a little hitchhiker

 We got in the car this morning, heading down the road to go to Mass, and a little sparrow landed on the outside of the passenger side, where the window comes out. I rolled it up so he couldn't come in - he stayed there while we went down the street. We pulled into a gas station and my brother got out, went round to my side, and the bird was still there. I was just going to say he'd need to take the little one off the car, when he flew into some bushes. He was young and perhaps didn't know what was going on. 

Reading Watership Down makes me think (even more than usual!) about how our lives impact the natural world around us, since so much of how we live has little to do with nature. 

"Love the animals. God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
Don't trouble it, don't harass them, don't deprive them of their happiness,
don't work against God's intent."

- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky*

*Can you believe this quote from The Brothers was the epigraph to chapter 22 in Watership Down? A connection between two books, both of which I am currently reading. 

but the mockingbird sings through it all

 It was ninety-eight degrees on Tuesday; yesterday was supposed to be slightly cooler, with possible storms in the evening. I went to work and noticed it was looking like something was brewing outside - it was yellowish out there, but the weather report said nothing. It was the patrons who told me it was from the Canadian fires. I tell you, it was so bad, my eyes were stinging all day and everything outside looked unnatural, like another planet. 

Today, I woke up with a headache that nothing would touch. I went out briefly in the morning and it got a little worse. It only started to improve when I put on the a/c. There was still haze today and will be tomorrow, but at least it doesn't look weird. It's been a strange summer, with high heat and this.... 

But I think I'm caught up on my sleep! - I took about four naps, and did only the minimum of housework. 

I wonder how the creatures felt - do their eyes burn? But I will say this - in the height of summer, on the hottest days of July, you can't step outside without hearing a mockingbird singing somewhere, nearby or in the distance, but if you know their sound, you will hear them. 

little neighbors

 I went to Mass this morning in the city. The cathedral choir sang "If Ye Love Me" by Thomas Tallis. Just beautiful. 

This morning I opened the kitchen window - maybe it was seven? From the corner of my eye I saw something run into the drain pipe. I thought it was a bird, and waited for it to come out, but it didn't. I don't know why I thought of a bird - why would a bird go into a pipe? Anyway, I came back soon after, and there was a chipmunk.

Can you tell that he's sitting up inside the cracked opening of the pipe, his little skeletal hands holding the edge? These photos were all taken through the screen, by the way. That "stuff'" near him is debris that always seems near the opening. 

He would sit very still, no movement; if I made a noise or if he saw me, he'd scoot back inside the pipe. But not for long. A few times he came out to forage.

For a short while; he was being very cautious. When I left to go to church, Daisy was laying in the windowsill, watching him, tail flicking. And he seemed to be watching her, also.

It really seemed that he was looking up at her. So, contrary to what we usually do, I left the window open even thought I was going out. This was about ten fifteen. I was home at quarter to one, and he was still there!  But after the shadows lengthened, I noticed he was gone. Not a good place to live full-time, but we'll see if he comes back another morning.

Meanwhile, last weekend I finally saw a catbird. I didn't hear anything the first day, but surely the trip must be exhausting. It wasn't long before I heard their warbling. They always hang out in the forsythia outside my window, but I've never seen a nest in there, so I'm not sure what they're doing, but they always come back. How amazing the bird journeys are! These apparently fly down to Florida or Cuba.

If ye love me,
keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father,
And he shall give you another comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever:
Even the spirit of truth.

John 14: 15-18

with the light burning at the back of my eyes

 We've had a lot of windy days lately, and today was one of them, but bright blue and clear. The temperatures are up and down, like they always are in spring. Too chilly for window-washing.

I have a piece of fabric for the dress bodice lining, but it's been put aside for a blouse I'm working on. What I would really like is to make something, to finish it! To wear it! 

Daisy turned four the other day, and I totally didn't notice it. No worries, neither did she. 

I'm re-reading Sarah Clarkson's Reclaiming Quiet:

"I hungered for quiet, not just the cessation of noise but that deep inward hush in which the kindness of God is the light burning at the back of our eyes so that we look upon the world in the brightness of his companionship."

resisting the machine

Spring is definitely in the air! It's warmer, but not terribly; but the birds are singing, the daylight lasts longer, the paths my brother plowed for the rabbits are showing grass! Everything feels like it's coming alive. Under the surface, of course, except for the birds - they're the ones who show it.

