Mother Goose, Easter and the Bird Flu

 

This photo of mama goose was taken Sunday. She was doing a lot of stirring around, I hoped readying to bring out her babies. But we had torrential rain the day before so maybe she was just tidying her nest. 

Hopefully none of the goslings drowned.

And this photo of her was taken this morning after a cold night of below freezing temps. She was all huddled down keeping the little ones warm. I expect to see them out in the next day or so. The new base under the nest is much larger which should help getting the goslings out. 

We took down the bird feeders after the bird flu here in Iowa got so bad. I hadn't even thought of it helping spread the disease until the DNR posted about it. I really miss seeing all the different species arriving. A few still show up, look around and leave. I've seen a Brown Thrasher and this morning a little wren, but no Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting or Orioles yet, though that might be due to the winter weather staying around too long. I saw one weather prediction that we would have snow during the end of May!

We went to Polk City to Granddaughter Katrina's for an Easter egg hunt and lunch this year. I don't think the little ones even noticed how chilly it was. Jack, Maverick and Brynley are in this photo. It was so nice to see everyone - the first time since last July.

I was especially glad to meet my great-great-granddaughter, Catalina, for the first time. What a sweet, happy little doll she is. I also met her mom, Mariah, for the first time. She is grandson Brock's step-daughter. So technically Catalina is my step-great-great-granddaughter. 

Here I am with Lily and Brynley, the only two great granddaughters, so far - one of the reasons I'm happy to have a great-great granddaughter to add to the girls among eight great-grandsons.

When the egg hunt and lunch were over and everyone was sitting around visiting, I noticed Maverick quietly taking eggs out of the storage container they'd gone back into after the hunt.

I was intrigued by the way he was sorting them into colors. It made me wonder about how his mind was working and what he will grow up to be - something analytical I think.

How quickly it seems, that the grandchildren grew up. I was there at the hospital shortly after all four of them were born. These are Doug's four kids with me in the middle - Katrina, Zachary, Alyssa and Brock. I am one fortunate grandma, great-grandma, great-great-grandmother.

Perhaps my favorite photo of the day was this one of Great-grandpa Bud down on the floor playing Barbie dolls with Lily and Brynley. He was providing the story lines of the dolls which was causing much laughter from the girls.

He is also the one who got this photo of Katrina, Brynley and Catalina.

Katrina had been holding Catalina for quite awhile when Brynley said she wanted to hold the baby. When Katrina tried to take her back Brynley said to Catalina: "Who do you love more? Her or me?" Bud and I both got a big kick out that.

We knew rain and snow showers were in the forecast for the day but we figured by afternoon they would be over. Wrong. We drove most of the way home in near white-out conditions.

Ahh, Iowa in April. 

April, the Month of Violets and Poetry

Here we are in the last week of April, aka Poetry Month, and I haven't shared one single poem. Today is also the birthday of one of my favorite poets, Ted Kooser. So to celebrate the month and the day, here is one of his poems:

(A grassland bunting, the Dickcissel)

The Hidden Singer

The gods are less for their love of praise.
Above and below them all is a spirit that needs nothing
but its own wholeness, its health and ours.
It has made all things by dividing itself.
It will be whole again.
To its joy we come together --
the seer and the seen, the eater and the eaten,
the lover and the loved.
In our joining it knows itself. It is with us then,
not as the gods whose names crest in unearthly fire,
but as a little bird hidden in the leaves
who sings quietly and waits, and sings.

(Violets - one of my favorite flowers)

Books Read In March 2022

 I managed to read seven books this month.

The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleves is the second book of her Two Rivers series featuring Detective Matthew Venn. 

Try, Try Again is the fifth and final book of Les Lynam's Time Will Tell series. I am so happy for my brother's writing successes and proud of him. I'm not a big Sci-Fi fan, but I really did enjoy these books. Les is great at writing dialogue and bringing characters to life. I'm looking forward to what is next now that this series is complete.

Something to Hide is the 21st book in the Thomas Lynley series by Elizabeth George and the first since 2018. It was so good to read about Detective Inspector Lynley and DS Barbara Havers again.

Down the Hatch is an Agatha Raisin Mystery written for years by M.C. Beaton and now being authored by R. W. (Rod) Green after Beaton's death. I've followed this and other series of Beaton's for years. And while Green's Agatha Raisin book was okay, I'll probably not keep reading them.

A Game of Fear by Charles Todd is #24 in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series. Sadly the mother in this mother/son authoring team has also died but I will keep reading this series as the writing is still excellent.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles was a "can't put down", Great American Road adventure novel set in the 1950's. I loved Towles Rules of Civility when I read it ten years ago and I loved The Lincoln Highway, too. I just wish my library had all of Towles' books.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is by Anthony Doerr another writer I wish my library had all of his books. And even though I have really liked the books of his I had read, I almost didn't read this one after I got it home. It seemed too much of a stretch from the earliest recorded times to the distant future aboard an intergalactic spaceship. But I did read it and am glad I did. One review states "It is a convoluted love letter to books." It was probably my favorite read of the month.

