The difference a day can make

Yesterday...

Today...

Yesterday was beautiful. Not as warm as Sunday, but sunny and bright and warm enough to still be barefoot and free, and we spent most of it outside. Today started out a little rainy, so we spent the morning at the library and came home with books on Spain and stickers for building a spring garden. Calvin decided to finish up his folder on the middle ages with a pictorial how-to for making glass and a picture of knights jousting. He finished reading his book on knights, we read more Oz, he made his sticker garden, and that was about when the sun broke and we rushed outside to enjoy it.

I know spring is coming. The daffodils finally starting blooming today and the cowbird is back. I think I heard him on our walk a few days ago, too, his beautiful water-like tone, but I couldn't be sure, and then there he was today at our feeder. He is one of my favorite harbingers of spring.

Oh, and doves on the roof, sparrows in the tree, kid on the lawn, me in the driveway with a book. That was today.

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.

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.

Super Moon

We all took naps in the afternoon so that we could stay up "late" for a moon hike. In reality I think my nap made me more tired and I ended up in bed early, but early for me was post hike time anyhow. The super moon rose at just past eight o'clock and we were bundled and out in the field near our house by then. It was amazing—beautiful and large—just off the horizon, and beautiful as it rose into a hazy sky. It turned out to be a good thing that we'd hiked into the field the day before because we knew then where the deepest mud was.

I spent a lot of the time being frustrated with the camera. The shutter wheel is broken, making it unreliable, and while it really doesn't stick all that often it picks the most inopportune times to do so, like during time sensitive shooting as the once in a lifetime moon makes its run skyward. But it was fun to be out and enjoy the warmer weather of spring and the stillness of the night.

The sun descending in the west,

The evening star does shine;

The birds are silent in their nest,

And I must seek for mine.

The moon, like a flower

In heaven's high bower, With silent delight,

Sits and smiles on the night.

from Night, by William Blake

Rain boots

New rain boots.

They took us to the park.

They took took us through the muck to the path,

where we drew and observed nature.

They took us into the meadow,

through fields of muck where we could track the raccoons,

and the dogs and the deer ("look, mommy, this deer was here after that dog." "Good, little boy, we'll become trackers yet").

They took us down to the pond, where we found an animal foot path, a muskrat lodge (look closely!), and beauty in general.

New rain boots took us lots of places we couldn't otherwise have gone. And since you can clearly see that Calvin still fits in last year's awesome rain boots, you might have guessed by now that the new pair belongs to me.