I am almost finished reading Defending Middle Earth by Patrick Curry. I picked it up when it was dropped off at the library. I do not exaggerate when I say that not a day goes by when someone does not drop off books at their local library - at least, I assume it happens everywhere; it sure does where I work! And of course I have to look through them. 

Anyway, Mr. Curry defends the Lord of the Rings stories, and their focus on the simple enjoyments of home, community and nature. He tries to explain the popularity from different angles. I feel I should read it again, so I put a note in it to that effect. Anyway -

"Why can Tolkien's 'mythology' be described as universal? I have already shown that it embodies an attack on unchecked modernity in all its worst aspects, and presents a world of community, nature and spiritual values that successfully, albeit barely, struggles to survive such destruction. That world seems to be a different one, with strange people and places; yet at the same time, it is also recognizably ours. And because the processes of rampant modernization - economic, political, cultural - are now truly global, the potential appeal and relevance of Tolkien's attack and alternative are also effectively universal. This is a social and historical development; there is nothing necessarily mystical about it. 

But his universality comes about in another way, too. For the very terms of his critique are mythic; after all, that is ultimately the most (and perhaps even only) effective way to counter a worldview which is rigidly rationalistic and scientistic. And there is literally nowhere in the world without some native tradition of a mythical way of relating to the world in which it is alive and saturated with spiritual meaning - enchanted, in a word. Those traditions may be deeply buried, but - like the gods they embody - they can still be revived by recognition."

This book was published in 1997, and even back then he was speaking of "re-enchantment". There's a lot of talk about this: that, in a nutshell, we have lost the ability to take true delight in the world, and we need to re-enchant our way of seeing things, like they did in the Middle Ages. 

There is an article in Plough by Paul Kingsnorth about this very thing, speaking about his new book, Against the Machine: "Its modus operandi is the abolition of all borders, boundaries, categories, essences, and truths: the uprooting of all previous ways of living in the name of pure individualism and perfect subjectivity. Its endgame is the replacement of nature with technology, in order to facilitate total control over a totally human world."

According to Patrick Curry, the popularity of the Tolkien books shows that we really don't want a world like that, whether we realize it in this way or not. 

Brothers and sisters: We speak a wisdom to those who are mature, not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather, we speak God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew; for, if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,,,, For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.

 -  1 Corinthians 2:6-10 

crow on the shed

keeping warm

 Snow was predicted last night and all day today, and by morning light, everything looked fresh. Then around eight, visibility dropped and the wind was blowing it all around - I wondered if they'd be wrong again about the amounts, but it must have been a squall; it settled back into a light snow and ended mid-afternoon. But it's cold, and windy.

We throw out timothy hay, cracked corn, carrots, peanuts. The mourning doves seemed to like the corn this afternoon. 

I'd bought two large plastic bins for organizing the Christmas things, and today I can say it's done - everything is sensibly arranged in the bins and a couple of shoe boxes. Much better than it was, and I feel light as a feather! I'm surprised at how relieved I feel to have that done. By using the bins, I got a lot out of the closet, consolidated a few smaller boxes, and things that I like to group together are stored together - like it should have been all along!

Daisy sitting under the corner cabinet to warm up near the heaters

Peter Wohlleben, who wrote The Hidden Life of Trees, also has written The Inner Life of Animals; I just finished it. I liked some parts better than others, but many things were interesting. Here, he explains why moths fly around lights:

"Moths... rely on the moon when they want to fly in a straight line. For example, when the moon is at its height and they want to fly west, all they have to do is keep the moon to their left. But little moths can't tell the difference between the moon and a cozy lamp adding a decorative touch to a garden at night. Now, as the tiny winged wanderer glides past the tulips and the roses, it immediately gets turned around. The brightest light at night must be the moon, mustn't it? And so it tries to keep this new moon to its left, but the lamp is unfortunately not 238,900 miles but only a few yards away. If the moth keeps flying in a straight line, the "moon" appears behind it, and it seems to the moth that it must have flown in a circle. And so the insect pilot corrects its course to the left to, as it thinks, continue flying straight ahead. This makes the "moon" appear on the correct side, but what's really happening is that the moth is flying in circles around the light. The spiraling flight takes the moth ever closer to the light until it finally end up at the center. If the artificial moon is a candle, there's a brief "puff", and the moth's life is snuffed out."

birds and branches

 We're going to have snow Saturday. I'm looking forward to it, though it won't be much.

