter about as they gather insects for their young or nesting material with their little tails up in the air and their singing so boisterous for such tiny little things. I just love the twig, squeezed into the box, a perch for Momma Wren.
The finch are also about, especially the goldfinch. They visit the feeder or stop for a drink, entertaining us with their beauty and song as we sit on the deck eating our evening meal. It is a joy to see them, and pure bliss when a cardinal swoops in and sits on the rail while a hummingbird finds nourishment in the potted Salvia.
I’ve taken to sitting for a spell on the arbor bench, reading a book, or just being; watching as Woodrow Woodchuck, ever-so-shy, scurries past, with meadowlark cruising the grassland while a hawk soars overhead. Sometimes, a friend stops by for a treat, we lock eyes for a minute, then life goes on as it is want to do, here on the Cutoff.
Tom and I sat for a bit, wondering where the bluejays were. Their population has been greatly diminished by the West Nile Virus, with many years going by without seeing them. As we chatted, a distinctive blue flashed by and rested on a branch, not far from the wrens’ abode. The bluejays came back, as if hearing our caw, all on a summer’s day!
I love it when nature comes out to play.
It is when magical things happen in a garden.
