2013 January 28 Monday Do You Hear What I Hear?

2013 January 28 Monday   Do You Hear What I Hear?

Pre-dawn over the campers and hills this morning

I woke about a quarter to five this morning, got up and started the coffee and fixed an egg and bacon to roll up in a tortilla for breakfast.  I check on my Facebook and emails and read some of the blogs that I follow.  I then went back and edited the post that I posted last night … added some more pics from our day.

Now it is nearly seven and a Great Horned Owl has decided to start hoot hoot hooting in the tree across the gulch from our RV.  He usually hoots us to bed at night also.  Since I’m sitting here with the windows and doors open, I can hear some morning doves doing their version of a morning song too.  I also hear the crunch of someone’s golf cart tires on the gravel of the drive.  Most likely someone bringing their dog to the dog park/run area of the campgrounds.  What I don’t hear is traffic and machinery clanging and banging.  As I’m typing this a cardinal starts shouting from a nearby tree, “This is MY tree.  All others beware!”   Yep! I’m really enjoying our time at Shady Oaks.

I’ve talked about our men’s morning coffee group for several months now.  I guess it’s time to put some faces with the group.  Only about half of the regulars were there today.  A couple of them have left the park for a while and one is just out of town for a day or two.  Not everybody shows up every day and we don’t take attendance. (Grin)

Ron and Gary

Ron and Jack

John, Cal and Glen

 Most of Ella and my day was spent right here being couch potatoes.  The day remained grey all day.  It wasn’t a bad day.  The temperatures were in the mid to upper seventies all day and there was a wonderful breeze blowing through the windows (and slamming the door shut once).  But it was just grey and we had no place or activities to call  us away from our comfortable seats.

           Following the theme of doing nothing, lunch consisted of the pasta salad left over from our “Supper With Friends” on Friday night.  We  also had fresh strawberries that we ate right out of the box.  It was nutritious and colorful but didn’t require any effort on our part other than to chew and swallow.

The sun did poke its face out from behind the clouds for just long enough for me to get a photo of our bird/deer feeder.  We came to Texas with great expectations of feeding the birds and adding new ones to the list of those we’d seen.  Well, the birds had enough to eat that they didn’t need to come begging at our door.  For months the feeder hung there with out being touched.

Then one day I realized that it was actually empty.  We were so excited as we refilled it and made plans to be more watchful for what species of bird was visiting us.  A few sparrows came, but not many.   No noticeable activity.

Then one morning not long ago, I opened the door to go to coffee and found the four or five deer that were eating from the bird feeder.  I stopped putting feed in it.  I really don’t want the deer to come knocking on my door demanding to be fed.

A couple of days ago, I was sitting outside and realized that there were about a dozen cardinals in the tree next to us.  I put more feed in the feeder and moved away from the feeder.  The cardinals did come and visit but were more interested in the seed on the ground than what was in the feeder.  That afternoon the deer came back and emptied the feeder.  The next day, I noticed that the cardinals were back on the ground.  The deer being sloppy eaters were spilling into the course gravel beneath the feeder.  The deer would manage to eat some of the fallen seed but left most of it for the birds.

We did manage to get off our ‘duffs’ to go to Bible Study at the rec hall this evening.  We have some good music to get us started and then read some scriptures and Ron leads us in a discussion.  I always come away with new insights and thoughts to contemplate.  A good way to end the day.