Notes from Field and Fen!

Once in a while, this blog actually does live up to its title, and give you notes from field and fen, and this is one of those times.

HP is stable, struggling with physical therapy, but in a friendly place with a lovely view of trees and sky and a compatible roommate of whom more later, so I was free to just enjoy today, which I did at the Preserve, our local little wilderness area.

And as soon as I drove in, even before I parked, I saw a pair of bluebirds! what an omen! and then a couple more pairs in no time at all. Then tree swallows, one, then two, then a huge flock of them skimming and wheeling about the sky, along with a few barnswallows and a couple of purple martins. Right across them, a double crested cormorant cut through the air on his way to his favorite fishing spot. Woodpeckers rattling and pecking, cardinals singing various versions of their repertoire, tufted titmouses shouting. The first warm sunny day of spring, with no wind, after a huge storm the other night took down trees and left behind screaming winds yesterday.

Several people walking on the Preserve, all smiling endlessly at finally seeing Spring all over the place. The merlins are in hot pursuit of hapless smaller birds, sad but they are amazing pilots to watch.

One birder told me he saw a couple of little orange butterflies today, too, probably commas, since they are to be seen there, and they hibernate rather than migrate, so the first warm day brings them all out. and the mosses are brightening up, the bright sun outlining the paper wasp nest high in a tree and the fungi on a fallen log.

And on the way in to see HP this afternoon, a carpet of brilliant blue flowers right next to the parking lot, so I added it to the list of pix in the camera to show him.

And you!

And his roommate, a 99 year old, that is not a typo, man who was living independently until two weeks ago, and plans on getting out and continuing to live alone (outlived TWO wives, hm, some track record), asked me at dinner, when he and his family and HP and I were at the table "are you his really good friend then? you're here a lot."

His son and daughter explained more or less,and he said "oh, I must apologize for mistaking a wife for a friend!" dead seriously. Whereupon we all teased him about how you have to choose: be friends OR get married! heh. When people say I'm the wife of the couple I never explain, takes too long, life's too short!