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| photo credit: http://www.countrybirder.com/EasternBluebird.html |
Sometimes when I am outside my eyes are buried in a book. Sometimes I realize what a wasted opportunity this is.
Last evening while dining on my patio I looked up from the printed page to see a bluebird alight on the top of a shepherd's pole at the far end of the yard. He sat for a moment, surveying the grass, then fluttered down to grab something in his beak. Back to the top of the pole he flew with his prize. His indigo feathers were a startling contrast to his rust-colored breast. A hum to my left brought my head around in time to see a tiny hummingbird stop at the feeder over the door before buzzing the petunias in the hanging planter. There was a sudden clamoring of crows above the treetops. A change in the direction and strength of the evening breeze rippled the veiled walls of the patio screen. A neighbor child screeched. My supper cooled and the pages of my book fluttered while life lived itself out all around me.
The landlord's cat slinked past me, a baby chipmunk dangling from his jaws. Death amidst life, as always. And to think I'd had my eyes buried in a book.
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| post-dinner smugness |
7 comments:
Yes, well our visitor to the garage was a copperhead...not exactly something I wanted to see. He was swallowing a small lizard.
I laugh how often something is right in front of us.
So very true, I can measure the progress each leaf makes unfolding from the branch each day, we have a fast and furious growing season here at the Edge.
My head is downward in the book far too often.
XO
WWW
I find that I pay far more attention to life around me when I’m outdoors. Even while sitting in a deckchair nature’s sights and sounds intrude and make me put down my book. When out gardening I need to halt and watch the robin waiting for the worms I’ve dug up or I need to lift my head and listen to the song of a bird. Sometimes there’s mayhem and a blackbird shrieking a warning to all around; usually the threat comes from a raptor or a grey squirrel. I chase cats away myself.
It’s a wonder I get anything done with all these interruptions.
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man
Of moral evil and of good
Than all the sages can.
- Wordsworth
I love these delicious moments in summer when I can stop and take my surroundings. You describe it well. We have trumpet vines in the backyard and it attracts hummingbirds. I always consider it a good day when I see a hummingbird.
You were able to witness them. I've found when I have my camera ready to snap those magical moments, the actors disappear!
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