It’s another day in paradise.  Things have greened up like you wouldn’t believe.  How flora and fauna can go from dormant and colorless to bursting with life of every hue is a miracle most appreciated this year. In 5 days, I will have been retired a year.  Maybe it is because the days have not been cluttered with a pesky job and that it has been a getting reacquainted with daily observance of nature in all of its light and shadow but it affects me tenderly, this budding from quiet to activity.

I spent hours moving fallen branches and sticks, then mowing, yesterday.  The air, the smells, the sounds, the physicality of it, and oh the sights.  I’m including a video of the lilac bushes in this post.  I saw two toads, one 2″x2″ and one 3″x3″, scrambling to get out of the path of the mower.  I saw a very small garter snake slip into the pond and swim, which is a first time seeing for me.  I saw a great blue heron lift off and fly away.  A big, healthy rabbit bounded away into the marsh.  It’s been a long time since mowing out back because of the mower being in the shop for 6 weeks last spring and then the grass was too long to mow by then.  Some of the shyer critters got comfy with the place to themselves.  I noticed that the large patches of red and white clover are gone because the grass grew so tall, which is a pity.  I also found the deer paths where they travel through.  I mowed down many blackberry brambles and none caught me on their way down.  I mowed around several bigger limbs.  Those need to get moved to the brush pile.  The three young red pines are alive and well but one of them has had some die-off near the middle of it.

OK, time to go get ready to get to GR for volunteering at the cat shelter.  The volunteers get ongoing email updates, which are always a mixed bag.  Good news are the adoptions, especially cats that have been there for years.  Also, when a cat has been cleared of health issues or diseases or injuries picked up on the streets (all of the cats at the shelter are street cats, not owner abandonments.)  Bad news is just the opposite.  An adoptee gets returned because they couldn’t mesh with the household, or when an injury or disease turns debilitating or fatal.

Jim and SLS-ers, I am still binging on S9 of Shameless — and loving it!  I have missed The Gallaghers so much! — and so did my coloring this morning, so it put me behind on SLS.  Will listen later tonight.

Hoping you all enjoy your Sunday.