Life in the Bristolwood

No sooner than I had pressed the “Publish” button on my last entry, I looked outside the window to see a gorgeous male Cardinal sitting right outside the bedroom window! Thrilled, I snatched up the camera and took 3 shots! A few minutes later, when I was ready to review the photos, I realized the SD card was still mounted in the laptop!

Totally discouraged, I removed the card from the laptop and replaced it in the camera, Feeling rather as though I had mised the chance of a lifetime, I went to place the Nikon into its bag.  (yes, I know, there will be numerous real chances of a lifetime, but….)

I looked out the window once more and there she was……

A beautiful female Cardinal was perched outside the window, looking down at the window feeder, and assessing whether to check out the “diner”, or not! I was so happy to catch her, but then…………….

Yes! Her husband decided to join her! Not sure why his crest is down, but he was so stunning anyway! I did discover it is harder to capture a brightly colored bird than the more “drab” female!

So, I am pretty happy!!!

 This morning, it was obvious we had gotten some much needed rain.  I fed the Scottie boys and took them outside, then grabbed my Nikon and went back outside.

As I stepped out, the chill in the air felt so refreshing….as I took in deep breaths of air, the smell of dampened earth filled my nostrils. You have no idea how wonderful that scent can be! For a brief instant, I was drawn back to nearly nine years ago when Mark came into the house and fell to the floor, unable to walk. And, I remembered in June of that year…how the clouds would roll in, and as though playing a cruel trick, they would pass by.  The leaves on every tree, every bush, every plant had been chewed off by the gypsy moths, and it felt as though we were living under a gigantic magnifying glass held over our home…..burning….burning….and the “pellets” from those destructive moths were the only sound of anything falling from above. I remember that time, feeling as though our entire world had caved in on us…..I felt tears beginning to well up, when a songbird began chirping in the distance. Then another. And another. Suddnenly, I was translated back to this day, and the hope of life all around me!

This purple Columbine on the side of the house is one of my favorites. The flowers have a stunning resemblence to crepe paper!

As I walked about the yard, I noticed a pair of eyes watching me! Yes, one is never alone in the woods!

I guess I should have monkeyed a bit with the colors on these photos…well, not the color, but I should have lightened them some….but then, they would not have appeared as photos taken early in the morning on a cool, dark day!

You can see in the photo below how low the clouds were as I looked down the hill from our driveway.  The one thing I did notice is that all the various greens this time of the year would make even an Irishman’s eyes spin!

I looped around into the woods a little deeper before coming into the house.  I kept hearing the familiar “Tkk,tkk,tkk” of a Junco. As I looked up, there was the bird, sitting directly in front of me with a wee bit of nesting material in its beak!

One of these days, I think I will talk to Mark about remortgaging the house to buy a long lens with better capabilty to capture photos in dark places, like the woods……think he’ll buy????