Upstream

Releasing and flowing. Learning and growing.

Today I sat in this very spot with three other children. We watched a king snake slither into the water, wondered at freshly hatched snake eggs, built fairy houses out of drift wood, talked about how awesome turtles are, and marveled at a doe for making her way towards the river across from us. We gazed at red shouldered Hawks soaring in the air, listened to the chickadees calling, watched cardinals dash to and from over the river.

This water is filled with life and it continues to flow...

My heart is over flowing from the joy I get in spending my days on the earth with other children. (I'm unwilling to admit I am grown)

There is so much yet to be learned.

There is so much to be marveled at.

There is just so much to love.

Anole

In the short time I have sat this evening I have seen so much life - new life.  

The titmouse brought their babies to the japanese maple,

a male anole chased a female across the bamboo trellis,

another anole crawled in a hole in the bamboo and watched the world with me.  

Blue jays brought their babies into the yard to feed.

 The Great Crested Flycatcher (one of my favorite birds) showed up to add its song to the chorus.  

The Ref Shouldered Hawks flew through returning their nest after a long day of hunting.  

Chickadees bathed in the new pond.  

Cardinals gathered up seed.  

And my anole companion from the bamboo hole made its way down to check me out and sat with me on the bench.  

I know what I thought of it.

 I wonder what it thought of me.

Flock

I slid into the flock of birds today up close to watch them... I read there can be up to five hundred in a flock.  I don't think the flock passing through right now has five hundred but, it easily has 250.  There are pine siskins, goldfinch, red house finch, nuthatch, and juncos.  The sound is incredible as they land among the trees and begin their decent to the ground... The swoosh when the hawk spooks them and the flee into the trees...