{pretty, happy, funny. real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

 

{pretty}

My camera doesn't do justice to the colors of the woods from our nature hike.  But it was a very pretty walk. 

{happy}

The boys were happy to see these guys.  Cedar waxwings, there must have been 5 or 6.  Right outside out kitchen window.  Apparently they eat bugs before the berries are ripe in the summer, which completely explains why they would be in the tree outside our window.  Again, sadly my camera does not do them justice. 

{funny}

The poor boy was worn out.  He was up WAY to late, up far too early, and spent a ton of time running around outside.  And the sitting in the shopping cart was too much and he succumbed to his exhaustion.  And there he napped. 

{real}

"Wait up guys!"  (Except of course we still don't have all our consonants in the right places so it sounds more like "way up dyes!") 

 

Fall

I love the change of seasons.  The newness is always such a relief after a long stretch that has inevitably turned what started as lovely into something ugly and taxing.  The fresh snow of Christmas turns into the gray and brown slush of March.  The welcome sunshine of June morphs into the scorching heat of August.  My favorite change by far is into Autumn. 

There's that blessed relief from the heat of summer.  Cooler nights for sleeping and baking.  Comfort food like soups and casseroles.  Fresh apples and pumpkin and spice. 

And the remarkable changing of the colors around us from green and brown into brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges.  The air changes and smells fresh again.  Soon we might be smelling wood smoke. 

Days are warm and sunshiny and perfect for walks and the park.  And making the apple trees smell so apple-y. 

There's the swarm of gnats that congregates by the pine tree outside our windows trying to move in.  Gnats surrounding the lamps that are turned on in the evenings and on all the window screens. 

TV ads for back to school are long gone and now we're onto turkey, stuffing, pie, and all things Thanksgiving.  Accompanied by a slight panic attack before remembering that Canadian Thanksgiving is a month and a half before American Thanksgiving.  That means no Columbus Day sales but double the cranberry sauce. 

A new season of NCIS :)  Nope, not much better in the world than that. 

And then there are the children who are up half that night barking like seals. 

Ahh, the lovely change of season.  Now we're off to find a humidifier and replace the windshield.  I suppose we have to take the good with the not so good.  And we might as well enjoy what we can because it's not like we get a choice in the matter. 

Raising Nature Lovers

Outside our kitchen window is a very tall pine tree.  Very tall, remember we're on the sixth floor.  While this sometimes obscures our view of the garbage trucks on trash day this is a fabulous vantage point for watching nature. 

Recently the tree was home to a squirrel nest.  Man, are they rowdy neighbors!  The chattering and scratching of their claws on the bark made me crazy.  Not to mention the chases up and down the tree.  When one started trying to forage on our porch, though, that was just about it for me.  The final straw was when I was sitting on the couch reading a book with Bigger and looked up because movement caught my eye.  There was the squirrel, climbing the window screen of the sliding porch door!  Scared the begeezis out of me!  I have never seen a squirrel do that before!  And I forgot to mention it was a creepy black one.  (We have both black and gray squirrels here and I am still not used to the black ones.)  Bigger thought this was all pretty awesome but Mama was ready to go find a slingshot and a big pile of rocks. 

Thankfully the squirrels have moved on.  Which has made lots of space for birds.  Robins, crows, and sparrows are all common to see in the tree.  I don't remember seeing the local cardinal that high up but we do see it all over in the smaller trees.  I wish we'd get a redwinged blackbird but we only see those out on walks, usually on the bike path.  Seagulls glide by, sometimes close enough to cast a shadow on our dining room table.  But our favorite is the goldfinches :) 

(I'm not sure if that schmut is on the camera lens or the window, could totally go either way.) 

We usually see only one.  They're just lovely and so neat to see such brilliant color right next to our window.  And that color makes them easiest for the boys to spot in the tree.  They get so excited when there is any bird in the tree and always ask what a bird is when we see one. 

But nothing beats what we saw the other night during dinner.  We had just about finished up when I noticed a goldfinch in the tree.  And then another.  The boys got excited to see one chasing the other almost around the tree and then I noticed a THIRD goldfinch!  They sang and hopped from branch to branch and took turns chasing each other.  One flew right by our window and out of sight.  I figured that was probably the end of the show.  But then it was back and it landed on our window!  Right in the middle, on the top of the frame of the screen.  I can't believe the shrieks from the boys didn't scare it away.  It was as if he was looking in to see what we were having for dinner.  We were up close and personal with nature right there on the sixth floor.  :)

The trio of birds flew off and Bigger lost interest and was distracted by his own call of nature.  But poor Littler kept waiting for them to come back.  When it was clear they were gone he broke into tears and demanded "more go-fitch."  He needed real consoling over the loss of those three goldfinches who were off to find a better spot, maybe away from the prying eyes and noise of two seriously overexcited little ones.   

Makes this Mama very happy that her boys are so interested in nature.  Now it keep it that way...