Get ready for a post full of random thoughts from an AM car ride to work:) And it's about how we began and where we are now. Keep in mind the question, "How does one set the table?" And as a side note before I get started, I just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be working at the Butterfly Magic exhibit in the afternoon at the Tucson Botanical Gardens on October 8th. Come and stop by! I'd love to meet you and show you around Southern Arizona's only tropical butterfly exhibit. On a side note, I'll be on vacation this next week heading out to some far away places after the 8th. I'll be sporadic on blogger as I hopefully discover more incredible things. But until I return, I have lots of fun finds coming your way everyday.
As a kid, I dreamt about magical gardens, meeting strange new people, finding incredible creatures, and learning about what was beyond that next star.
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| Ladder Back Woodpecker |
In college I would feel like I wasn't doing enough. Not traveling enough. Not knowing enough. I thought it was something I had to fly to by plane, train or automobile. I didn't know how to start. I just threw myself carelessly out there.
But as the years advance, it's about learning the subtle strokes of the painting. The things we overlook in our lives. The things I now wish I could slow down more.
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| Spotted Towhee |
It's not being first at the finish line.
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| House Finch |
There is so much chaos and noise all about the world. We wonder sometimes, "What if?"
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| Mexican Jay |
What if everything was perfect and all we had to do was find that inner calm? But it's not, is it? We have friends and family who suffer from sickness and terrible situations. It's that chaos that affects us all.
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| Magnificent Hummingbird |
Life is short. I watched a Civil War show on PBS that showcased just how many people lost their lives during this difficult time in our country's history. I thought about it more. It has been well over a hundred years since the event but as a child, I remember that there were older people who had met these survivors and actually had conversations with them. The last confederate survivor died in 1956. My Great Grandparents was born in 1899. They came from Germany. One set of Grandparents were born in 1911 and 1914....which was around the time the automobile was created and introduced to the world. My Grandma lived on dirt roads with horses being the main transportation to and from her village. Her parents died of Scarlet fever. She was 14 and moved in with her aunt on the farm.
They are all gone now. The personal stories of the Civil War, WW1, WW2, and Korean war vets have almost completely faded from our current society. One Grandmother remains and I want to keep her alive forever. My parents grew up in the 50's and 60's to a different world. One where cars and the "American dream" would develop further. You just had to follow the plan and success was guaranteed. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. I am the last generation of the group who could ride bikes and play with neighborhood kids before getting snatched up by a stranger. And in the 80's began the electronic age with Atari. Kids would begin to stay inside their homes and play video games all day. And it was safer for parents since now they had to worry about society stealing their children out of their own backyards. A made for TV show called "Adam Walsh" would expose the horrors of child abduction. And so it would begin...obesity. I told you this was random:)
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| Nuthatch |
The 90's seemed a peaceful time of happiness and prosperity. It was the time of suburbs and loss of more habitat. But at the turn of the century so much would come crashing down around us. Chaos. Anger. Loss. Faster electronics making people move faster in their everyday lives. Fruit orchards around the Bay area of California would be replaced by Silicon Valley and the suburbs. Faster faster faster.
Vast areas of land as the human population swells are now having to be marked as sacred. Do not touch. Land which seemed endless is now measured by the google mapping system of Earth. Every square inch is being carefully scrutinized to own or protect. So where does that leave us today?
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| Acorn Woodpecker |
Our younger generations are much more educated on the preservation of nature than I was when it came to protecting the environment. But there isn't a sense of security like there was decades ago. There are no guarantees and if things keep going as they do, a lot more will change. This isn't political at all. It's just that it's been happening all along in such subtle ways. And I wonder about these young students of mine as they raise their families. What will their kids face 20 or 30 years down the road? Will all of this still be here for them? It's not a question of when because it's now. Today some countries and their states are making the difference and preserving spaces. Some are not. The difficulty is that we are all linked to one another environmentally. We've done it with technology but now we have to do it with Mother Nature. There is a movement but it is patchy globally.
Because what one place does, affects the other. Mexicans burn their land away which is habitat for the hummers in winter. What if they don't have that habitat anymore? Will they come back to Southern Arizona? It's happening. As I sat in my 45 minute car ride to work, this is what I thought about today. Is "setting the table?" a proper question to ask when most of us don't even sit down at a table for dinner anymore?
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I've placed dead wood branches behind the fence where I believe several Northern Cardinals are nesting! 
The female Anna's Hummingbird counters the feeder opposite to that of the Verdin.
Hummingbirds nest. And watch guard over their babies.
House sparrows cover tree branches like a cloud of hershey kisses.
House finches sound off one by one as they wait for me in the morning to fill their feeders. Sometimes dropping down impatiently to grab that first morning seed.
A Northern Mockingbird takes a quick sip from the nasty bird bathe. Instead of leaving like he did in years past, he stays with a partner and irritates the visiting Red-tail Hawks.
Mourning doves bend branches and look inside my house.
I become frustrated that everyone has Lesser Goldfinches in their yards.....but me. I buy a thistle feeder and two days later, Lesser Goldfinches enter El Presidio grounds for the first time.
This year a Common Raven flew over our house. It was early morning and made me smile. Yet another bird!
Each day is a new one. I live in a nasty neighborhood that has nothing around it. When I made an oasis, the birds began to make our place home. Our running water fountain is a quick drink for many of our birds. Hummingbirds zip up and down catching bugs.
And when there aren't any birds around? We know Mr. Cooper is in the hood! It just proves that any place can become a refuge. Create it and they will come!
For more fun, check Stewart M's Wild Bird Wednesday featuring birds from all over the world. More to come.....
