'round here

Bittersweet vine :: Julian's yellow rose :: my honey hat :: Cathedral State Park :: Cheat Lake :: mystery weed seeds :: common loons @ 60x :: common loons closer

Around here, fall is in full force. Julian's mid-term grades were submitted on Friday, what a weight off his shoulders. Now just more of the same. Make a to-do list, check off the to-do list, feel like you never get enough done, eat, sleep, repeat. How is it that this season of life needs so much doing? 

Julian has taken me out twice this past week - it is so nice to get out of the house, away from my chores, away from these machines that light up and suck our brain power and affix our eyes to them! We had some bad weather come through over the weekend and it brought the first fallout of birds through our waters. It was a delight to get out on the lake and see these (five total) common loons. We have only ever seen one before, and felt fortunate to have seen that! Our county has an avid birding group of about 5-6 folks who are out and about a lot more often than we are, so it was even more fun to see these birds that no one else saw, and no one else has reported seeing since.

When joggers and other passers-by passed us by, I just wanted to shake them - how can people not care that this is a bird they may never see again in their lives - and five of them!? How do people just not care to observe anything around them - not know that the red bird they see in the tree is a cardinal, the difference between a bluebird and a bluejay? Imagine also, with all the things Julian and I do manage to see, how much is happening all around us that we do not even have a clue of?! It's overwhelming. It's amazing. It's the way God made it. How can people not care to wonder at all that He made?