It's Summer Now, Because...........

Last weekend was Memorial Day Weekend.  My wonderful hubby and I took off on our Harley Blue and traveled to the Cleveland area to visit friends.  We decided also to go into Amish country and stay the night after our visit with friends.  It was so much fun, checking out different countryside, the sun was shining but it was still on the cool side, the further north we went the cooler it became.  We were prepared, I could plug in my windbreaker anytime I wanted to get warm and wonderful hubby had his leather chaps and coat.  

My mind tends to think of things while riding, I wish I could immediately write down some of my thoughts.  My thoughts are as fleeting as the wind that rushes past as we travel down the two lane roads of Ohio sometimes.  I have written numerous blogs in my mind, only to lose them in the wind.

This one stayed with me the entire weekend, because I kept being reminded of things I remember growing up, things that seemed to have been forgotten and suddenly remembered because of a scent, a glimpse or a sound and it all comes flooding back.

IT'S SUMMER NOW, because..............

It is Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as I remember calling it while growing up.
           A time to honor our Veterans who were buried in cemeteries across the country, who served        to keep us free.

American Flags fly from houses, streetlamps, flagpoles and they decorate cemeteries.

Cemeteries are visited and the flowers brighten the landscape of headstones.

Parades are held in every small town, holding up traffic because the town streets are closed.

Firetrucks, bands and Honor Guards march and people line the streets to watch, waving their own hand held flags.

Children are on bicycles, some are even decorated.

Swimming pools are opened and chlorine is in the air.

Campgrounds are full of tents and RV's.

Lawn chairs circle the campfires with friendships and families being renewed by a long weekend.
          I love the smells of campfires, bringing with it many of my own memories of camping,
          friends, family and horses.............

Lawns full of cars and grills fired up, wonderful scents of cooking out are in the air.

Yards being mowed and hayfields needing to be cut.  

Hay that had been mowed, the fragrance is the best summer smell in the world.


Flowers blooming, Peonies and Iris are always my reminder of Memorial Day.

Big old houses, with lace window dressings and big front porches and Boston Ferns, with wicker chairs waiting, anyone for ice tea or homemade ice cream?

Tank tops, shorts and flip flops.....  

Coppertone sun lotion (they call it sunscreen today)

Windows are open, curtains dancing in the breeze.....

Birds singing, frogs croaking and Harley's rumbling......

Yes, it is summer now................... 

Most Excellent Bird Day

My morning started much earlier than I had planned, I was awakened by a noisy little house wren, just outside our open bedroom window.  Something in the far reaches of my dreams told me this was a special day, the wrens have returned for the summer.  She was a chatty little thing and she hasn't stopped sharing with the world how happy she is to be back!

Bluebird eggs...

And so it continued, the MOST EXCELLENT BIRD DAY........  Today is the day I usually check all the Bluebird boxes.  I may have mentioned before that I made 22 new Bluebird boxes this past winter.  Each are named after the "girls" in my life, my daughters, grand daughters and cousins and sister friends.  As a responsible Bluebird Trail Keeper, they should be checked once a week and notes taken on their progress.  The boxes were all put up in February and that first week I saw a Bluebird checking things out!  Then in late March I started seeing Tree Swallows too.  I encourage both to live in my boxes, they are hunters of insects and so having them around is a very good thing!

Two of my Bluebird boxes have already hatched baby Bluebirds.  There is a third box that lost their babies due to a very cold snap.  There are a couple more with fresh new nests and the eggs are being laid.  

baby Bluebirds....

There are twice as many Tree Swallows in the boxes.  Their nests and Bluebird nest are made with grasses, the difference is the Tree Swallows always finish their nest with a feather or two.  One box has more feathers than I've ever seen!  And one box has a big ole owl feather inside!  I tried to imagine what a little Tree Swallow must have looked like flying with a big owl feather in it's mouth!

While checking to boxes a Northern Oriole followed me down the fence row.  Hearing them sing will stop me in my tracks, it is so beautiful to hear their clear and cheerful song.  You know of course that the Oriole loves building their basket nests from strands of horse hair.   Outside my window where I feed birds year round, I hung a suet feeder filled with horses tail hair that was collected after the horses were groomed.  Today I saw the female Oriole come and pull strands of long tail hair for her nest!!!!  When I had horses I never worried about them finding hair, it was everywhere, but with no horses on our land I had to ask my grand daughters to save me some from their horses.  I am delighted they will still be building their nests in our yard again this year!

It doesn't take much on a late spring day to make me happy!  It was indeed a Most Excellent Bird Day!  

  

Instant Gratification

foggy morning.... 

This morning we awoke to a foggy world, being able to only see as far as our barn yard is strange. It isn't too bothersome, as we could see and had hope of sunshine trying to peek through the clouds.  Sometimes a heavy fog like this cushions you from the real world.  Sounds are muffled, waking up takes longer and it is nice to be in this space of insulation and isolation, knowing full well it won't last too long.  

{{{I love when I've been sleeping in the tipi and wake up to a foggy morning.  You feel like you might still be dreaming.  Am I walking among the spirits of my ancestors, visiting them or maybe they are visiting me.  Do I hear their quiet messages of peace and feel their arms comfort from the surrounding clouds of fog.  A peace falls on our world when foggy mornings come.........}}}




My original idea for this blog for "Instant Gratification" had nothing to do with that last paragraph, but it just popped into my mind and I felt I had to leave it, now I will go back to my original concept for this blog........


"Instant Gratification" comes from having the second cataract surgery.  I have been living in a fog for sometime.  Being only able to see a certain distance, the birds I love to watch were a blur of color and movement, I was only able to see their movement and not details of each bird.  Oh, I could see well enough to move through my familiar world, but the outside world was more difficult. Driving and trying to read road signs, focus from one direction to another was slower.  I started not liking to drive at night, doing detail work on art was hard without some magnification.  Colors were without brightness.  Windows on our house seemed to always be dirty.  My wonderful husband was constantly turning lights off behind me.

spring flower bed.....

I knew after cataract surgery on my right eye, as soon as the patch came off the same day as surgery, my world had changed.  I didn't realize it was causing problems with judging distance, depth perception, focus and color and light.  UNTIL I had surgery and a lens put onto my eye.   Then two weeks later the left eye was also done!  Again the same day I have the 

local Bald Eagle Nest 2013

ability to focus totally on anything I choose to look at!!!!   Suddenly there was no more fog in my eyes.  I could see colors, distance and faces, insects, a turned leaf and birds again.....  It was
immediate!  Now that is truly
         INSTANT GRATIFICATION!

New Parts

May 2, 2013 a miracle, another new part for this girl.  I had a cataract removed and a new lens to correct my vision in my right eye. 

I hope to have the second replacement part done in the left eye in the next few weeks.  Then I should be able to go without glasses, except maybe for reading.  

After receiving two new knees in December of 2012, I am feeling a new lease on life.  

My wonderful hubby says maybe he should trade me in for a new model, I told him, "As long as they are still making parts to fix me, I'm not obsolete." 

Now I carry cards in my wallet about my replacement parts, one that shows I had knee replacement and who the doctor was.  And now cards to identify my eye lens corrections.  Weird, not much different than keeping a list of replacement parts of my car in the glove box.....  

New Parts are Wonderful!!!!