Four Days Left

I am sitting in my barn kitchen watching various birds feeding at the hanging suet I have placed outside the window. I am on the second story, among the tree tops, so I watch as they line up on branches, waiting for their turn at the feeder. They include red-winged blackbirds, downey woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, tufted titmice (is the plural of titmouse, titmice?), cardinals, and red-bellied woodpeckers. An occasional starling will come and boss everyone else around, but not too often. While here in the country I have observed wild turkeys, deer, muskrats, groundhogs, a family of geese raising young, ducks and a lone, abandoned egg by the pond (next year I'll call CPS on them), a heron fishing at the pond, and all from my breakfast table! I've even seen a bat ON my breakfast table. Today I saw my first snake, but it was outside. There have been sightings of bear and red fox but I have not been lucky enough to see either animal here at home. I did see a fox at the stables. One of the most fun observations has been watching the pond. I walk around the pond several times a day and have seen a HUGE turtle, fish, a salamander, damselflies, dragonflies, and lots of bullfrogs. I listen to them all evening, too! In fact, when I first started walking around the pond, they jumped off the bank and into the water before I could ever see them. Now, they just sit there and a few will let me get a couple of feet away. Who would have thought my gift was making friends with frogs? Hmmm, maybe one is my prince waiting to be kissed. Well, forget that! Anyway, I have been watching a couple of patches of eggs hatch into tadpoles. So interesting! Oh yes, and I didn't mention the chipmunk that runs under my car when I step out the door in the morning. I have always loved chipmunks, ever since church camp in Ohio when I was a kid. They were fun to watch during Bible class. Ha!

Well, this is a very idyllic and lovely, lovely place to live. One would dread leaving if it were not for the great leveling factor that, as I write this I am also checking for ticks and applying calamine lotion to my poison ivy spots...that's my face, arms, tummy, legs and chest. Thankfully it isn't bad, but it is certainly annoying! I guess I have found almost 10 ticks this spring and my landlord finds at least one a day on his dogs. Beth says it is like the horror movie where a seemingly beautiful house is doing awful things so the family living there will move out. The country is certainly trying to convince me that it won't be all negative to be in New York City!

I am moving things into storage tomorrow, and living at Beth and Brandon's for a week. I then will be house sitting for a friend for almost the entire month of June. There is no word on when I can move into my apartment, so at the end of June I may be on a Grand Tour, visiting friends and relatives. I may even make it to California or Washington or both! That's a warning! It should be an interesting summer, for sure!