Today there was sun, and I slipped outside an hour before dark, for some change of air. I had seen a gardening youtuber talk about what wild rabbits like to eat in winter. Apple branches, mostly, but also pear and crabapple. So I went around to look at our trees, thinking about prunings I could leave for them now and then, especially when there's snow cover. I cut a couple of crabapple twigs and left them where I think they live. The tree is full of crabapples, and last year Clare mentioned that she had a better crop when she removed them herself, so, I think I'll do that. I can leave them on the ground for the creatures. 

We've had three of these tall arbor vitaes near the garden, and they' were so big; last year my brother said he'd have to take one or two down. Well, nature seems to have done it for him.

We realized a couple of weeks ago that two came down at some point. Roots and all, just up and out. I haven't pushed the upright one to see if it's going to be next. 

Sometimes my co-workers will say they saw a cardinal at their feeder, and they're all excited. We see them every day! Today I saw an unfamiliar bird out my bedroom window; he was with the sparrows and finches, and about the same small size. I got a good look at him via my camera zoom, and then took a little film.

Then I looked him up. He is a downy woodpecker, apparently very common in our state! But I've never seen one.

"In the woodland I manage, we use the birds' passion for collecting to plant young deciduous trees in the monocultures of old spruce plantations. This is how it works. We put seed trays on posts and fill them with acorns and beechnuts. Jays love to come and help themselves, and they distribute their booty in the soil hundreds of yards in every direction. It's a win-win situation. We get precious new stands of deciduous trees in the woodland, and the jays get huge quantities of winter provisions with very little effort."

                                          -  Peter Wohlleben, The Inner Life of Animals

I can picture this entirely! When the blue jays come to our feeder, they throw seed right and left. A jay must be a jay, must be a jay.

creature comforts

 A tufted titmouse sitting under the back awning, working on breaking into his sunflower seed.

and a squirrel we've observed, twice, sitting on the railing outside, just enjoying the sun.

the struggle is real

 I used to try and darn my brother's socks when I noticed worn spots, but he said don't bother. With that in mind, I do the laundry but tend to ignore the torn places in the jeans, figuring he'll say something when they need a fix. So, I didn't really notice. But a couple pair have big torn knees that were so far gone - but I think I fixed them, anyway. 

In order to patch a knee on a long, narrow "tube" - the leg of the jeans - I had to rip one of the seams open. I found out they aren't both flat felled seams - thank God! - because I really don't want to mess with one of those. The outside seam was just sewn regular and serged, so I ripped that out and was able to get inside there to attach a piece of fabric, or patch, on the inside. Then I over-stitched, zigzagging back and forth over the torn part to fortify it. Better than nothing. 

I learned something in the doing, and it wasn't that hard, but from now on I'll pay attention to the laundry, and possibly nip these things in the bud. And he's pleased with them!

Meanwhile, Advent moves along and I have made no cookies, haven't written any cards! I was planning on it today, but it did not happen. Christmas is in two weeks.

In between things I pick up Rachel Peden's Speak to the Earth: 

"When starlings come to the feeders other birds depart like leaves blown in the wind, to watch hiddenly and return only when the starlings have gone. 

Hearing the high-pitched cacophonous chatter ... for starlings always come by hundreds ... I need only open the porch door and immediately they lunge forward, admirably regaining their balance when airborne.

But these dark-bodied birds awaken a dark thought in the mind of a farmer: It is not merely because they eat food not intended for them, nor because they are dirty, but because there are always too many of them. Any creature that becomes too numerous causes unease among all other creatures.... Would ten thousand gaily singing chickadees be as delightful on a snowy winter morning as half a dozen are?"

almost there

I had some windows open today while I did my work, it was so mild! The dampness didn't matter because I was using the oven. The cats were certainly happy.

