One of the best things about this time of year is seeing things "wake up" and being able to be outside. I don't have a great garden and the backyard is more weeds than lawn, but I've been enjoying the birds, blooms and critters.
I think I've given up grass for Creeping Charlie (which is actually kind of pretty.)
Every now and then, one has an experience that is unexpectedly wonderful. That's what happened for Rick and me recently when we joined the Nature Conservancy for a nature walk at Erie Marsh Preserve, a nature preserve located in Erie, Michigan, not far from the Ohio Border.
Alas, Harry the Heron hasn't shown up yet this spring, but I've had some other lovely sightings as the Ditch begins to awaken.
Slightly (emphasis on the "slightly") warmer weather and plenty of rain has helped the Ditch color to burst, and while it's still filling in, it's looking awfully good! (And yes, we dipped below freezing last night.)
We'll take another little break from England to check up on some real-life at home, books and more! (If you want to catch up on England posts, click on the England 2024 tab above.)
I'd like to think we've survived the polar vortex. So far, so good, but who knows? We still have a few months of winter. Meanwhile, Lizzie and I are hunkering down and doing some bird watching!
We have a busy few weeks coming up -- it's Memorial weekend and my friend Suzanne is coming by; an upcoming Cork Poppers in another week or two and kid-sitting for a few days in mid-June. This will be a pretty laid-back weekend, planting flowers at the cemetery, picking up the house for company and just hanging out. So I'm grabbing all the peace and beauty I can get these days!
Rick got back from the lake this week and I have to say it was good to see him! We made progress planning our England trip and just catching up. He says all is well at the cottage and I'm looking forward to getting to the lake next month.
Well, things have a way of working out, even if it sometimes takes a stupid mistake to facilitate it! Here you see my yard sale! It was a success, or success enough for stuff that I didn't want anymore. Most of the rest has already been donated to our local community theatre's rummage sale. I was lucky -- Molly came to help and brought things, too, and Rick chipped in. A team effort.
So, what was that stupid mistake that worked out?
I went to a wonderful estate sale last month -- but it was also a sad one. The resident of the home was the dad of a high school friend of mine, former neighbor, church friend and friend of my parents. Although it was a different home than the ones they lived in when we were kids, my memory bank flashed back to the Christmases at their home and Lisa's wedding reception in the back yard.
I wanted a remembrance of Rex -- something Christmas, of course. And I did get a small angel and small nutcracker (and a big elf!) What I didn't expect to find was a treasure trove of books -- the kinds of books I love to read. Biographies, history, and travel. (And I came home with a few!). But the real treasure was this.
I took my first spring walk around the Ditch on April 13 and wasn't disappointed! My friend Harry the Heron is back!
But more on him later. There were loads of birds, though for whatever reason my Merlin app wasn't recording any of them. Not sure what that's about. My first sighting was a red-wing blackbird. (Merlin should have recognized him -- he was singing like crazy!)
Here's something you don't often see in my world at this time of year. That's sunshine, morning sun, coming into the backyard. Never mind that it's one degree below zero. It's sun. I'll take it!
If I am at home, I will visit the Ditch. And if I visit the Ditch, I will probably encounter my Big Bird buddy, Harry the Heron.
He was in a particularly lovely setting in one of the most recent visits.
From my own back yard to the house down the street, the cottage up north and England, here are a few things on my mind of late!
The bird watching continues! And still -- no baby cheeps coming. Maybe they're quiet -- I don't think they have fledged, but who knows?
I've been doing a bit of backyard (and front yard!) bird watching these days and thought you might like an update! The big news is that Wrennie the wren, whom you may have met before here, has returned! Like the chickadees, the wrens work in concert with one another -- and that concert also includes beautiful trills. Here is one of the two wrens, atop the pole.
I remember when I was working and how hectic spring used to be. I sometimes wonder how I managed to have much of a life while I still had a job. Oh wait, maybe I didn't manage all that well!
It seems as though my calendar has been more or less empty for so many months, I don't know what to do when something fills it up. I took a quick glance at an upcoming week. The doc. The dentist. Going with Rick to a retirement planning seminar. A birthday gathering for a dear friend turning 70.
I have the most charming new neighbor!
The Ditch is still pretty much a symphony of muted colors and fairly quiet. I think most of the ducks have gone down-under, tending their nests; the new growth of grasses is yet to be visible and the trees still bare.
But there is definitely some life going on! And more than a little bit of beauty!
We've been gliding through winter here in Michigan pretty easily, with very little snow and cold but not excruciating temperatures.
That was then. This is now.
One of my fussy projects this winter has been to go through old albums and digitally save the photos I want and send the originals to those in them. In the course of filing the scans, I revisited my digital photo files and have been dumping a lot of those as well. I also rediscovered many from past years that, if they were ever shared here at all, were shared long ago. (Photo purging is a great thing to do on a frigid day!)
(A quick note -- as you know, unless you are a no-reply blogger and I don't have email contact for you, I usually reply personally to your comments. If you don't hear from me for past comments, I just realize blogger turned off notifications for me! I think it's fixed!)
Until just recently, we've had no snow -- or very little. That makes walking at the ditch a little bit easier! Most of the color is gone, but with the beautiful sunsets and a few spots of bright, it's still lovely in it's own way.
As we come close to wrapping up the 2022 series of Postcards from the Lake, I thought I'd take another look at some of my favorite birds from the past few months. I never did get a photo of the blue jays that loved the bird feeder neighbor Jim made, but I was lucky in catching (albeit a tad fuzzy) my friendly chickadee.
