At the end of the day...

 

I didn’t write a blog post yesterday. I could blame it on the heat or the other things that needed to be done, or just chalk it up to laziness. Some days I just don’t feel like I have much to say that is worth reading. I didn’t take any pictures yesterday either.  The ones shown here are from Tuesday.

 

I wasn’t unhappy yesterday. In fact, I worked on my classroom and saw some friends and did some research at the library and spent the afternoon with my husband and talked to my daughter- a pretty typical day. Boring by some standards, but satisfying to me.

I could certainly find reasons to be unhappy. The news continues to be depressing. We are breaking records for heat and number of days over 100 and lake water temperature and heat-related deaths. People and plants and animals all over the state are suffering. I wonder sometimes if we wouldn’t be better off mentally if we did NOT have so much information about our situation.

 

But at the end of the day I felt satisfied that at least I am contributing a little to maintaining life here on the hill. As I wandered around the kitchen cooking dinner, I watched for our daily visitors. Of course the meadowlark had already been under his little shade tree since early in the afternoon. Then five doves came to eat and were soon joined by a little flock of sparrows. The rabbits came to nibble on some leftover carrots and broccoli I put out for them. The crow flew down for his nightly portion of dog food. (He usually sits in a huge tree nearby and waits for me.) Three female cardinals took a dip in the big water tub next to the fence. The red-winged blackbird pecked at the flat feeder in front of the kitchen window, just as he does every evening. Then the two young buntings came and one landed on a sunflower just inches from the sliding glass door where I was standing. At one point I looked up and a tiny bunting and the woodpecker were sitting side by side on the edge of the bird bath. The bluebirds waited until the woodpecker was gone before they took their turn. After dinner the raccoons began to arrive. They come at different times, but by nine each night there is a group of six or seven eating and splashing and enjoying a brief respite from the heat. An opossum often joins them. He doesn’t seem welcome, and is careful to eat at the outskirts of the group.

 

So I might have been lazy yesterday, and even a bit tired and weary, but at the end of the day it was all good.

 

Comments

[Marilyn Crabtree]

You certainly had lots of visitors during the day and evening.

[Megan]

Sweet blessings must be added to your head each day for being such a good steward of your little hill.