A Fox Tale Via The Magic Window

 

When I cannot be out in nature, my magic window brings nature in to me - as it did Saturday morning when I noticed this fox trotting down the hillside opposite the pond.

I'm always on the lookout for something different to photograph and I only see a fox a few times a year. They usually come around in the spring when the geese return to the pond.

But the geese were already aware of this nearby predator and were loudly sounding their alarm.

It may look like the fox is just out for a morning stroll in this picture, but....

....this one seems to me to show the fox has a very determined agenda.

-- Breakfast!

I watched until it disappeared into the brushy area behind the dam, thinking that was it for the day.

Only to be surprised twenty minutes later when I saw it up in a tree! It looked like it was after something. By the time I got my camera it was on its way down.

I knew foxes could climb trees, but this was a first in my life sighting of one actually doing it.

Wow, nature is so entertaining.

This was the best photo I got as it jumped down to the ground and kept going on its way.

My foxy adventure was done for the day.

Or so I thought. An hour and ten minutes later I saw it again - across the pond running for the wooded area. 

It stopped and looked back toward the geese one last time before disappearing.

But there was still one last surprise in store - a second fox came along right after the first. It too stopped and looked back at the geese on the pond before following the first fox out of sight. 

Discouraged, I assume. 😖

It is really so enjoyable to look out the window and see the changing weather, sunsets and wildlife. It makes me wonder about all that I miss seeing when I'm in another room. 😞

"No matter how intently one studies the hundred little dramas of the woods and meadows, one can never learn all the salient facts about any of them." (Aldo Leopold)

Luck O' The Irish

I was surprised when the husband of one of my grandmother's cousins wrote in the 1984 Adams County History Book that the Means were Irish. I had never heard that, nor suspected it. Grandma Delphia had certainly never alluded that she had Irish roots. But, indeed, many years later, after joining Family Search, I was able to trace her roots back to Ireland.

I don't know if she had a knack for finding four leaved clovers when she was young, but as an adult living west of Iveyville, she knew just where to look in her yard to find the symbol of luck. 🍀 Which is why I thought of her when I read this poem.

And while many people confuse the four leaved clover as one of the symbols of Ireland instead of the three leaved clover, I am not one of them.

4 leaves = luck

3 leaves = Irish shamrock

Four-Leaf Clover By Ella Higginson (1861-1940)

I know a place where the sun is like gold,
     And the cherry blooms burst with snow,
And down underneath is the loveliest nook,
     Where the four-leaf clovers grow.

One leaf is for hope, and one is for faith,
     And one is for love, you know,
And God put another in for luck—
     If you search, you will find where they grow.

But you must have hope, and you must have faith,
      You must love and be strong—and so—
If you work, if you wait, you will find the place
     Where the four-leaf clovers grow.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Grandma. I wish we'd known enough about your heritage to celebrate while you were still here. 💚🍀

Fox, Fox, Goose?

 

I've kind of been on the lookout for a fox. Usually I see one when the geese have come back to the pond. This morning she showed up - looking very healthy, I thought. The geese raised the warning and stayed on the water until she left.

Had the fox snuck back, we might have had a real life version of Fox and Geese, a game I remember playing during winter at our one room country school.

First we had to create a large circle in the snow and divide it like a pie - or the spokes of a wagon wheel. The middle of the circle became home - a safe place for the geese. One person was chosen to be the fox; remaining players were the geese.

The geese had to stay on the path of the circle or spokes at all times. If they were being chased by the fox and made it to the center they were safe and the fox went after another goose. Once the fox caught a goose, those players switched roles and the new fox began the chase. 

It seems to me that when the fox caught a goose it yelled "Fox, fox, goose!" Or was that a different kind of activity? 😏

The game was a good way to run around staying warm while getting some fresh air during recess or lunch hour during the cold winter months. That fox and those geese reminded me of those days this morning. 😊

New Month, New Poet

Anna Kamienska (1920-1986) was a Polish poet and one I had not heard of. I recently read this poem of her's and really like it:

A Path In The Woods

I don’t trust the truth of memories
because what leaves us
departs forever
There’s only one current of this sacred river
but I still want to remain faithful
to my first astonishments
to recognize as wisdom the child’s wonder
and to carry in myself until the end a path
in the woods of my childhood
dappled with patches of sunlight
to search for it everywhere
in museums in the shade of churches
this path on which I ran unaware
a six-year old
toward my primary mysterious aloneness

Six-year-old me in the woods near my Grandmother Lynam's house (in background). A perfect place to run and play.