The sky is full of sounds
And color — storms play around us
There fun little birds flowing between here and there
The shadows cast by their little feathery bodies is more than a delight to me
The rain and the
snow shimmer here and there (we only got snow one day here and it was gone by noon)
And sometimes…there are other wings beating the air!
From my heart to your world,
Linda
One of new [of many] passions is trying to get photos of birds
I am sunstruck with these amazing creatures with wings
I love how they sail over our heads often times silently where we never ever see them because we never look up
There they are in the air rushing in different directions
Into the void called wonder!
From my world to your heart,
Linda
My Thirteenth 12th Birthday
Chapter Four
I decided my first stop was going to be way over at the other equipment area…Stewart and Stanley Squirrel had vacated our farmyard and moved over to the old equipment area after one of our adventures a while back and never came home again.
So, if I want to see them, I have to go over there.
Sometimes I go over with Mom…Mom likes to feed the squirrels and chipmunks who live over there; she doesn’t do it often, but when she does I always go with her.
I picked up my paws and trotted swiftly along…only stopping once in a short while to pick up any news about the farm—you know little tidbits of knowledge.
As soon as I got over to the equipment I ran into Stewart and then Stanley.
They are very busy gathering ‘stuff’ to push down into their cellars in their little holes…so busy they really couldn’t stop and talk to me.
Also, their cheeks were amazingly full.
I then moved on down to another piece of equipment looking for Chester the chipmunk and anyone of his family.
There he was and so was Chimmy his new girlfriend. Neither one of them even gave me the time of day.
Well, that was disappointing!
I did see a few birds sitting around on the implements, but most birds always act rather afraid of me and fly off.
Speaking of flying off a HUGE bird flew right over my head and gave me the startle of my life! I flung myself down and crawled on the ground I was so terrified I was going to be bird food. (Although, it would have to big a rather HUGE bird to pick me up, but still.)
I did check out the finch feeder Mom hung up to see who was visiting the feeder.
On my way back out the equipment area, I scared up a mess of ring-neck doves.
I bayed at them and a gave a little chase. Not a huge chase just a little chase. I mean, after all, I am on an adventure.
Then…right out the blue—a HAWK took out after the doves! Talk about scattering doves, that did it!
I sat down and high-fived the hawk. He didn’t see me.
I sniffed and snuffled all along the equipment, down in the tree hollows, over into the old fill-in silage pit when I saw
A Message is written in stone on the ground!
Come this way…help! It said!
Help!?
I best go that way to see who is in trouble and what I can do to help.
With that, I was off…heading toward where? I guess I will keep looking for signs until I can figure it all out!
The wind has been terrible again…50 m.p.h. gusts, my poor plants are feeling crushed and flatted and battered and beaten.
Even though the winds have been blowing, like God is angry, everything once invisible has become visible in the sunlight
The soft clouds dance and flicker through out the day
While the dry, dry soil gives us visual belief in the unseen wind.
More and more we are seeing the summer birds returning. Breathing brightness into the sunlight
Filling out the tapestry of grass, trees, leaves, flowers, bumble and honey bees
Even though the spinning pounding wind as been most unusual…
The beauty of spring fills our eyes, our hearts, our souls and the growing newness of the earth!
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Thankfully the Canadian Geese have found our corn fields, although methinks the picking might be slim after the 196 cows in December.
Terry says he is going to disk up the cornfields soon, this will stir up the feed and knock down the stalks, which, hopefully will bring in more birds.
The day was a tad chilled, but still Boomer, Mindy and went for wee walk-about seeing what we could see, stretching our legs and filling our minds with something besides toasting by the wood stove
The Sand Hill cranes have found a lovely spot at the Upper End to rest and search among the cattails for tidbits to eat
(I didn’t let Mindy go that far with Boomer and I. We left her at the the shed with Terry.)
This is way too far for a kitty cat to go, but not to far for a beagle and a human 🙂
We made the round trip, following the farm roads by the now dormant fields, then came back home to walk down the long lane to go get the mail. While doing so I saw a hawk coming in for dinner.
The little bird lived another day, alerted by the camera snapping human, not even realizing the Black Horseman of the Apocalypse was about to descend into it’s little bird world.
Then home again, camera on one side, best beagle pal on the other.
(Yes I wear short and flip-flops most of the time. It has to be REALLY cold and/or snowy for other shoes and long pants.)
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The Year 2017 is ending.
