waterfowl

It was sunny this morning. Chilly, but sunny. We got an early start because I had to be at the library early in order to work the monthly book sale. I love monthly book sale day. I love talking to other book lovers and I enjoy stretching my organizational skills outside of the home, not to mention I love to shop. But while I was looking for a good copy of the Parlement of Foules, the boys were off looking for other kinds of fowl with our county parks and recreation nature guide. Rain boots, borrowed binoculars, and some winter gear was all they needed. The program was about waterfowl, and they found swans, several varieties of ducks, and even sandhill cranes. I'm feeling jealous. We hear the sandhills in our neighborhood all the time, but have only caught glimpses of them overhead, so this was a treat. I gather that they had a wonderful time, and Calvin keeps telling me that the "red head" duck was his favorite. Jon was most blown away by the powerful and expensive scopes some of the participants brought, and were willing to share with our interested son. And as the program came to a close our wonderful nature guide asked the participants if anyone would like to follow her over to a pond in Ann Arbor for more viewing, an offer which Jon and Calvin readily took her up on. I know Calvin had a great time, and I know he was greatly interested in the birds at the lake, but I understand he may have been a little side tracked by getting to walk over the railroad tracks to get to the second location. It's hard to tell.

No pictures

There are no pictures from yesterday. That may seem like an April Fool's joke, but unfortunately it's not. Aside from the misbehaving camera, it was a somewhat gray and dismal day, the kind that makes one wan to curl up in bed and nap. And in addition to that it was just a strange, strange day. With Jon gone over the previous five days we'd had no weekend to mark the passing of time, and since Calvin was fighting what appeared to be a cold we also missed swimming on Tuesday, and we're between sessions of story time right now, too, so no library on Thursday. I rely on those things that mark our calendar to keep us on track, and even with Jon back in town he was back at work, so yesterday as Thursday was just plain out of whack. We read, we practiced the piano, we read, we did the laundry, we read, we took a nap, we read. There was plenty of make believe and a little bit of exercise, but as a day it was rather prosaic.

So there are no pictures from yesterday, except for one that is currently stuck in my head. By the time Jon came home, after work and a piano lesson, we were all pretty blah, so we decided to do something new and different to break the monotony. We watched a movie during dinner. We sat in the sitting room, curled up on couches and chairs, and munched dinner while watching Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, starring Julie Andrews, in beautiful black and white. I'm not a fan of the Cinderella fairy tale, or really any princess stories, but there's something about a classic black and white movie that brings a certain comfort to a home. Calvin loved it, and it turned out to be the butter on top of our brussels sprouts, the ball at the end of our rather banal day.

And that, my friends, was Thursday.

There is spring in my kitchen

There is spring in our kitchen...

comfort in our sitting room...

imagination in our hallway...

and love in our play room...

We're all back together, and with one of us tucked in bed the other two are ready for our one night of TV. That's a short and sweet one for you.

Bird walk, finally outside again.

We did it. We got back outside. Sun and relative warmth (mid 40s will do) and the need to pick up the mail lured us. We are now down to counting the hours left in our week-long stint as a single parent household, and it's hard to decide which of us misses the daddy more. He is, after all, the one who usually gets the mail. That being said, since he's business-ing in the snow he might be the happiest to be coming home. Thankfully we seem to have dodged the threat of rain and snow this week and the foreseeable forecast is a return of the warming trend. Ahhh.

Reading in the morning, a trip to the bookstore to get my new book (released today, and I finished my tour back through the earlier releases in time), puzzles, lunch, books, journal, piano, and finally a walk through the neighborhood. We even saw neighbors. And lots, and lots of birds. The footpath may look peaceful, dead even thanks to being pre-bloom spring, but the cacophony was a sure giveaway to its surfeit of avian inhabitants.

The robin always makes me think of spring. I know they're here all year round, many of them anyhow, but we see many more of them in the spring, hopping around in our fields looking for worms and gathering material for their nests.

The red wings are prevalent in our pond spaces and fill the air with their throaty rattles.

We have seen this little Downy on every one of our walks along the path this year, but I believe he's new the area because he wasn't around for our bird walks last year.

And the daddy cardinal. His chirupping song is the song of my childhood. They performed often in our back yard and I can still hear my mom whistling back to them, mimicking their calls. Maybe that's because she still does this all summer long.

And this little guy? He's on all of my walks as well. His name may be Calvin, but he more often makes me think of Linus.

And the book cataloging project? It's still underway.

Knights vs. Egyptian Gods

Sunny and cold. It's like the spring is taunting us. I look out the window in the morning at vivid blue skies and golden sun that just beckon us outside, but it's cold. Strangely enough, I would have called these temperatures warm just a month ago, and we didn't hesitate to go out in it, but now that we've had a taste of a warming trend the low to mid thirties is keeping us in.

So we stayed inside and played in the middle ages this morning. We finished his knight's helmet.

And I'm pretty sure that's Sir Gawain battling Anubis.

We did get out of the house for dinner, though, and to take a field trip for one last (or first, in Calvin's case) stop by Grampa's office before he leaves it for good later this week. It's really a very pretty building with lots of history.

And since tomorrow is not only the release of the book I've been waiting for, but also supposed to make it over 40 degrees, I think we'll spend a little more time out and about then. Every once in a while you just have stay home and play knights and Egyptians, though. I wonder if that's anything like pirates and robots.