Gone to the Sea and Never coming Back.

I went to Washington Oaks State Beach and Mantanza Inlet beach yesterday. Temperatures at home were 74 and sunny. But it was 64 at the beach and still sunny. If the wind is high it can be chilly. But it was beautiful. Where else but Florida can you enjoy the beach in February. I try and remember this when I am sweltering in July with the air so hot and humid you just want to stick your head in the freezer. And going outdoors is not an option. But still, we are considering moving to the mountains. Best of all would to be able to keep our little place here, only sell the other house and still have a winter place.

The birds were in abundance at the beach. By the time I left I was taking huge gulps and breath's of ocean ozone. I really think
they should bottle it and put a prescription on it. I understand now why they used to take T.B. patient's to the ocean shore. The doctors told my grandfather his emphysema would be better by the ocean air. So, I walked long walks on both beaches. I took many many photographs. But I remembered never go to the beach on the weekend. Too many people. Only mar were a makeup couple at my favorite state park on the rocky ledges. I'm sorry, it's a nature state park. Can't you take your kissing somewhere else. The ocean fuels me.

The Music of the Ocean

A sucking noise, like a birth,
spitting life out upon the sand.
tiny shells creating a musical windchime
as they roll to and fro.

A moaning across the waves almost
undetectable to the ear,
a keening of bird song,
a roar in the ear,
of crashing waves,
a foam spray kissing
your face with salt
a tugging of your soul,
a song beyond your hearing
the sound peaks like a
musical crescendo
the score written in the sand.

Bird Watching

My Downy woodpecker is always around here somewhere. He is my standby bird. He loves the suet blocks. He has built a nest in a hollow broken dead tree trunk over my pond. His baby birds were very demanding and noisy. It was the first time I ever had a chance to watch a downy raise babies.

The only other birds I have been lucky enough to have raise babies are eastern screech owl, chick a dee, flycatcher and once a bluebird. I think I will try a downy woodpecker house by my pond because the old dead tree trunk fell apart. A great part of my joy each day is seeing a favorite bird that is rare. I wait each year for the flycatchers and parula to arrive. Yesterday I swear I heard that buzzz of the hummingbird by my viburnum which is blooming. It is way to early to hear a hummingbird. But then it has been a very strange winter, so why not?

Wherever I move to. i hope, I know there will have to be birds.

Great Back Yard Bird Count

I am a total bird geek. I even buy meal worms and have a special cup to put them in. Next I will be breeding meal worms.
Hey, they cost more than red wrigglers. The other day the bait shop guy said, "What the heck are you feeding these too. I said
bluebirds. He said, If they will eat red wriggles they are a lot cheaper. ha ha.
This year I did not have a lot of rare birds. But I did have a lot of pine warblers. But not so many goldfinch and no yellow
rumped warblers at all. It has been a strange winter in North Florida to say the least. I think parts of the midwest got our
winter and we got their winter. The Northeast got dumped on. Up North got snow and we got just plain freezing.
I have chickadee's checking out my bluebird houses. I would run them out like I did last year but my son said he was going to
turn me in to the bird abuse society. So, whoever gets their nest built first. They are the winners.
I also have stray cats that I feed. And those are not conducive to feeding birds. I would like to strangle whoever turns their
pets out to fend for themselves.
Valentines Day almost did me in. One can only eat so many truffles. Trying to update these journals more often. At least
it is sunny today even if I did have ice in the birdbath. Later. Here, have a pine warbler.

Phoebe

Every winter running almost to spring. The PHoebe shows up. This year I think I have a pair. They have become my fairytale
bird. They are so elusive and hard to spot. They flit and shake their tail a lot. But I love them. They kind of look like those junco's. Like a nun bird. I call Junco's the nun birds because they have like a grey hood over their head and back. With an ivory stomach. Anyway. My passion for Phoebe's started few years ago. Kind of like my passion for blue buntings, grosbeaks and
painted buntings. (which one has never shown up, and the other two have only appeared in my yard in the winter once in 20 years.

Which, by the way, my husband and I just realized we have lived here for twenty years. In our entire married lives which is 43 years we have never lived anywhere more than ten years. So we feel it is time to move. We like moving. I don't like starting over with a garden or yard. I always try to get my husband to buy me a place in which some 90 year old lady gardener tended it most of her adult life, and it would have old rose bushes, and huge mature 100 year old tree's. Once, the first home we were buying we saw this house down in Miami, Florida. The house was "nothing" not anywhere near right for us. It only had one bathroom. And my husband has a rule. Must have two bathrooms. But it had the garden of eden in the back yard. And I don't mean that jokingly, it was like the garden of paradise, Every flower or plant I have ever wanted was in that yard. And i begged my husband to buy the place. But he refused. I have been known to buy a house for the yard. ha ha. Even sometimes for an awesome front
door. But I still remember that yard. I would not have had to plant a thing. Just keep the garden going. So, anyway, we are researching where we want to move. Tennessee has been looked at and mentioned. On our trip out West in April we will check out Montana. We just want change.

