Springtime

Incredible blue skies and sunshine today. Lots of the stuff, it surely feels like we are slap in the midst of summer with this 86 degree heat.
Flowers are bursting out in full bloom, a virtual rainbow of colors, each day, a new surprise.
The wild turkeys are parading their new poults, the flock continues to grow.

Pop-up storms make their way through each evening, a welcomed gesture to cool the night air.

We'll take whatever help we can get.

 

  

In Anticipation

The garden has come alive, with songbirds, squirrels, rabbits, and the resident possums..

 Bluebirds are feathering their nests, in anticipation of the next generation.

So much activity fluffing and feathering. 

 

 

 

 

 

For winter's rains and ruins are over,

And all the season of snows and sins;

The days dividing lover and lover,

And time remembered is grief forgotten,

And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

~ Algernon Charles Swinburne

The Ones Who Got Away

 

Rain-Soaked

The earth is soaked from yesterday's rainfall , leaving early morning misty landscapes.

Long overdue, Winter days are now warming, later in the week, a predicted balmy 70 degrees.

 

The Iris are pushing their shoots out of the soil, I keep reminding them it's Winter and to stay safely snuggled beneath their blanket of earth, but they insist on reaching out to feel the warmth of the sun.

  

 

 
The First Sergeant has taken his bird-feeding duties most seriously, and has developed quite a following.
His goal is to have them feed out of his hand, but with cat's around, I'm not sure if that's such a wise thing.

 

The wild turkeys appear morning and evening, a flock of forty or more. 

 

 

 

They feed on the Sunflower seeds and anything else they choose.

 

Turkey Trot

It's been a dark and dismal day here in our middle Tennessee valley.
Not a day to be out and about, instead a day to be spent inside, indulging in a little fluffing and cooking.

Around about three in the afternoon each day, the wild turkeys appear.
A flock of thirty or more, spend the better part of an hour feeding and foraging and then head towards the trees to their nightly roost.

They have become quite accustomed to my appearance, and boldly trot on over to the bird -feeders close to the porch.
Funnily enough, I didn't see them whatsoever, the week of Thanksgiving !

My Life As A Turkey

I have spent this drizzly Sunday afternoon, watching one of the most heartwarming stories of animal and human imprinting.

After a local farmer left a bowl of eggs on Joe Hutto’s front porch, his life was forever changed.
Hutto, possessing a broad background in the natural sciences and an interest in imprinting young animals, incubated the eggs and waited for them to hatch. As the chicks emerged from their shells, they locked eyes with an unusual but dedicated mother.

Deep in the wilds of Florida’s Flatlands, Hutto spent each day living as a turkey mother, taking on the full-time job of raising sixteen turkey chicks. Hutto dutifully cared for his family around the clock, roosting with them, taking them foraging, and immersing himself in their world. In the process, they revealed their charming curiosity and surprising intellect. There was little he could teach them that they did not already know, but he showed them the lay of the land and protected them from the dangers of the forest as best he could. In return, they taught him how to see the world through their eyes.
Enjoy....

Before watching the movie, please scroll to the bottom of the page, to the playlist and click the LARGE ROUND BUTTON, to turn off the music.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/my-life-as-a-turkey/introduction/7268/

Watch My Life as a Turkey on PBS. See more from NATURE.

The Ones Who Got Away

We have spent the better part of Thanksgiving Day, eating and enjoying the company of family and friends alike.

We celebrated the tradition, ate too much food, and far too much dessert, since today was also my granddaughter's nineteenth birthday and decadent pies and cakes were tempting us everywhere we looked.

In the midst of eating dinner, I looked out of the window, only to find a flock of thirty or more wild turkeys merrily gobbling away.

I dare say, they were secretly chuckling.