Poem of the Week: Fireflies in the Garden

Fireflies in the Garden

By Robert Frost

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,

And here on earth come emulating flies,

That though they never equal stars in size,

(And they were never really stars at heart)

Achieve at times a very star-like start.

Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

HT: Poetry Foundation

Roland's Family

 I had mentioned that "our" crow, Roland, was nesting in the tree behind our house.

He's gotten more comfortable with us as we've continued to be friendly (with choice bits of food). We're both happy 6-10 feet away from each other.

He frequently hangs out in our carport, perching on garden tools and peering in the windows at those interesting humans who might have a bit of egg leftover from breakfast.




We've also started seeing his mate, whom we've named Corva.

She's still much more skittish (and sleek) than Roland, but she's gradually warming to us.

But today marked a new chapter: fledglings!

Or maybe just fledgling.  This one, whom we've named Edgar, has been hanging out on a roll of paper towels in the carport for the last couple of hours.

He's adorably scruffy looking!

We've put out a bit of chicken scraps for him, but he seems uninterested.

He actually lets us get extremely close (Mumpy walked right next to him and didn't notice until he flapped at her), but we are staying away to let his parents take care of him.

I suspect they will scoop up the chicken and feed it to him, but right now he isn't calling to them and seems happy to sit and wait.

We are secretly hoping there is a second fledgling to call Annabelle.  We have a long time blog reader with that name, who will (I think) be happy to have a baby crow named in her honor.

UPDATE: We saw the fledglings flying with their parents! There seem to be four of them, so we are naming them Edgar, Allen, Annabelle, and Lee.  Unless we figure out a way to distinguish them, I suspect we'll call them all Edgar...

Father's Day Poem

Pa’s Soft Spot

By D. A. Ellsworth

“All folks hev some soft spot,”

      Ma uster say,

“Somethin’ or ’nother

      Comes out some day

Comes out ’fore they know it,

      Jest like ez not.”

’N’en us kids’d say, “Ma,

      What’s your sof’ spot?”

An’ we’d keep a plaguin’,

      Till ma’d say,

“I wish ’at you youngins

      ’D run away!

Ask your pa’ bout his’n

      An’, like ez not,

He’ll tell you willin’ly

      What’s his sof’ spot.”

’N’en we’d ’gree to ask him

      That very day;

When his train’d whistle

      Why right away,

We’d jest skedaddle

      Clean ’cross the lot,

To be first to ask pa

      What’s his sof’ spot.

Pa, he’d say, “My sof’ spot?

      Never hes none!”

Wouldn’t tell us neither,

      But jest make fun;

Then he’d tell his brakeman,

      He’d says “Great lot,

Think you’re goin’ to tell ’em

      What’s your sof’ spot!”

’N’en we’d all go home,

      An’ after ’while

Pa’d tell ma ’bout it,

      An’ ma she’d smile;

We’d ’gin agin a guessin’,

      Till pa’d say, “Trot!

Time you kids wuz dreamin’

      In some sof’ spot.”

An’ pa’d never tell us,

      When he wuz in;

Ev’ry trip he come home

      We’d ’gin agin;

Onct George sez when prayin’,

      He prayed a lot,

“Please God, wisht you’d tell us

      What’s pa’s sof’ spot!”

One day the opurat’r

      Sent word by Bert

There hed bin a washout,

      An’ pa wuz hurt;

Engineer wuz hurt, too,

      An’ both might die;

Pa wanted to see us

      To say good-by.

We wuz all so still

      When we went in;

They wuz holdin’ pa up,

      A fannin’ him;

An’ pa sez “I may die

      Jest like ez not,

Tell the children I sed

      They’s my sof’ spot!”

But our pa didn’t die,

      He jist got well;

We wuz all so happy,

      Couldn’t ’gin to tell!

’Cause we all loved our pa,

      A great big lot,

I guess God saw we wuz

      Pa’s sof’ spot!

HT: Poetry Foundation

Poem of the Week: An Old Road

An Old Road

By Edwin Markham

A host of poppies, a flight of swallows;   

A flurry of rain, and a wind that follows   

Shepherds the leaves in the sheltered hollows

   For the forest is shaken and thinned.

Over my head are the firs for rafter;

The crows blow south, and my heart goes after;

I kiss my hands to the world with laughter—

   Is it Aidenn or mystical Ind?

Oh, the whirl of the fields in the windy weather!

How the barley breaks and blows together!   

Oh, glad is the free bird afloat on the heather—

   Oh, the whole world is glad of the wind!

HT: Poetry Foundation

Remembering the Poor

We haven't been going out much lately, but we are still occasionally running into people who are down on their luck and asking for help.

I know there is some debate about giving people money directly.  I do try to give money, but I often am not carrying cash.

I try to always have a bag of helpful things to give them.  I make 6 bags, one for each car and a couple of extras, so that as soon as we give one away, I can replace it.

This is what the summer bags look like this year: a water bottle, socks, tissues, toothbrush and toothpaste,  wet wipes, deodorant, bandaids, dental floss (which has multiple uses), wet wipes, an energy bar, a piece of candy, a cloth mask, and a pair of gloves.

