Spring at Last!

I know it's officially been Spring for some time.  But now it FEELS like it, too.

My favorite color is always green.  But in Spring it's SPRING green.  This color is can vary, but to me it means the color of something starting new growth in the spring.  There are just hints of it right now around here...nothing has really entirely "greened up" yet.  But it is starting...definitely...finally.

It seems strange that just a week ago, everything here was covered with several inches of snow. The bird feeders were full of little redpolls, especially, trying to stay warm and stock up for their impending travels north.Yesterday, a few stragglers remained, today, none.

I will miss you, little friend...safe travels

Instead, I have Sparrowpalooza going on in my yard.  I've seen and heard Chipping, Song, American Tree, Fox, House, White-throated, and Savannah Sparrows.

Song Sparrows are big, somewhat aggressive ground feeders, with a lovely song. 

Savannahs are cute and streaky, with yellow eyeshadow

Chipping Sparrows are not usually this puffy, but this one was tired and hungry and had probably flown hundreds of miles with his tiny wings just to get to my yard. I feel privileged. 

Some are still on their way north, others have arrived for the season.  I also saw my first Purple Finches, which Roger Tory Peterson, the author of the first best field guide to birds, described as a "sparrow dipped in raspberry juice."  This perfect description makes identification foolproof for this little cutie.

not really purple at all

even his rump is raspberry-colored

girls are just streaky and cute

Last weekend, the weather was perfectly gorgeous.  Warm, sunny...it seemed like you could sense the forests waking up as quickly as a time-lapse photo.  Bob and I took some forest roads to see what was hopping.  One of the first things we noticed were the Spring Peepers.  These teeny tiny frogs (one inch, really) had unfrozen (literally) and come to life in everything from big ponds to little temporary puddles, and despite their size, their sound is simply deafening.  We sat and listened for a while, drove away and literally could feel our ears recovering from the temporary damage caused by their rock concert loud SINGING. Click HERE for singing frogs...turn your volume WAY UP for the real effect.
There were also some Green Frogs starting to sing.  In field guides, their sound is described as like the twang of a banjo string, but I hear them sometimes from my tent at night and think I hear the sound of hundreds of deep grumbling old man voices.  I suppose that is not a very PC description for a field guide!

One of the funniest moments of our drive through the forest was when Bob at one point slammed on the brakes, and just as suddenly put the car into reverse. "You're going to want to get this." he said, meaning "Pick up your camera, woman, and get it ready."  So I did, and right by the road, we got to watch this cutie.

porcupine!

I know porcupines are probably not cute to people who have inquisitive dogs, or valuable timber on their property and there is a reason you are allowed to shoot them in every season, but I find them fascinating, and cute, too.  Funny as I got out of the car and shot (with my camera) this one, I never considered it running TOWARDS me instead of away, although I have heard that they will bluff attack if provoked. Click HERE to see how ferocious a porcupine can be! Don't worry, I will not be so impulsive if we see a bear or moose chewing on maple buds by the side of the road! I tend to find most animals to be CUTE.  It's a problem I have.

For instance, as I type this, there is a very cute little chipping sparrow who just arrived, apparently, from the latest leg of his migration flight, and who is watching my every movement from the bird feeder outside my window, trying to decide if I am going to attack (bluff or otherwise).

yes...

I can see you, too

 In the time it took me to take those pics and type that sentence, he has decided it's okay to watch me AND pick up an occasional seed.

millet is yummy (really)

It's interesting how the smallest birds are usually the bravest (think Mister Hummingbird), while I seldom can get a picture of a crow, a blackbird or a jay in the yard.  They fly off immediately if they see me through the window.

Mr. Grackle (Chicken) hides out in the tree across my driveway, watching me through the window

along with his other (chicken) friends, the Brown-headed Cowbird and Red-winged Blackbirds.

Can you tell I could talk about birds (mammals and amphibians) all day?  And well into tomorrow, as well.  I can't explain it.  Their lives are so complex and interesting.  Like this eagle, who sat in a tree waayy across the field from my house yesterday, guarding his prey (the LEG of which you can see dangling from the tree limb) from crows,

I would guess it WAS a rabbit

and even watching ME open the slider door to get an unobstructed view.

yes, I can see you, too (thanks to my zoom lens!)

Anyway, Spring has been a long time coming this year.  In spite of that, the birds KNOW.  For the most part, they can sense when to fly, and when to wait out the storm.  They are drawn inexorably to their mating grounds, so precisely that the same birds will come back to the same nest in the same yard.  To me, that is amazing.  And beautiful.