Ok, so I got a half way decent picture of my Phoebe to share with you. He/she was in the shade. But you can still tell it is a Phoebe. Also a new photo of me. I will try to update more often.

Just Another Hang up

Go to this web site and enter the contest to win a cute wristlet.

http://justanotherhangup.blogspot.com/2010/01/wristlet-give-away.html

Girl

I realized after reading someone's poetry that I never really blogged about how we came by our dog, Girl. Some things just aren't planned. And they come into your life with an insistence that seems written in stone. By that I mean, it will happen whether you want it or not. I had never taken in a stray. We had always paid big money for a pedigree. After we lost our little west highland terrier at age 8 to cancer, we said never again. No more dogs to fall in love with and weep over when they go.

Then Girl showed up. I remember the first time I saw her. It was pouring rain, kind of like it is doing but then it was accompanied by thunder and lightening. And I see this half grown mutt racing up and down the road in a panic. Going to each fenced in property trying to find a place in. She came down my driveway. I let her stay on my front porch. Our uncle was the past president of the humane society. It is a no kill non profit privately owned facility. They don't take dogs and cats until there is an opening. So, Ralph's Uncle asked us if we could just keep her on the front porch, safe until he could get her an opening. So, this is how it all started. I had never owned a stray let alone an outdoor dog. So, we fed her, watered her. Eventually petted. her.
He kept taking her down to his facility to see if a spot had opened up. Then it got cold. I took to bringing an old quilt out to the front porch for her. Next thing I knew I was spending all my time on that old quilt out front with her. I was falling in love and didn't even know it. She was inching her way into my heart. Bit by bit. And there is something about a stray. They are so appreciative of every scrap of love you give them. Even just a passing pat on the head. It breaks your heart. And so it went. Uncle Lennie kept trying to find a placement and we would only call her " Here Girl" because we had no intention of ever keeping her. We were through with dogs breaking our hearts and dying on us. So we never gave her a name. This went on for weeks.
Finally one day my husband just said to his Uncle. Forget it. She's ours. We gave her a bath, brought her into the house. And we never did give her a name. Because by that time she thought her name was "Girl". And so the universe gave us a dog.
And she was very protective of us. But very gentle with children. She was like a gentle giant. And she grew. She grew so much that when she would try and sit in our laps, only a tiny portion would fit. But she kept trying as funny as she looked. Then when she realized she was too big for that. She would come and lay her head on our knee and look up at us. I would give my whole entire world for one more of those looks. And she was pure joy to watch. At about age 2 or 3 she would leap through our woods like a goat, straight up, straight down and flush out birds and rabbits. She never really wanted to catch them. She just liked the game. We think she had some bird dog in her because she would stand by a tree, catch a scent of something and freeze and just point in one direction for fifteen minutes. We took her everywhere. She went to Colorado. She went to Canada. She was a well traveled dog. And when we got our motorhome her favorite thing was to visit campgrounds. She loved it. Her favorite was the mountains and forests. She did not care for the ocean too much. She loved campgrounds that were full of other dogs.
And one day we inherited a little dog named Tiny. He was a mini dachshund. He fell in love with Girl but she only tolerated him.
We loved Girl for ten years. Then she got sick. They never did find out what was causing it. Her lungs were cloudy and the Vet suspected cancer. We kept her comfortable but in Sept she passed away of an assumed heart attack at home. I whispered to her. Find me Girl. Find me. And life will never be the same without her.

If only a blueBird Poem I wrote

Today two bluebirds were checking out my bluebird houses. I cannot even describe properly the joy I felt. There is no way to explain it. I am just a total bird geek. The two that send me over the edge when they show up every year are bluebirds and hummingbirds. Well, bald eagles do too but those are scarce around here. But we did have "one" one time. So, anyhoo, I read something awesome about the bluebird family, how if the female adult bluebird dies, the fledglings from the last nesting will help the male adult feed the new babies. I thought, how superior they are to us humans. If only they knew. So, a few years back I wrote a poem about it. Oh, and here are my bluebirds. Enjoy. I sure did. I even bought some mealworms today. Gross looking. And I plan to put them out in the morning.

If Only a Bluebird



Imagine a world in which
every cell is connected
to every other cell.


One cells pain, would
radiate to every other
cell.
Instantaneous empathy.


No media news or publicity
would have to tell us
how to behave, or not.
I am you, you are me.



Maybe on some alien
planet
in some far away galaxy
there exists a connectedness.

If only a bluebird,
if only we knew,
we haven't a clue.