“I don’t want to worry about what I look like…I’ve watched, my whole life, people age and become buffoons…When you crest in your thirties or forties and don’t pull out of the public eye, you become a caricature. You have to have grace, dignity and gratitude, and walk away kind of slowly, like you’re walking away from a bear.”
Jamie Lee Curtis, from the article “Jamie Lee Curtis Embraces the F-Word (No, Not That One), in the July/August 2008 issue of More magazine.
Well I started off yesterday to write about the animals I love watching in my yard and ended up down a totally different path. So today, backyard animal update, with a shade of Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s vicious bunny even!! At least to a squirrel.
My husband looked out the window the other morning and watched this scene unfold between a cute little brown bunny and a fairly young squirrel:
“The bunny came down the driveway and hopped over to the front bird feeder. While he poked around under the feeder looking for stray seeds, an fairly young squirrel came along. The squirrel stopped at the sight of the animal. It was clear the squirrel was confused by the rabbit. His facial expression was one of ‘what kind of a squirrel is that?’ The young squirrel hopped closer, stopped, and looked. Still confused he moved closer and closer, always stopping to stare at the strange squirrel under the feeder. Finally the squirrel was almost next to the rabbit.
The rabbit, meanwhile, observed the approaching squirrel, none too pleased. The rabbit inched away, then inched away, then glared at the squirrel as if to say ‘Dude. You’re in my space.’
The squirrel, still confused, inched toward the rabbit one last time. The vicious bunny suddenly leaped into the air, landing square on the squirrel and stomping him flat. Then the cute little bunny leaped back and resumed eating seeds as if nothing had happened. The young squirrel, slightly dazed, staggered back and resumed eating seeds a few feet away this time.”
So while these two usually furry, snuggly supposedly unvicious creatures duked it out in the front yard, the backyard had the two brutes best avoided, snapping turtles, sound asleep on logs in the pond. These guys can have a shell up to 20 inches in size and average about 40 lbs. though some can go up to 75 lbs. They have thick necks and a large hooked mouth with jaws that can crush:
“The snapping turtle is an exceedingly voracious brute, and is not particular as to its dinner. Young waterfowl are stalked from beneath the surface, seized by a dart of the jaws and pulled below to drown and be quickly torn to pieces. The turtle is carnivorous. It never feeds unless underwater, but it will sometimes seize prey on the bank of a stream and then retreat to the water to dine.” (From the entry on snapping turtles on the website Critter Zone; great pictures too)
Yet…these two brutes are sound asleep almost side by side, while the bunny brute in the front yard tromps the defenseless juvenile squirrel….
Standing on the front porch waiting for my son to let me in the house (forgot those house keys!), I turned toward the small House Wren feeder hanging on one of the porch posts and thought I saw something in it. I though it was an abundance of nest material some bird had stuffed in there and abandoned, and was about to reach for it to take it down to clean it, when I noticed the nest material looked like a bird head. My son confirmed my thoughts and after we went inside, we saw the “pile of nest material” move. So we have house wrens nesting on the front porch…or at least in a nest box. House wrens have been known to create a few “false nests” so you can’t find their actual nest….but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the “for real one” as I don’t think the mom stays in the “fake nests.”
The 9 goslings are as big as ducks now, but still make the child-like squeak sounds. I was sitting on the patio last night and they, knowing me as the “Corn God” as I sometimes will put out a cup or two of corn for them in the back ground feeder, quietly gathered around me as I read on the patio. Even the babies came up to me and just stood there, making their baby chirps, staring at me like “where’s the food???”
Inside the house, Admiral Byrd decided to try hanging out on top of the water filter. He finally got up there. Usually it’s the domain of the ladies when they’re pregnant. Since I doubt that’s his issue, and since they were hiding in caves, not sure why he was up there. I have some pictures of him up there I’ll share in a day or two.
And yesterday, Admiral Byrd and one of the ladies was keeping company in his bachelor pad. So….all kinds of goings on in the animal kingdoms inside and outside of our house.
Yes, you heard me…menopause….midlife as a gift. Stop rolling your eyes. It’s the truth.
