Best and highest use

Sometimes something is sooo obvious that I don't even notice it. Ever since we bought "The Property" I've fussed off and on about what we should "do" with it. We live in the country but we don't have horses, goats, sheep or even chickens. Once upon a time we helped raise a small flock of ducks from eggs as a school science project. They mysteriously and suspiciously disappeared from what is now the dog run one afternoon when we weren't around. Whether the predators were two or four legged, or the quackers simply escaped, was never determined. The idea of bee hives is, perhaps permanently, on hold. This past week, it finally occurred to me that what we are doing with the property is providing habitat for song birds, dragonflies, native plants, turkeys, deer, snakes, turtles, frogs and heaven only knows what else. The "use" we get from that is the pleasure of watching things come, grow, go and generally do their own thing. The world would no doubt be in better shape if humans limited their "improvements" to real property. I'll try to keep that in mind the next time I start worrying about whether what we've done is the "best and highest use." This isn't just real estate. It's a home we're sharing with a number of neighbors and distant relations.

"the neighborhood in Spring"

Photo by J. Harrington

bear track in the back yard sand

Photo by J. Harrington

goldfinches and scarlet tanager under feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

Earlier today I wrote the following poem. It seems to fit the blog theme, or, perhaps, established it.

Listen to the Silence
Hear here
What is not there
Then Dawn drops
Birdsong rises
Attend the moment

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Please be kind to each other while you can.

Success for the birds

I finally managed to get some pictures of a female oriole at the backyard deck feeder. The male hasn't yet been as cooperative. Hummingbirds, both male and female, are using it too. So far, no one is feasting on the dehydrated meal worms I have out front. It may be time to move them out back again and take our chances with the squirrels. It's more important, I've read, that the mealworms be available after any eggs have hatched.

female oriole at feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

hummingbird at oriole feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

Fifty-Fifty

By Patricia Clark 

You can have the grackle whistling blackly 

        from the feeder as it tosses seed,

if I can have the red-tailed hawk perched

        imperious as an eagle on the high branch.

You can have the brown shed, the field mice

        hiding under the mower, the wasp’s nest on the door,

if I can have the house of the dead oak,

        its hollowed center and feather-lined cave.

You can have the deck at midnight, the possum

        vacuuming the yard in its white prowl,

if I can have the yard of wild dreaming, pesky

        raccoons, and the roaming, occasional bear.

You can have the whole house, window to window,

        roof to soffits to hardwood floors,

if I can have the screened porch at dawn, 

        the Milky Way, any comets in our yard.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.