All the green stuff, too, knows when it's time.  Time to soak up the rays of the sun and turn it into chlorophyll, that gorgeous fave color of mine.  Time to put energy into buds and flowers and leaves. Yesterday, the willows were BURSTING as I drove home from work.  Crazy lady stopped by the side of the road taking pictures of pussy willows....that would be me.  But is there a better harbinger of what's to come than this?

glowing in the sun

so cute and fuzzy

My heart is filled to bursting, too, anticipating the most beautiful Spring ever.  Hope you are enjoying it too.

Thank You!
Amen.

Am I Blessed, Or What?

I have been thinking a lot about happiness.

And why I am.  Happy.

I think about it a lot, because my youngest son thinks I'm a sap. Apparently, his simple life as a sophomore in high school is full of unhappy things.  Like schoolwork.  And people who want him to obey the rules that everyone else follows (like for cell phone use at school). He walks around some days under a little black cloud that he doesn't seem to want to get rid of.  And I wish I could help him count his blessings...which are many.

He has parents who love him, feed him, and clothe him.
He has a warm, safe home with a big room of his own.
He has mostly every electronic device a kid could ask for.
He is healthy and attractive.
He goes to a good, albeit small, school.
He is surrounded everyday by the beauty of God's Country.

And yet, he doesn't  know that he is blessed. It's a big project, his life, that Bob and I have been working on for a lot of years. And I guess I will know that my work is done when he realizes that he has a lot to be happy about. Especially that he has a very sappy mother who loves him more, I think, than he can realize just now in his life. I have faith he will get it, though. Because he has a lovely soul, and I can see that even from under the little black cloud.

So.  Happiness.

Something I tend to say (A LOT) is: "That makes me so happy!"

So silly.  "THAT" doesn't make me happy.  I do. It would be more accurate to say, "I make me so happy!" Which sounds even sillier, even if it is true. The truth, as I know it, is that my ability to see, find, and experience happiness is a gift of grace from God. It's what I believe in my heart to be an absolute truth in all the world.

So. I choose happiness.  And joy.

There is one more thing...that might make my sappiness sound a little more well informed. God gives me the grace to find happiness in RIGHT things. Free will gives me the ability to twist that around and perhaps find happiness in things that aren't right. It's something big to think about. And I do. A LOT.

You know, when I first thought about the subject for this post, I didn't want it to turn out heavy at all. I often have a very child-like way of looking at things, which isn't all bad. Especially because I think that God pushes me in that direction, especially when I am stressed or sad about something. God stands close by and nudges me, or whispers in my ear, or shouts at me, or blinds me with something so blatantly JOYFUL that I can't ignore it.  And He knows what I like. So many of those nudges, shouts, and flashes of proverbial lightning are nature at its finest. I can't show you a couple of really good ones from this morning, because I was driving and couldn't stop to take a picture. Maybe I can describe a little.

I walked outside to get in my car to come to work this morning and two things struck me. Across the street, the willow trees, which are a beautiful gold color right now, were covered with a light layer of snow and frost.  It was like you had a golden crown and encrusted it with diamond bits.  Who thinks of things like this? God, apparently. Then, looking to my right as I got in my car, were three deer, which I DID get a picture of. I never get tired of looking at them, and this morning, they didn't get tired of staring at me, either.

big furry lawn ornaments

I drive through at least three distinct weather zones on my way to work, mostly because of changes of altitude, and a big LAKE, which throws all the weather rules out the window every day.

yesterday's weather was sunny and chilly, with a light wind

When I got to the Military Bridge, there was almost no snow, but as I looked up at the top of the hills by Rockland, the same snow and frost covered the trees at the top.  It was so strikingly beautiful, and I know that by now, it's completely gone.

I almost got to work when I spotted a puddle of water in a field, filled beyond capacity by a daggle (it's a thing, really) of Mallards, which quickly became a flush, and then a flock, meaning THEY FLEW AWAY FROM ME as fast as their little wings could flap. I had pulled off the road a little to take their pic...complete failure that...when I heard SANDHILL CRANES.  They were right behind a big pile of STUFF in the field, which might have been hay, or else something not as nice as hay.

singing

Whatever it was, they were paying no attention to me whatsoever because they were IN LOVE.

more singing

fancy synchronized steps

And by in love, I mean posturing and singing (if you can call it that...remember the seagull from The Little Mermaid movie?) and finally DANCING.

