My Journey in 2011 – May

5/5/11

After many days of rain, and all the rivers and streams cresting, we finally have a beautiful sunny day. There has been much flooding with all rain we have had. Even with the horrible weather, the resident rabbits still await for me to come out each morning to feed the ducks, geese and chickens. As soon as I leave their feeding trays the rabbits come out of their hiding places and steal the food. As soon as the geese are let out, they chase the rabbits away as they run to their feeding trays with their huge wings outspread. Yesterday, a red-winged black bird joined the other wild birds in the yard for lunch of left over cracked corn that was spilled over by the geese and ducks. It is fun to see wild life and domestic animals sharing.

5/9/11

This morning I woke up at 3 am and could not fall back to sleep. As I lay in my bed by an open window I just listened for noises to keep my mind occupied. At exactly 4:47 this morning an orchestra of lovely, harmonious music seemed to fill the air…all at once. The wild birds woke up and started their morning calls. Beautiful!

Now the periwinkles are all in bloom in the yard. So pretty to see the flecks of bluish purple scattered throughout the yard. Yesterday, Mother’s Day, we went to the park several miles from our home. There is a large pond there bordered by a farm on the opposite side. It was very serene to sit and sketch in my Nature Journal. I listened to the sounds of nature all around me. I heard finches arguing in the tree above me, Canadian Geese, honking, as they landed in the pond, Domestic Geese that are residents of the pond and a Red Winged Blackbird, that was just hopping from branch to branch. The Maple tree above my head had little “catkins” hanging from each tiny twig with tiny leaves just opening up. It was a breezy 63 degrees with just a few clouds. Looking at my Nature Journal from last year on Mother’s Day (5/8/10) it was 28 degrees and we had a dusting of snow on the grass……much better this year!

5/12/11

The weather has been so wonderful! Sunny, clear and in the 70’s for the past 3 days. Love doing things outside on these days. I have been watching a red squirrel the past few days. He is the cutest! We don’t see many squirrels in our yard, in fact we never see any squirrels in our yard, but only this red squirrel who comes every spring and stays all summer. Where does he go in the winter? He is so quick as he scurries up and down the trees, twitching his tail and spying on our farm animals. I really think he is trying to get to the cracked corn that is out for the ducks and geese without the them seeing him.

5/31/11

Most of the month of May was very cool, rainy, wet, gray and dull. However, this Memorial Day weekend was amazingly beautiful! Sunny and warm.
This morning I woke up at 2:30 am and was relaxing in my bed trying to return to sleep. Then at 2:45 am the wild birds began their daily, morning chorus! I never realized that they began that early! Their beautiful music was distracting me to the point that I could not return back to sleep. I kept trying to separate the songs and calls to try to figure out what type of birds were singing. So it did take a while to fall back to sleep.