Cloudy Days

Though we’ve been having

Cloudy Days

interspersed with rain this week, I have been enjoying looking out our windows at the pond behind the house. This morning a male wood duck sat on the log at the edge of the pond for the longest time allowing me to look closely at him through my camera lens and binoculars. I can’t help but admire his colorful feathers and orangy-red eye.

I also love to watch wood ducks swimming in the pond, as they glide along looking like beautiful windup toys with their rhythmic head bobs as they circle the pond.

“Snow in April is abominable,” said Anne. “Like a slap in the face when you expected a kiss.” – L.M. Montgomery, “Anne of Ingleside”

The weather this week has reminded me of the old saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” Each rainy day I have given thanks for the much needed rain and that it was rain falling from the sky, not snow. I am hopeful that we will not see snow during the remainder of April either (though it is Minnesota and we’ve had snow before in April).

Again the blackbirds sings; the streams Wake, laughing, from their winter dreams, And tremble in the April showers The tassels of the maple flowers.”
— John Greenleaf Whittier

Yesterday on my afternoon walk in the neighborhood I heard cardinals singing all along the way, each of them proclaiming, “This is my territory, this is my territory.” I spotted one of them sitting high up on a branch, a beautiful bright red pop of color against dull gray skies.

I also saw lots of daffodils in bloom. To me they are one of the most cheerful flowers with their bright yellow colors and pretty petals bobbing up and down in the breeze.

Once the rain ends for a few days I think I will be doing some outside cleanup. I’ve been waiting to clean up dead leaves and stems so that any pollinators that sheltered in them over the winter will have left their winter digs. I also want to set up my container garden and plant leaf lettuce and sugar snap peas. Both like the cool weather and can withstand a slight frost.

The energy of spring with everything waking up and coming alive again reminds me of this poem I discovered recently.

Limitless

Sun says, “Be your own

illumination.” Wren says,

“Sing your heart out,

all day long.” Stream says,

“Do not stop for any obstacle.” Oak says,

“When the wind blows,

bend easily, and trust

your roots to hold.”

Stars say, “What you see

is one small slice of a

single modest galaxy.

Remember that vastness

cannot be grasped by mind.”

Ant says, “Small does not

mean powerless.” Silence

says nothing. In the quiet,

everything comes clear.

I say, “Limitless.” I say,

“Yes.”

   — Danna Faulds