 I was able to catch some of it but not a lot, because, like I said, I had pulled off the road A LITTLE and there were cars going by wondering either what the heck I was photographing, or nearly stopping, as the locals do so nicely, to find out if my car and I were okay.

Click here for beautiful dancing and beautiful (if you're a crane) singing!


Anyway, did I mention happiness?  And JOY?

Because this was my nudge/whisper/shout/flash moment for today.

Did I mention that I feel blessed?

I AM blessed.  Unapologetically so.

I hope you look for your nudge today.

Life is good.  Every day.

Amen

Creativity Explosion--Chapter 2

Sometimes I think I think too much.

I think enough to come up with all the best, and too often, the worst case scenarios in every single situation.  Ask my husband...he will tell you that I worry about a lot of dumb things.

At least I KNOW they are dumb things to worry about.

I wonder....if people who are creative worry a lot in general....just because they allow their minds to wander all over the place all the time so they can see the very best and the very worse that can happen in every given moment. Hmmm....that sounds a little obsessive....yes....I know.

Anyway.

I LIKE a lot of the things I think about.  Because my thoughts have been taking a very creative path lately.

All of which brings me to the realization that I AM VERY HAPPY with my (relatively) new life in the UP (many, many exclamation marks)!

I just realized...it will be nine months tomorrow (and many more exclamation marks)!

Ten things (at least) that I am happy about:

1. Spring has Sprung!  In spite of this, our drive to work this morning looked like this:

Unfortunately, it FELT worse than it looked...don't tell Bob I said so...he thinks I worry too much

2. This week I have counted close to twenty different types of birds in my yard,

American Tree Sparrow

typical bird herd

soon the pretty redpolls will go north for the summer

Pine Siskin is a new bird for me

not counting the biggest of all birdseed eaters.

stealth...

nonchalance...

or overt cuteness...whatever gets the most birdseed

Bob intimidates the lawn ornaments

Or the furriest.

still wearing his winter ear tufts

I call this the "guilty" pose

talk to the tail...and keep the birdseed coming

3 .There are migrating birds everywhere if you are looking for them (which I am). This makes every day seem like a treasure hunt!

Last year's eagle looking for new turf, and roadkill along the way

Northern Harrier Gray Ghost

snow buntings on their way to the tundra

4. I live in a cute little house feels more and more like MINE. I just made some new curtains for my living room to take place of the ones I recently accidentally destroyed  :(

yes...this is burlap...it turned out to be a very good idea for curtains

5. I am planning my spring garden...although we've still got FOREVER until the typical last frost date (June something!).

origami seed starting pot...just an idea...

6. Bob and I have had a lot of discussions on our way to and fro about stuff we want to accomplish at our camp this summer. We even took a beginning beekeeping class....so interesting....in case we want to do that at some point.

we learned that our fields of birdsfoot trefoil (the yellow stuff) can be great for delicious honey

7. Our shop in Ontonagon is experiencing a tiny but noticeable boom.  Bob is getting new clients daily. I make them buy things if they hang around too long (only sort of, sometimes).  But more people are getting interested in the stuff I have to sell.  I have a few photography fans,

and some fans of my soap.

I took in my first consignment items.

And I make new stuff all the time.  I currently have two new areas of stuff I'm working on.  One is jewelry, mostly copper wire-wrapping stuff.

I've also been making these little rice-filled pillows.  They are microwaveable or you can put them in your freezer.  They smell soothing and peaceful (at least I think so), and I like to embroider stuff on them.

:)

 I have new ideas all the time...some are big and some are very little.  But they all make me happy.

8. I've also been doing some composing...actually more like facilitating some composing  One of my students has a piano lesson and a composing lesson every week.  I don't really have a plan about what I am going to teach him from week to week, rather I let it grow organically out of things we like, either from his piano lessons, or anything else that interests him.  Lately, he's been writing a solo piece for trumpet with piano accompaniment.  He's TEN.  He understands how to transpose his part for his instrument, how to harmonize his melody, and last time we worked together, he learned how to write a contrasting section in a relative minor key.  He's pretty amazing, and what I love about it is that he is always so excited to learn new things.

9.The weather in the UP is so changeable.  Today, we had a super snowy, white-knuckle drive to work, and I am sure by the time we go back home today, the snow will be completely gone.  And the snow is beautiful, even when it's dangerous. The animals are still out and about, even in a blizzard.

speaking of Mr. Dangerous himself

10. AND IT REALLY IS SPRING! I only hope that soon I will have pictures to prove it!

Have a Happy Spring, my friends!