Report From PIA – October 1
In between the errands, design consultations, house chores and writing, it was a day of dogs and birds.
Just before 7 AM I walked The Dog down toward the lake and he disappeared into the woods for a few minutes. I called him, and suddenly he burst out of the trees, running full speed, with a hawk on his tail. Almost literally on his tail: that hawk, with a three-foot wingspan, was inches above his backside.
I yelled, “Hey! That’s my dog!” and the hawk veered off into the field next door. Maybe he was just practicing…I can’t believe the bird was delusional enough to think that it could grab a 55 pound canine and fly away with it.
Returning to the house, I went upstairs to shower and get dressed. While I was in the bathroom I noticed that there was a flock of at least 12 bluebirds swirling around the blueberry patch. They were landing on the posts that hold our bird netting up in berry season, flying in and out of a nearby pokeweed, and soaring from tree to tree.
I grabbed my camera, and quietly opened the door that leads to a small deck off of our bedroom. As I cracked the screen, I was face to face with a bluebird that had landed on the deck railing. He looked as surprised as I was, and we both froze for a few seconds, staring at each other, before he flew off to join the others.
Later in the afternoon I potted up some of the small plants I’d gotten at the GWA meeting, and The Dog took that opportunity to steal one of the plastic pots I’d intended on using. My dog thinks that all plastic pots should be recycled as dog toys, not containers for plants.
As I watched him run around the yard with a Proven Winners Pot, I had to laugh. He was having such fun.
I’m grateful for the animals around me, wild and domestic. I appreciate that they add moments of surprise and amusement to my days. They keep me in the moment, smiling.
Part of the pot game is snatching it, running away from me, and then racing back just close enough to fool me into thinking he might be bringing it back.
After that game of "chase me", comes "will you throw it?"
Even when pausing to take a breath, he keeps one foot on the pot so that I can't snatch it.... not that I want it back at this point, since it's now full of cracks and teeth marks.
Ok, ok... you know it's not the best picture when you have to photoshop in red arrows showing where the bluebirds are. They were 100 feet away, and my telephoto isn't that good. As they buzzed around the sky, in and out of the trees and onto the ground, and into this pokeweed, I wished I could somehow capture all of that activity and those flashes of blue feathers.
