NEST LINER
It’s amazing what I sometimes see, despite the fact that I now have to wear glasses and I might be in the dark sitting on the toilet. I woke up at 4 a.m. (on purpose, I have to catch an early flight) and groggily headed downstairs to pee. Slumped on the throne, my sleepy eye caught a tiny shape to the left of my foot on the rug. It was a wood frog. Soooo tiny, but symmetrical and somehow familiar. This is the time of year they come into the house and you find them in the weirdest places. Once I found one on top of the bottlecap of the soda I was about to open. Yes, they are cute as the dickens, and our beloved Vermont harbinger of spring. (Why do I hate the word “harbinger”?)
We seemed to get an early spring overnight with unusually high temperatures. We are usually getting a final snowstorm about now. Massive piles of accumulated snow from our raging winter were gone in three days, revealing a perfectly smashed landscape of pressed brown grass. Some green things had already started; the hellebores, some snowdrops, daffodils and the tulips. Sadly (but not sadly), I will miss them all as I go on a five-week tour, starting today. That's the rub.
The other day I caught myself wandering around the yard looking at the tiny ends of the trees to see if they were ready to come back. Sure enough, there were the tiniest little deer hoof shapes on the very tips of the branches and I could see them without my glasses thanks to the sun. I was willing them to be there. I’m sad I will miss the first initial green sheen varieties of the trees. Especially the birch. What a color! It is happiness. The juncos and the bluebirds are back. Armies of robins. And out in The Lung there is the racket of woodpeckers again. I missed them and their cartoon foley artist sounds.
As I said in my last post, my horses Norm and Boon are shedding like crazy. Some birds will be very lucky to line their nests with the winter gold. I love that. What do humans give to springtime? I’m still on the shedding theme. Haha! Does what we shed feed something else or line a nest?
Norm looking like a Rocky Mountain Goat
I love to send my horses hair out to different locations on my farm. I also put the tail hair that I take out of my comb. I have been so fortunate to find small nests woven out of this tail hair! They are incredible works of art and now remembrance of the horses that have crossed the rainbow bridge. I put them in my Christmas tree with my bird ornaments! Natures treasures.
When I brush my hair in the springtime, I take it outside and leave it on the ground for the birds. I like to see how they use it to build their nests.