Norwegian Wood

We have been lucky to have bluebirds nesting in a birdhouse in our back yard for years now. I watch them very closely this time of year. First you see them hovering around the birdhouse early in the spring. There is actually a family of bluebirds that live in the back, and you will see more than one pair at this time. Often they have to fight off swallows and sparrows to claim their spot in the nest. They build the actual nest inside and then you really don't see much activity as the eggs are laid, and the mother tends to them.

You can tell that the eggs have hatched by the increase in activity around the nest. The birds are kept busy feeding their young. They will grab an insect off the lawn, hoist it to the top of a fence post and pound it around a little bit before presenting this to the babies. This goes on for a couple of weeks. The parents get busier as the babies get bigger. Finally the stage arrives when you can see the baby birds peering out of the nest. They are the same size as the adults. Very soon afterwards, all activity stops. I went out the other day to confirm my suspicions. Walking out to the nest I heard the haunting and beautiful call of a wood thrush from the hill in the back. This is indeed the season of songbirds. I carefully opened the front door and peered inside. Sure enough, these birds have flown. You will see the new birds hanging around in the back near the nest for a few weeks afterwards. Then they are gone.

one thing

Wild strawberries appearing. Toads in the garden. UPS truck arriving with boxes of diapers. That can only mean one thing. Erin and her family will be coming soon!

phlox

Phlox, ordinary, beautiful.

sound

Turning off the mower, sound of the brook.

Yellow

buttercups

celandine

Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see.

Osho

Zen page-a-day calendar

basil and parsley

After a rainy night, mist in the morning. Woods Market in Brandon opening for the season. Allyn has planted basil and parsley in the usual places.

asparagus

forget me nots

Rhubarb, buttercups, celandine appearing. Had some asparagus from our garden the other night. Manure spreaders slowing traffic on Rte. 7. Landscaping trailers seemingly everywhere; riders, walk behinds, and weed whackers piled in the back.

wild cherry

When plants start to blossom, bees can't be far behind. Bumblebees observed in the back yard. Yard sales blossoming as well as are the wild cherry trees. Right Weezie?

oriole

Google photos

Temperature read 95 yesterday. Patio furniture down from the attic. Wood rack up in the attic. A couple of days ago, Allyn and I saw a baltimore oriole in a tree in the back yard. Mostly what we could see initially was just this intense flash of orange from the interior of the tree. We were lucky that eventually it flew straight towards us. There are some events in the natural world where their occurrence brings everything else to a dead stop. Seeing an oriole is one of those things. 

slithering

Photo on the front page of the Rutland Herald today of an Eastern Milk Snake sunning itself on a pile of lumber in West Rutland. Saw my first snake of the season yesterday as I was cleaning up the remnants of the wood pile in the back. With temperatures near 90 today, many of us will be slithering outside to soak up some sun.

little girl

Saw a little girl out in her yard trying to fly a kite the other day. Reminded me of this episode and this little girl from about a year ago.

season of blossoms

Temperatures are supposed to move higher over the next few days with readings in the high 80's by Thursday. It has been a cold and rainy spring. The conditions, however, seemingly have helped preserve and maintain a very beautiful season of blossoms, one of the most beautiful I can remember.

too deep for tears

Golden Alexanders appearing; a very common wildflower during the summer season.

Thanks to the human heart by which we live.
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears.
To me, the  meanest flower that blows
can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

William Wordsworth

flower

Watching the full moon, the "Flower" moon, rising over the Green Mountains. Boats on trailers. Turkeys feeding in nearby fields, a couple of them "showing." Heron rousted from the Ira Creek. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms.

painter/creator

This kind of detail is possible in the realm of nature because the painter/creator is inside the art.
John Kahle

fault

Marsh marigolds in bloom. Another important spring ritual is bringing the summer clothes down from the attic, and packing up the winter clothes. I have to confess that Allyn does the honors on this every year. This change was made a couple of weeks ago. Ever since then, the weather has been miserable, cold and rainy throughout the entire Northeast. It must be her fault.

daffodils and tulips

Crabapples, lilacs, rhododendrons blooming. Sound of a wood thrush on a morning walk. Small birds chasing large birds. This is as much a part of the rite of spring as daffodils and tulips.

I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
One world is aware and by far the largest to me, and that is myself.
And whether I come to my own today, or in ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait.

Walt Whitman
Zen page-a-day calendar

past present and future

It was a very rainy and gloomy weekend in the Northeast, brightened considerably by time away with family. Apparently there were violent windstorms in the Rutland area that knocked out power to many.
Apple blossoms are emerging. They are beautiful, but the weather forecast is ominous. The low temperature for tonight is supposed to be around freezing. If there's a hard freeze, that means the apple crop could be severely diminished which could lead to a hard winter for the deer population and for other wildlife in the area.

shad bush

Shad bush trees are in bloom. This is the only native flowering tree in this region that I can think of. So named because its blossoming coincides with the shad fish run in rivers in the Northeast. Another story is that it's blossoming also indicated to early settlers that the ground was sufficiently thawed that burials could commence. Hence it's also known as the "serviceberry" tree.

Emerald

If the Emerald City comes from the Wizard of Oz, the Emerald Country comes from somewhere near here.

birdhouse

Smoke from burn piles observed along route 7. Mowing the lawn for the first time. Bluebirds have returned to the birdhouse in the back.

ants

trout lily

On Friday evening it was 78 degrees in Rutland. The Village Snack Bar opened with a long line. Owen looked like his cousins in Brazil sporting a tee shirt. Ants have returned to their home in the kitchen.