The squash pie is in the fridge downstairs, and I made the gratin, too, also in the fridge - squash pie because I also baked some pumpkin cookies. The pie recipe is the same for squash, pumpkin or sweet potato, and I've made all three over the years. The squash has a light, thinner texture, the sweet potato is the most substantial. I like to use dark brown sugar for that one, light brown or maple sugar for the pumpkin pies. 

Half an hour before dark, I finally got a pot, and made it outside to cut those berries. I stuck them in with two dried hydrangea heads and - let's say it looks artistic. I'll soon be looking for evergreens, anyway, since Advent is almost upon us. Just as I was coming back inside, a skein of geese flew right over, dark against the cloudy sky, in formation and honking. They were heading east, but I'm sure they knew what they were doing.

on the move

 I thought I could do more out in the garden area today but it suddenly rained a bit and got damp and cold. Still, I did go out later and saw a group of geese fly by. They were going so fast! Maybe the wind carried them along - I don't know. Geese are on the move  - we hear them several times a day.

The leaves are off the trees now. That's when we know it's really November.

"The opportunity of looking intently into some small portion of his natural environment, or the experience of being responsible for the survival of some part of it, enables a man to see his own place in the world with greater clarity, and perhaps with greater compassion."

                                                 -  Rachel Peden, Rural Free

I am working on a puffy whole cloth quilt for a co-worker; she has a baby. I thought I had a photo of it, but I guess not. It was something I began years ago to use some fabric, and then I stopped before finishing. Meanwhile, the colors are perfect for this baby, and the mother really would like it, so -  So, I'm finishing it up by hand - tying, not stitching!

sweet breeze! thou only, if I guess aright, liftest the feathers of the robin's breast

 That was Coleridge. And oh, a day of cool air, breezing in my window, puffy clouds all over the sky! But I didn't move fast enough to record them before they drifted away. 

I heard some birds fussing in the distance. This always makes me feel bad; maybe there was a hawk around. Oh, for a world where there is none of that! Of course, the blue jays would have to find something else to occupy themselves. They are the ambulance-chasers of the bird world - well, everybody has their place. Poirot always was glad to talk to the busy-bodies of the neighborhood - they often proved helpful.

I grew nasturtium seeds, even though it's getting late. It's such a pretty plant.

I just heard a sound behind me, and there was Annie on my back window with a claw caught in the curtain. She was trying to get unhooked and couldn't, but did she say anything? How long would she have sat there, twisting slowly, slowly in the wind (so to speak)? Daisy is the same way. 

Strange. They do seem to understand the power of communication. Daisy often is telling us she wants food. Annie was really chatty the other day, telling me something. But they haven't made the connection entirely, I guess, especially when they could really use some help! Dolly would have called out, and she did, more than once. 

Well, September is at the door, and I'm looking over my fall clothes. This skirt needs reworking.

It's just not right. I cut off the waistband and picked out the zipper here. I'll sew up that seam where the zip was, turn over the top edge and make a casing for some lightweight elastic. Then I'll see how much I need to take it up - it's too long. 

I've been reading The Jungle Book - it's so charming! This is what the library copy looks like.

singing to the Lord

 "I would feed my people with finest wheat and fill them with honey from the rock."

                                                  -  Psalm 81:17

It's the feast of Corpus Christi, and we're in a big heatwave - it often happens when Easter comes later, that we're outside in the hot sun for the procession. I heard a mockingbird singing a little way off - his song didn't interrupt our hymn-singing. 

Just now I stepped outside to empty some trash, and in the midst of excessive heat and humidity, I was surprised to hear a neighborhood mockingbird singing lustily; it's hardly to be imagined, but they must not feel the heat. Of all days, to be working so hard giving a concert. And who can appreciate it, with air conditioners running? I'm glad I came out for a moment.

a hundred airy harps

 Yesterday was a most beautiful day - sunny, breezy, dry. A perfect day for washing a few windows, but other things had to come first.

Today was rainy, all day. But I didn't know it was going to, and I awoke early to such pretty music. 

