This morning as I walked the narrow path through the meadow
on my way to work, I noticed, as if for the first time, the exuberant, delicate
beauty of the grasses, especially their seed laden heads. As I stood still and
looked, it was as if my world opened up to a new and more wonderful reality.
The spotted towhee is an amusing and attractive bird. A pair
of them are nesting somewhere under or close to my trailer. They are noisy and
cheerful. Sometimes they tap on the windows as if they want to come in. And
they love my truck! They perch on the driver side window “ledge” and admire
themselves in the rear view mirror. And shit on my door!
Barn swallows are amazing! Their exhilarating flight, their handsome
colours and, their tenacious nest building habits… I am learning by observation
how they collect beakfulls of mud and deposit it on their chosen nest location.
As the mud dries, they add more until they have formed a nest. Last year they
chose to build on the main beam across our living room. This year they have picked
the wood trim right over our main entrance door! This has been a battle ground
for the past few days. Them, pasting bits of mud on the wood trim. Me, knocking
it off. Yesterday the pair of them were perched close to the door and I had a
serious chat with them about how this location did not work for me. Today, they
seem to have decided to find a new location.
Mike, the carpenter who has basically built our house, with a bit of assistance from me, says he has been thinking about how to install the glass roof over the rear entry way for more than a year. Today, we finally got it installed and it all went very smoothly. All that's left to do is install some kind of a gutter to catch the rain and steer it into the main roof gutter to the left of the glass section.
