TheBanyanTree: Reliability

[Margaret R. Kramer]

The clouds were low last night.  As we were driving to the grocery store, we
noticed flashlights kept poking out those low flying clouds.  The flashlight
beams would shine a long flickering light, moving from right to left,
looking for something, obviously something very small. And then the light
would stop, hang in the air for a moment, and then the clouds would spit it
out.  And we saw that the flashlights were only the flickering lights from
the airplanes dropping through the clouds on their way to the airport.

Our Christmas snow has melted, or most of it anyway.  We still have some
hard icy snow piles along the roads and driveways, but it’s useless snow.
It’s not pretty or good to slide on.  It might as well just melt, too.  We
were very cold earlier this week, but it’s warmed up and perhaps, if we’re
very lucky and play our cards right, we might get a dusting of snow on
Sunday night.

If the snow isn’t very reliable, then at least the cardinals are.  I can
always count on them being at the feeders at dusk and dawn.  As the day’s
light is fading away, I love looking for the bright red feathers of the male
and the faded red of the female.  I love seeing their peaked feathers
forming their unique shadows as the winter night edges out the day.

If it’s a warm (relatively warm for winter) evening, then a flock of
mourning doves will perch in the trees around our house and drop down to the
ground when they feel it’s safe to eat the seed that sloppier birds have
left under the feeders.

I filled the feeders last Saturday when the temps were plunging below zero
and the deer didn’t come to suck the seed out and leave them empty like they
usually do.  They didn’t come on Sunday or Monday.  The feeders stayed full
and the birds were able to get their share to keep warm.  The temperatures
began to moderate and at 3:00 am on Thursday morning, I heard Saydi start
barking.  I got up and peaked through the blinds, and sure enough, two large
does were in my backyard sucking out the birdseed.  I turned on the yard
light and they jogged away.  It’s funny how Saydi’s barking doesn’t faze
them a bit, but the yard light must seem like a ghost appearing out of
nowhere to them and they take off like furry rockets.

I think the deer head down the bluffs to the river when it gets cold.  The
river water doesn’t freeze no matter how cold it gets, plus there is more
forest land to keep them warm.  When it warms up, then they must head back
up the bluffs again to my good old reliable bird feeders.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at earthlink.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the
other.
~Author Unknown