Translate

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

New Beginnings

I love the changing seasons. I don't think I could thrive somewhere that didn't have distinct seasons. Sometimes our seasons get mixed up but that's okay too since it's change. If it weren't for the farmers and the losses they suffer when a blast of cold wipes out a crop, I would even like the way we had an early spring, briefly back to winter and now back to spring. I feel terrible for the farmers in NC and SC whose crops were damaged this year. If I could take that out of the equation I would love the way we've flipped back and forth between seasons because I like change. At this point spring is here to stay and then summer. I wouldn't mind a shorter summer but you never know. Sometimes we do get some breaks even in the hottest months. One of my favorite aspects of this time of year is the chatter which ebbs and flows depending on the time of day. I like to pretend that certain sounds are the babies screaming for their early breakfast and the parents replying, just a minute. I wish I was better at recognizing the birds different calls. To confuse matters, there are the mockingbirds who mix it up so much, sometimes I think they are a cat in distress. When I'm at the nearby lake, I try to play the same game with the waterfowl. I hear parents screaming, come back, you're not ready to go out on your own. It's no wonder that children's literature often gives animal human characteristics. There is this whole world of instinct, survival, loss that we can often see played out without knowing that much about it unless we are scientists who study animal behavior. I guess it's always easy to romanticize what we don't experience ourselves. Even the weather changes which I enjoy often have a rough impact on wildlife. The birds get into nesting mode and early spring makes their lives easy then bam, a hard freeze makes it all a bit harder.

No comments: