B is for Birds, Beginnings, and Bravo

One of the things I love most about spring is all feathered visitors, seeking nesting sites, that come to inspect my yard. I have many wonderful birdhouses scattered around my property, and every year I wonder which houses will be selected. Both the school house and the faucet house in the picture above have been very popular in past years. This year, however, not so much. A chickadee duo did begin to nest in the schoolhouse but changed their minds, leaving abandoned twigs sticking out of the round opening. Darn. Was it something I said?

The most popular house, hands down, is this little red job in the front yard. So much about its placement is wrong: It's on a  foot path that gets a fair amount of human traffic, and it's near a birdbath and feeder, so there are lots of other birds and squirrels around. Yet every year a Mr. and Mrs. Titmouse move in to start their family. I love that my kitchen window looks out on this nesting site, allowing me to watch the comings and goings. Every year I am delighted and amazed when this house, so cute with its antique doorknob, is chosen.

So, spring is finally here, full of renewal and new beginnings. Bravo.

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No Place Like Home

Theme Thursday - Red

What beautiful ruby red slippers, and magical to boot! I think it would be so wonderful to have a pair of shoes that could, at once, bring me back to my home base because once I am "out there" and tired of travel, I am locked in, due to a variety of reasons -reservations, tours, travel companions etc. Ruby red slippers are not on the itinerary.

My last major trip was a jaunt to Hawaii with six good friends. After 2 days in close quarters, I was craving my home and my own bed, sick of the constant chatter. Where, oh, where were those ruby red slippers? If they actually had existed, I could have zapped myself home in a flash. Moreover, I would be able to travel anywhere in the world and, when those get-me-out-of-here feelings began to erupt, I could send myself back to my living room with a click of my heels. Alas...reality check: no ruby slippers.

So, I have learned over the years to no longer plan excursions to far away places for extended periods of time. Day trips and overnighters are my current cup of tea. However, when I was in my 20s, this was not the case. The wish to return home was not present, and the travel adventure was just what the doctor ordered. Was it youth? I suspect.

Now I am a contented homebody. I have pictures galore of my travel days: riding a camel in Egypt, climbing inside a pyramid, slipping on the ice in Anchorage outside the Captain Cook Hotel, viewing the beautiful Sydney harbor, hearing Big Ben, seeing The Mona Lisa, shopping in Paris, dining at The Four Seasons, having a massage and green tea in Tokyo, enjoying a Singapore Sling in -where else? - Singapore, checking out the Smithsonian, landing in wartime Saigon, listening to speeches in Hyde Park, and on and on. So many great memories.

 I am lucky I to have gotten the travel bug out of my system when I was younger and had no need of ruby red slippers to bring me back to my center. Now, after just one  night away from home base, the slippers seem to slam onto  my feet the morning of Day 2. I may as well be clicking my heels together and chanting, "There's no place like home," in order to magically fly through the air and bounce back to my comfy nest, my family, my pets, my plants, and my tranquility.

There really is, for me, no place like home. The world is an adventure just waiting to be explored; but home is where I want to be.  Unless someone can find me some ruby red slippers...