Bringing with it’s closing days — clear skies with very cold air. No snow.
The moon is growing toward fullness, but for now it rises brilliant in its’ growing toward’ stage; in skys violet-black flooded with stars.
Then swings down in to the west long before morning; leaving the high vault of that bowl, which we call sky dark blue and chilled.
The soil here is dry. Extremely dry, but works for walking on and not tracking in mud. 🙂
Cold air, brilliant sky…gradually we end this year.
A year, which begins, as all other years…a blank slate, going forward without a map, going forward into the unknown…
Grateful me– very grateful to be alive.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
open-mouthed enchantment at the
One evening this week the sun slid behind the Uncompahgre Plateau painting the sky over Grand Mesa shades of apricot and peach
While Boomer, Romeo, and I took a wee walk
to take Romey back to his barn (I left Mindy in the house toasting by the wood stove.)
Gradually the shadows blanketed the farm and the air started to crisp
On the way back I heard my named whispered faintly in the wind, calling me…calling me
I thought about that…hearing my name in the wind— finally deciding it really wasn’t a very lonely sound, or something to shatter a heart.
Boomer and I walked home in the evening’s silver puffs of air me thinking how much I love this earth we call home.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
We had a winter storm come in on Tuesday. What a long boring day that was….the cats and I slept most the day.
Then Wednesday we had SUNSHINE!
Beautiful SUNSHINE!
And Thursday!
And TODAY!
Early morning the birds still look like its cold.
The storm blew in a pair of Robin’s! Mom was ecstatic! I didn’t get it, they were just Robins. But Mom was happy so I was too!
I got in huge trouble because I brought in a fresh afterbirth. I had just brought it onto the lawn when Mom saw me. Grabbed the really yummy thing and hauled it to the burn barrel.
Bummer!
Mom, Dad, and I do a daily calf run. I Love Going on the Four-Wheeler! I just love it! I’m safe up there, from those old mean momma cows, and I can see and sniff to my heart’s content, without having to walk!
Mom and Dad are still cutting and hauling and stacking wood. Three loads a day. Although, they don’t go if the weather is snowing.
Just a minute…..
Scratch, scratch…I’ve got an itch!!!
OH!
MAILMAN!!!
GOTTA RUN!
BOOMER
Last Thursday the heat of the afternoon bore down on us in such a wave of intensity I thought this fall weather had made a huge and dramatic turn back to summer.
Terry was gone for the day, having flew out of Montrose for a meeting in Brighton, Colorado; it was up to Boomer and I to check the irrigation and keep the farm running.
It was late in the afternoon; the gnats and mosquitoes were in swarms of carnivorous activity wherever we walked along the ditch bank—- when I felt the cool down from the swiftly moving clouds.
It started sprinkling just before we got back to the house. Then it started to rain.
Not a bad rain, a gentle rain, a moment of relief from the suffocating heat; enough so the sparrows hung out on the wire taking a bath.
Suddenly the sky turned into hail, the birds, Boomer and I scattering. The blows from the hail and the wind silencing everything and everyone as we hunkered down waiting for the end.
Gradually the noise lessened; the air ringing empty—only the canal talking loudly as the water rushed by.
We got an inch of rain from that storm…a mixed blessing, because of the hail.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Our yard is full of birds… birds of every hue and color
They start the day with joyful tweets and chirps
And end the day with sleepy little good-night calls.
Last evening, as the darkness descended, a little Swallow sat on the wire leading from the electric pole to our house singing a song that sounded more like an alarm. His or her call was so insistent that I had to look out the window to see why.
The sweet little bird was looking right back at me, trying with all the might of the world to tell me something was NOT right…something wrong was there—right there—come out NOW!
(This is Tonto I caught him on camera one afternoon as he moved through our yard.)
Laying on the grass, cooling off was Tonto…a very ancient German Shepard/Wolf mix dog, (he is 16 years old), and lives one mile from us. Randomly he walks up to our place, usually because he has been left at his home for days and days on end in a state of without.
He travels across the flat lands until he gets here, then rests, until I find him. Once I get him all gathered up and cooled down, I load him up…load up food, take down lots of water, several dog snacks…chew bones and other things, and deliver him home.
There are three of us who watch out for Tonto, his closest next door neighbor, our daughter Shannon and myself.
And now I know…the birds do too.
Bird song talks to us, it echos throughout our hearts, the little guardian’s of the world.
Love,
Linda
