Tuesday, April 28, 2015

One swallow does not make a spring

earlier in the day… Sunshine, birdsong and swallows swooping over the barn convinced me that eventually summer will get here. I'm on the back deck without a sweater. Grace is beside me and she looks happy. Today was the first day that I saw the swallows back, surely it is the same pair as last  year as they have the barn already sussed out. I can't turn my head without seeing a robin (one has built a nest not more than 10' away from me.  The grass has suddenly turned green and the buds on the trees are straining to reach the sun.

Another sign that winter is over - taxes are done and filed.

We seem to be in the centre of a training grid for helicopters. The whop whop whop drowns out music - we wonder where they are going and what they are looking for as they buzz our house. At first I though it was the ORNGE choppers which air lift for the hospitals, but I've caught sight of it a few times and it is definitely white and not orange. The Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls are not nearby tourist destinations. My one and only chopper flight was over Niagara Falls - I sat in the front seat where the windshield curled like a bubble down to my toes. The world was at my feet and I was thrilled. This was the way to fly! So I guess if the helicopter people are out joyriding, I don't really blame them!

I wonder if I need sunscreen? I'd better put my tablet in the shade, the keyboard is starting to fry my fingers.

The quote is from one of my favourite books: The Secret Garden, and while the British robin is different from North American ones, ours also like to show off by strutting around with their red breasts puffed out.

The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off - and they are nearly always doing it. ~Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

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