Noticing ups and downs and arounds

So far today we've noticed three things that seem unusual, although it may just be that what we've seen is normal and we simply haven't noticed them before.

this is where we're used to seeing blue jays

Photo by J. Harrington

First, a blue jay has been trying to feed at the suet feeder. Usually we seem them feeding on the ground under the sunflower seed feeders, especially the one in front of the house. The folks at Cornell's all about birds tell us that blue jays are omnivores, so that would include suet. The fact that we've only seen them feeding n the ground or at a tray feeder before is what threw us off.

Second, we briefly got to watch a red squirrel about half the size of a gray squirrel chase the gray out of the red squirrel's "territory?" It reminded us of some of the scenes from the old silent movies with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Keystone Cops, or Laurel and Hardy. In what may or may not be a related matter, one or more critters has eaten the faces our of our jack-o'lanterns. We suspect small rodents (red squirrel?) since there's been no gnawing on the jack-o'lantern tops or on the uncarved pumpkins, as has happened when the local deer herd stops by for a snack.

only those at the top remain

Photo by J. Harrington

Third, many of the trees in our aspen patch have lost their leaves except those near the very top. We've no idea if this is or isn't normal but we don't remember noticing such a pattern before. That may be attributable to prior year's attention failure or a memory failure or both.

That's been the height of excitement around here today and we won't mind at all if it stays that way. A quiet period before Thanksgiving  and again before Christmas is a pleasant variant on holiday excitement. In a comparable vein, today's warmer weather might not have felt as nice if we hadn't had an unseasonable cold snap already.

Today is also "Give to the Max Day" in Minnesota. Our email inbox is full of reminders, as is our Twitter timeline. This year we're not going to play. We've been making some sustaining donations all year to a couple of the non-profits we support, and responded to a number of other pleas, including memberships and special projects, from other non-profits, mostly environmental. We got annoyed last year by the "increase donation to cover processing fees" and the fact that the donation system occasionally got overloaded. This year our giving will be more mindful and intentional and done some other day. Our rationale is described in this paragraph and the one preceding. We're grateful we're able to make the donations we do.

When Giving Is All We Have 

Alberto Ríos, 1952

                                              One river gives
                                              Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it—

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.

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