Some exceprts from a Time magazine article I liked in the May 16, 2005 issue: “Midlife Crisis? Bring It On! How women of this generation are seizing that stressful, pivotal moment in their lives to reinvent themselves,” by Nancy Gibbs:
“…the very word crisis, while suitably dramatic, seems somehow wrong for this generation’s experience. Unlike their mothers…this cohort of women is creating a new model for what midlife might look like….Women get to wrestle their hormones through a Change of Life; but however disruptive menopause may be for some women, the changes that matter most are often more psychic and spiritual than physical…They may first turn inward, ask the cosmic questions or retrieve some passion they set aside to make room for a career and family. Take a trip. Write a novel. Go back to school. Learn to kiteboard. But then, having done something to help themselves, they have a powerful urge to help others. Best of all is when they can do both at once…When women find a key to solving their own midlife mysteries, they often want nothing more than to help other women do the same.
The psychoanalyst Carl Jung explained how in middle age people tend to drop the roles they were playing, outgrow their pretenses. Some women become more willing to take risks as they grow less concerned about what others think.
….We come to the place where we say, ‘It’s my turn.’ If women get there, they get there with fervor.”
“We make a living from what we get; we make a life by what we give.”
Winston Churchill
“Gingko:
In the wake of the atom bomb dropped in 1945 on Hiroshima in Japan, every living thing around the epicentre of the blast was destroyed. An exception was provided by four remarkable ginkgo trees that survived, and which by the following spring had even started to blossom again. The closest, at Hosen-Ji, was only 0.7 miles (1,130m) from the epicentre of the explosion. All four trees are still thriving today. Ever since, in Japan the ginkgo has been regarded as the “bearer of hope.” Today there are plaques near some of these trees bearing prayers for world peace.”
Symbolism: Primeval life – force
Divine Association – Oneness”
From the book: The Meaning of Trees: Botany, History, Healing, Lore by Fred Hagenneder
Three bits of wisdom, to honor and remember fathers on this special day:
“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.”
Charles Wadsworth
“My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.”
Clarence B. Kelland
“Any man can be a father, but it takes a special man to be a dad.”
Sometimes attributed as an Italian proverb.
“Life is precious.
I will use this day well.
I will live with nobility and dignity.
I will live my life with trust.”
From the book, The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology, by clinical psychologist and former Buddhist monk, Jack Kornfield
“Whether the body is broken or unbroken …it’s truly the spirit that matters.”
Matthew Edward Bailey, my son, comforting his tired weary mother….and reminding her of what’s really important in life. More times than we know, our kids are our teachers…..
A few more photo gifts of lilies, both “whole” and a close up of that small part of the flower that causes all our sinuses so much trouble with pollen. 🙂
And now, for a few new shots of the goslings. All 9 continue to survive, thrive and grow. Even though each set of parents are protective of their respective offspring, the two families do stay pretty close to each other and often the small ones interact, while all 4 parents stand guard.
Some shots of the parents as well. The first shot shows one parent with torn neck feathers, evidence of a slight disagreement with the other parents over territory for their babies:
And then there’s the goose popping up his head to check on what the kids are up to, much like a parent on the playground standing up to see where the kids have gone to:
Last – here’s a shot of my buddy. He is the last of the “pond ducks” – ducks who were born and raised here. At one point there were about 12 or 13, and one by one they’ve been killed by predators or died. I’ve buried a few as I found them near my yard….they were good friends. The last remaining one here comes into my garage looking for me if I haven’t filled the tray feeder in the backyard with some corn. He is gentle; just pads quietly around the corner of the house and comes a little ways into the garage when he sees me, quacking softly, almost inaudibly. He is old, and the sole survivor, and at night he is alone. Whatever ducks visit during the day, they fly off and he remains. So I just don’t have the heart to refuse him a treat. He never lets me get too close, but he knows the sound of my opening the feed bucket, and he follows me into the backyard as I carry the little container of corn for him. If he’s in the backyard and I call out hello, he comes up and waits for me to feed him. So…my buddy:
Well, after yesterday’s gift post about sunrises, I was in the mood for a sunrise picture. Alas, the closest I had on hand was a picture of a sunset. I’ll need to get more pictures and next time get a sunrise.
But, no worry for now. I mean if you’ve waited through darkness to make it to enjoy the sunrise, then no doubt you can hang around long enough that next day to enjoy the sunset as well.  🙂   So, a sunset to enjoy, after the joy of the sunrise.
Soul Mosaic 