Wordless Wednesday: Land Hiking

Gifts of the Holy Spirit Poster

Well, Choclo's Confirmation is postponed due to the pandemic, and who knows when it will be rescheduled.  But it will happen, and we are still preparing. 

The Gifts and Fruits of the Spirit are easy to turn into lists to be memorized, but they can then all run together without a clear idea of what is a gift (special grace from the Holy Spirit), and what is a fruit (a sign that the Holy Spirit is acting in your life, a sign that you are using the gifts).

Putting them in separate posters  and uncovering one at a time lets us spend a few days with each gift or fruit, and hopefully will help him understand them at a deeper level.

As you can see, he "opened" all the Gifts of the Spirit, and we've moved on to "picking" the Fruits of the Spirit.  The Gifts poster has the Holy Spirit actively giving the gifts, and the Fruits poster has Him resting in the tree (representing the soul). 

As Choclo "picks" a random fruit, it uncovers a gift and we discuss what it looks like when a person is showing that fruit.

iNaturalist

Eastern click beetle

Have you run across iNaturalist? 

It's a free app that lets you upload photos of living things with a function that helps you identify whatever it is. 

Fowler's toad

It then connects to a community of experts that verify or correct the identification. 

They do birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, plants, and insects very well, and fungi, crustaceans, and protists, well, better than I could. 

This may have more to do with my photography and the relative lack of experts, of course!

Blue eyed grass

Eastern towhee

Common crayfish

For someone like me who is always wondering "What is that thing?", it's brilliant!

Did I mention you can also look at what other people are identifying around the world?!

Poem of the Week: Knee Deep in June

Knee Deep in June

Tell you what I like the best --
'Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strawberries melts
On the vine, -- some afternoon
Like to jes' git out and rest,
And not work at nothin' else!

Orchard's where I'd ruther be --
Needn't fence it in fer me! --
Jes' the whole sky overhead,
And the whole airth underneath --
Sort o' so's a man kin breathe
Like he ort, and kind o' has
Elbow-room to keerlessly
Sprawl out len'thways on the grass
Where the shadders thick and soft
As the kivvers on the bed
Mother fixes in the loft
Allus, when they's company!


By James Whitcomb Riley
HT and the rest of the poem at Poem Hunter

Happy Graduation, Leena!

 Our town did a lovely parade to celebrate all the kids who were graduating during the pandemic.

The kids stood at the correct social distance (in a parking lot) while cars paraded past honking and shouting good wishes.

We live in a small town surrounded by sprawling cities (near Washington DC), and I am occasionally reminded how delightfully "small town" it really is.

This parade is definitely part of that, plus the fact that parade was led by the town fire truck and  ambulance, and concluded by our police car.  

And, after a remarkably short ceremony, Leena is officially a high school graduate!

Way to go Leena!  Four down, two to go!

Happy Birthday, Choclo!

 Choclo is 15!

He had a great quarantine birthday, including this great ice cream cake.

We Face Timed his grandfather for present opening, and, of course, the other nine of us were all there to help him celebrate in person!





15 Great Things About Choclo

1. He is an admin on the Fire and Ice (Minecraft Betweenlands) wiki!
2. He is reading Harry Potter to Oob, just because they like his rendition.
3. He loves to create interesting games.
3. He has a great sense of humor.
4. He loves babies.
5. He makes great paper airplanes.
6. He knows a lot about sharks.
6. He knows even more about penguins!
7. He can build pretty much anything out of Legos.
8. He has lots of great story ideas.
8. He's a second class Boy Scout.
9. He's an angelic altar server!
9. He's a Duck fan.
11. He really likes garlic and hot sauce.
11. He's into role playing games.
12. He's a sweet and loving brother and son.
13. He likes to play games with "smash" in the title, and he's a good sport
13. He cooks amazing soups.
14. He has a fantastic imagination.
14. He loves listening to music and drawing.
15. His artwork is amazing!
15. He's interested in everything!

Wordless Wednesday: Water Hike

Roland

This is Roland.

He's a very handsome fish crow, one of a pair that is nesting in the tree behind our house.

I had recently read an article that crows, besides being very intelligent, have very long memories that they hand on to other crows.

The researcher discovered this the hard way.  Five years after he had trapped, banded, and released crows for one study, he returned to an area a few miles away.

 All the crows hated him.  Not other humans, him specifically, and none of them were crows that he had personally insulted by banding them.



It occurred to me that this probably worked in reverse, so I decided to try to "tame" Roland.

Now, I don't want to tame him in the sense that he'll come perch on my arm when I call!

  I have Mike for that.


I just thought it would be neat to have a crow that I was friendly with.

This is what I did:  whenever I saw Roland hanging about, I made eye contact, then went in and got a bit of food (usually out of the trash).

I came out, made eye contact again, and then set the treat on the driveway.  Then I went back in the house and stood by the window where he could see me watching him.

After a week, I watched from outside at a respectful distance.

It's only been two weeks, but three delightful things happened.

Roland has started softly calling to me when I'm outside to let me know he's there.

He also followed me on a walk through the nearby woods.


And Roland brought his mate to meet me.  She was totally not interested and flew away as if to say, "Roland!  You and your weird hobbies!  Taming a human is crazy!"

If you try this, crows are omnivores, but remember never to feed a bird chocolate or avocado.