...those wakeful birds
Have all burst forth in choral minstrelsy,
As if some sudden gale had swept at once
A hundred airy harps!

-  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

rain and sun, bless the Lord

 Oh, the rain we've been having. And yesterday it was so cool and damp I actually shut all the windows and turned the heat back up. But I didn't hear it come on, so I used the oven twice, ironed, and made a thick soup for my supper, all the help to warm up the place

Later, the sun came out!

The trees are well past blooming, but now the azalea 

and the bridal wreath, are having their turns.

My bed is waiting cool and fresh, with linen smooth and fair,
And I must off to sleepsin-by, and not forget my prayer.

But slumber hold me tightly till I waken in the dawn,
And hear the thrushes singing in the lilacs round the lawn.

RLS

The American Robin is of the thrush family, but we don't have lilacs in our lawn.

returning things

 I saw two rainbows today, and almost by chance. We went to the supermarket as it was getting dark, with a thunderstorm looming. It didn't come to fruition, but as I was putting away the groceries I just happened to see the first one out a window, nice and clear. 

After supper I was reading and turned to look outside for no reason, and there was another, and in a different spot than usual. They always appear in the back yard, but this was over to the side.

The catbirds are back. Or, one is. I don't know how many return every spring. Anyway, I'm happy to hear their warblings and mewings.

With skirmish and capricious passagings,
and murmurs musical and swift jug jug

-  from Coleridge's The Nightingale

"The May Magnificat"

 May is Mary's month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature's motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfed cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.

                -  Gerard Manley Hopkins

oriole in my neighbor's apple tree

spring pleasures

 My brother mowed the lawn yesterday.

I stepped outside in the morning to empty some trash, in time to hear a mockingbird giving his spring recital. I had seen him quietly in the hedge in earlier weeks, listening.

I set up the little greenhouse in the most perfect temperatures, and gentle breeze.

I am trying to get some seeds sprouting in little containers, and I was able to just sit outside and do some. 

I had a bedroom window open all night.

The cats have greatly enjoyed all of this. 

I made blueberry muffins.

"Humanity's task continues God's own creation, filling the realms that God established, extending and elaborating good order within the creation, and exercising beneficent rule over its creatures. Humankind both had to rule over and to share the creation with other creatures.

The original creation is good, yet much remains to be done. God creates, commissions, empowers, and equips humanity to complete what he has started; we are a means of his continued creation and providence."

                                                       -  Alastair Roberts, from Plough magazine, Spring 2025

puddles and puzzles

 It rained all day, and everything is puddled. It was a winter rain, it couldn't be described as a spring shower, at all. But I used the oven and made chicken tetrazzini, to warm us up.

The crabapple tree is full of crabapples - I don't know what to do about it. They should have been eaten, or fallen down, right? In a month, these trees should be blooming, and will the fruits get in the way? Will they cause a problem. I'll have to go outside and examine it up close. Did they go bad? We'll have to find out.

And on the subject of trees, our young kousa dogwood seems to have the bark gone near the bottom part - we assume it's our rabbit neighbors, since they're known to eat tender bark in the winter. We'll see how that tree does, if it can continue without the bark. Also, my brother says they chewed his blueberry bushes down to the nub. Live and learn. We enjoy our rabbit friends, and we'll work on ways to live together. 

flicker at the feeder

From this morning's reading, on John 13:34 -

"God is love. God is self-emptying on behalf of the other. But this means paradoxically that to have God is to be what God is - and that means giving one's life away.

Now we see the link between joy and commandments; I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. And now we begin to understand the laws, commands, and demands of the Church. All are designed to make us more adept at love, at giving ourselves away. Don't steal; don't kill; don't covet your neighbor's goods or wife; honor your mother and father, worship God. All of these commands - positive and negative - are meant to awaken love and make it possible."

                                -  Bishop Robert Barron

creature discomforts

 Daisy knocked one of the kitchen curtains on the floor -

There is one squirrel who isn't baffled by the - well, the squirrel baffle.

Clever fellow.

On another note, Annie chased a crumpled paper and brought it back to me seven times, and the daffodils are getting ready to appear.