nesting

A robin family built their nest in a little crook of our deck cover a few weeks ago, about 5 feet from our back door. As I saw them start to bring in their building materials and begin construction in this spot, I was a little worried that it was an unsafe place for them to build. I thought about trying to thwart their efforts by removing the pieces they had brought and putting something in the way, but they were so diligent, bringing piece after piece of straw and grass to the precarious little spot, I just didn't have the heart to undo any of their work. And as the nest began to take shape, they would take turns wiggling and squishing their little bodies down into the pile of debris, making a nice, perfectly round indentation in the center.
I never saw them both together, but I am pretty sure there was a male and a female building the nest. The mama finally settled in and started spending long hours in that spot, becoming alarmed now and then by our comings and goings, but staying put. One day when she flew off briefly, I grabbed a ladder and stuck my camera way up high to see what was going on in the nest. What a happy feeling to look at the camera's screen and see that bright blue!

It's been a rough road for those little eggs -- sure, it's June, but we are not having a typical Colorado June. It's been chilly and ridiculously rainy, with freakish lightning and thunder. We've been getting the kind of rain that feels like Pacific Northwest weather. Days on end of rain. That poor little mama has been hunched down in that nest, completely drenched, spreading her wings out to shelter those babies of hers.

Today it finally stopped. I saw her fly up to the nest with something in her mouth and as I watched, a funny little pink beak popped up out of the nest. The babies have started to hatch. My girls are naming them -- one of them is Lightning McQueen. We still don't know how many there are -- at least two. Tonight I saw the mom and dad both sitting on the edge of the nest with worms in their mouths. Teamwork! I guess we will have a front-row seat to see how the babies do when they leap out of the nest. I will just have to keep the dog out of the way!

i am here

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I am here. I have something to say; I just don't know how to say it. And I'm too busy going back and putting in semicolons instead of commas. But that is who I am: an editor. I love semicolons.

But it is hard to just get some words out there when your internal editor is in the forefront all the damn time.

where i wish i was

Solitude-in-san-juans

Went to one of my favorite places a couple of weeks ago. A little town nestled in the mountains. I can't believe it's been so long since we've been there, and I can't wait to go back. As I sat in the swing in this photo, I mentally ran through a checklist of things that made it possible for us to live there now (internet access, cell phone signal, bigger civilization within a half-hour). I'm not ready to give up the life we have here in the big-city-suburbs, but it's nice to dream of having a view like this every day!

what was i going to say?

River-wisconsin

It wasn't really February the last time I posted, was it?? Oh brother. We have been traveling like gypsies this summer. Fun, but tiring and a little stressful not to be home. After this last trip to Wisconsin (how lush and gorgeous is that river in my photo?) I am feeling the urge to settle in at home and nest a little. Clean and organize the house, start on a little self-improvement kick. Update the ole' blog. We'll see how long this lasts. I have been thinking a lot about my "lucky" post...that maybe there is a reason I am lucky, and that I am meant to do something good with all my good fortune. I am thinking through what that means for me.

enter your title...

Sunset-in-nebraska

I so want to connect and reach out and be a part of a community. And I so want to write. But when I look at this empty box waiting for me to type something into it, my mind goes blank. Why do I have nothing to say?
If I keep coming here, will I eventually have something to say? I hope so.

okay, so maybe once a month?

Okay, I've been gone from here so long that the whole interface has changed. Well, not drastically I guess, but...
I have been, still, busy with work but not too busy, but too busy to do much else. Other than having teeny-tiny surgery on my nose (waiting to get the stitches out...) and itsy-bitsy worry about a benign brain tumor that wasn't there (that MRI sure was fun though...).
I really want to start writing here more though. I am going to try...

so much for posting every day...

Oh, good grief, it's been MORE than a MONTH! I just cannot keep all my balls in the air at the same time. Work is going well and not keeping me too terribly busy, but just having regular work at all kind of keeps me from doing little things I like to do, like writing or exercising, or anything...
I thought signing up for NaBloPoMo would inspire me to post at least more often than I was posting, but sadly, no.
But I am feeling happy and lucky and kind of connected, and my girls are doing well, and our Christmas decorations are up, and the house is fairly clean, and my Christmas shopping is not too far behind, so...life is still good.