I have been working on a short Slideshow today. I have a client who wanted to look over a selection of my photos so she can place an order. I really couldn’t find any reason not to share it here as well. 🙂
The Feature image was taken on the way to my day job and this spot is part of my daily life.
For those who are looking forward to the next installment of The Silent Road I should have it ready in the next few days.
A couple of days ago I was parking the truck and suddenly had the strange feeling that I was being watched. I glanced around and noticed someone peeking out from behind a clump of leaves. I’m not sure what I was doing that was so interesting but I got amused by the “less than expert camouflage”. I suppose in squirrel world nobody can see you as long as you believe with all your heart that you’re invisible.
Living close to nature means interesting neighbors. They are generally good natured and tend to keep to themselves. Oh sure there’s the occasional dispute over who owns the garden but for the most part they don’t bother anyone. Being the outgoing personality that I am, I decided to walk over and check on her after a long hard winter. However, she didn’t seem to be happy that I interrupted her breakfast. In fact, she looked downright stressed that I was there. “Hello, how’s it going?” I spoke in a nice soft tone. She refused to answer. Once more I tried to start a pleasant conversation. “I see you made it through the winter ok.” Can you believe that she just stomped her foot and snorted off? How rude was that? But in her defense I was there unannounced and she probably hadn’t had her morning coffee 😉
The shadow sweeps silently across the landscape and the forest freezes. The songbirds have stopped singing and the squirrels hug the trees tightly as they try their best to look like a piece of bark. Only the humans seem oblivious to the predator soaring in the sky above. He is a master of the sky. He flies higher and faster than anything living in the area. The wind speaks his name. It’s an ancestral call that he cannot resist. He dives from his perch in the tallest tree and skims the Treetops as he answers. His heart throbs with excitement as he reaches his speed and meets the wind. As he pulls upward into the flow his wings beat the air into submission with a wild thunder. Gravity fails to bind him as he achieves the apex and locks his wings. It’s time to soar. As he dances with the breeze something stirs deep within his core being. It is the quickening in his spirit. He is at one with the phoenix, aileron and the roc. He is king of the sky.
I would follow you anywhere.
You are my whole world.
It hurts when you are not in sight.
You are the other half of me.
– Lloyd A Dempsey II
Living outside of office at my day job is a pair of mated Cardinals. (Cardinalis cardinalis) . Their marriage is strongly based on commitment. Cardinals mate for life and engage in courtship on a regular basis. Every year before nesting the male (bright red) brings food to the female and feeds her beak to beak. She is completely devoted to him. As he patrols his territory she never seems to be more than fifty feet away. If he leaves her sight she chirps sharply and he answers. The males have a distinct song. The song is a combination of loud high pitched tweets followed by several low pitched ones. The males fiercely defend their territory. They are small birds but what they lack in size they make up for in tenacity and vigilance. They’re known to orchestrate Blind Side surprise attacks on cats, dogs and people. I’ve watched the male pictured here simultaneously attack and chase away two crows that ventured too close to his nesting spouse. (Hey, it’s a guy thing. We’re not fulfilled unless we’re being protectors) Even though they seem to be antisocial jerks at times I have been able to pet one. He had defended his territory against his own reflection in a window and was lying on the ground unconscious. I thought it was dead but when I knelt down to check it out he sprung up and pecked my finger. After a few minutes he decided that I wasn’t such a bad guy after all and allowed me check him for injuries. Don’t worry about his mate rejecting him. That’s an old wives tale. They were still together for years afterwards.
I recently commented on another blog that marriage was about commitment and that true love grows out of that commitment. I can think of no better example than the Northern Cardinal.
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