Here's a quote that made me pause on a quiet January morning and think:
"There is a privacy about winter which no other season gives you ... Only in winter ... can you have long, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." Ruth Stout
Oh, what a nice quote. And on some days, it kind of applies to Scott and me, being empty nesters as we are. "Long, quiet stretches." "Belonging to yourself." But then, as I sat on the sofa in the family room copying the quote so I could blog it, I looked outside and realized that we're never alone. We have this dang WILDLIFE REFUGE right outside our back windows. We have deer that visit us almost daily. The one in the front is Buddy - he practically lives here. The others come and go along with some four-point and six-point bucks. (Yes, really.) They hang out under the bushes, lie under the trampoline, and walk to Bristol Road via their well-worn path on the north side of our house. They love us. We pound on the windows and yell and they just look and look. They can't get enough of us. They like the crab apples on the ground beneath the crab apple tree. They like the quiet and protected space behind our house. They like being part of our zoo.
And then, there are the birds. One day there were thousands of birds. It's not always that bird crazy. But that day, (you can see them in the crab apple tree below) there were so many birds that I almost got frightened. There are always a few noisy magpies and big black crows and sometimes little flocks of sparrows.The birds and the deer are fun to watch. They seem to tolerate each other quite well.
There's also Freddie the pheasant. He hangs out and lets us know he's there with his distinctive call. Sometimes we see his mate - she stays in the shadows beneath the trees, and since she's not colorful, we miss her most of the time. A variety of cats visit our yard, and I don't even want to know what else. I'm not gonna pretend that I like this mini zoo - I'm not an animal lover and mostly stress about the droppings EVERYWHERE. But Scott gets a kick out of them and the grandkids love to watch their every move.
