Enough About the Damn Coughing

I am still having cough spasms every 1.2 hours to every 2 hours throughout the day and night.  I have followed the most recent therapy (now Silent Acid Reflux) taking the meds and giving up acid foods, etc.  I am eating small meals, bought a wedge pillow (which is the MOST uncomfortable thing ever if you are a side sleeper.)  I push ahead doing projects outside, going to stores, and talking on the phone while being interrupted by my intense cough every single time.  Driving requires my careful attention to avoid any dangers while coughing my head off. OK...not going to write any more about it.  But NOTHING is working and I  am fighting depression because COVID is ending isolation for all, except me!

My laptop starting getting funny and shutting down intermittently.  I took it to the technician and they put in a totally new OS, neglecting to tell me that EVERYTHING on my computer that was personalized would have to be done over again.  Logins, finding old bookmarks (?) and adjusting how I have personalized browsers and laptop settings.   Thankfully, I found Blogger and was able to log in and continue here as if nothing had happened!  One of the reasons I took it in was to fix the in-computer camera which they said they did.  Hubby picked up the laptop for me but did not ask them to show him the camera was working.  My family has been waiting for a Zoom meeting and the camera is STILL not working.  I cannot get help.  The call goes into a long phone tree and then I wait for 24 hours and they say they will call back to work remotely and that did not happen yesterday while I waited 4 hours!

I have not been to the dentist for almost two years for a cleaning...the cough, of course.

I need to finally make an appointment for an eye exam, but I am putting that off because I have been on so many meds, I am afraid they might impact the results I get for a new prescription.

My SIL is visiting her son in the city and I am now wondering how we will get together.  She does not have a car and wants to meet up! 

The only good thing about all of this is that the meds have subdued my appetite and I am eating less.  Maybe I will lose weight?

Enough about the damn coughing.  Here is a vole that was left on my driveway by someone or something this past week  (probably the feral cat that roams about trying to win me over)...maybe they know something I do not?

Those Feather Friends

This has been a fun winter and spring in terms of birding.  Hubby and I are so in sync with our feathered neighbors that we find mornings pointing out this and that to each other.  While we failed to get the osprey to nest in their old home, we realized we should have cleaned it out from the grasses and just left a few sticks for them to rebuild.  That would have made the geese dismiss the site.  There is always next year.

The osprey did build a small mansion of a nest across the river at the top of a tall tree and while distant we can still watch them!  You can just see the small brown smudge below.

But I have a telephoto!

We have also had the migration birds come swiftly through before heading up north and I was able to catch a few photos of those!  (Red-breasted Mergansers).

They look like the Steven Tyler version of the musical world.

I failed to clean out the birdhouses last month and now am afraid to try to open any, but we do have bluebirds checking out the area and they are in their best colors right now.

Next post, the woodpeckers!

Change In Plans

We are busy in the spring. Very busy. Yet, watching birds is something we put into our 'busy' schedule. 'Our' Canada geese winter over in the river and then fly north. We watch them each day line up in formation to fly over the dormant cornfield to the west knowing there are hunters about, but still calling their friends and neighbors to fly out. They do not leave all at once but in groups of 5 or 10 or 20.  When the noise reaches a peak, the flapping wings banging against the surface of the water adds even more chaotic sound, and soon with a crescendo, they are off leaving behind only soft white feathers on the surface.

Those geese that remain are not migratory and must find nesting grasses as soon as the weather starts to warm. The geese that remain were looking at the osprey nest right after the last snow.

We realized too late that we should have tried to knock off all the soft grasses and forced the osprey to rebuild when they arrived. 

The ospreys returned weeks later and sat watchfully on the empty nest that first day.  Sometime during the day the geese brought a major attack against the two ospreys and intimidated them off the nest with their large wingspan. When the geese returned to the nest, the osprey were not able to return the intimidation making them leave. I learned a lot about fighting and sense of purpose and how size matters more than claws and beaks---psychology more than actual weapons.  This battle went on for several days.  The ospreys are now building a more fragile nest high in a tree across the river.

We dreaded the time when the geese couple would realize that hubby's banging on the osprey nest post and his chasing them back up the river in his kayak was not dangerous. One morning the female goose stood her ground!  She sat and watch him bang away and realized that was all he had. No gun. No net. Just noise. 

For a while, there were two couples eyeing the nest.  Real estate is at a premium here.  

We have accepted that once again we will watch a pair of geese raise their young through the spring...unless our horned owl decides the young will make a nice midnight snack.  I accept that we like the geese less because they are so abundant and so strong.  I have had a goose try to chase me off a canal path years ago.  But it is what it is.

Waiting for Guests

I have written about this before, but this year is more complex it seems.

We behave in a most ridiculous manner each spring.   After all, the guests that are coming are not 'our' guests. Yes, we invited them and provide 'shelter', but it is not as though we are close friends or hang out when they are here!  We let them go their way and we go ours.  We can guess at their favorite meals and they could care less about ours.  We are quiet at night as are they.  It is a very simpatico relationship.

We start watching for their arrival in Mid-march.  They do not send any notice and we get very nervous if they are late. Thousands of miles is a long way to come all by yourself!  They meet up but arrive days apart.  They have no idea the extra effort we take to make sure their guest room is ready for them the moment they arrive. 

We were filled with joy when we saw them both and the male was doing his sky dance yesterday afternoon.  You can go here to see what a joyous mating ritual this is.

Sometimes other trespassers want to take advantage of our hospitality, but we have specifically set aside this place (for the last 15 years!) for our special guests. We have watched through joy, challenge, and tragedy as they raise their annual family. The multitude of the 'other' homeless is persistent as they want a safe shelter for their young.  One year we were not home at the right time and one of the interlopers settled in!  (Some of these older photos are blurry, but they help tell the tale.)

They could not be moved even with all our shouting and throwing.  When our guests,  the osprey, eventually returned, they could not chase them off even with their beaks and talons.  The geese would not move off their newly laid eggs.

The battle went on for hours.  The Geese won...

They raised a lovely family and we found joy in their success while we missed our osprey.

Five or six plops into the water during summer and the siblings joined their parents and were quickly moved away from prying eyes.  The nest was empty.

But because of that success, they return early every year and we play chase-away for many days.  Hubby now rises early and gets into the kayak to keep the geese away.  This year has been a particularly difficult season and the neighbors must be very entertained.

Hubby chases them all the way to the end of the finger in the river and the osprey seem to be weakening in their determination to nest.  It will be very sad if they are not successful this year.  That long flight has weakened them, I am sure.  They are not ready for such a battle.  

Destroying Tapestries

Such mystery 

Such complex history 

Today they felled three-one-hundred-year-old trees

The death shudder shook my windows

Tomorrow we check the vernal pond 

Fragility which does not even last a whole year

It is all a tapestry 

Over which we try mastery 

And we can move mountains and cheer our eccentricity

 

Our hubris and  power over the planet 

Erasing nature's chronicle in just one afternoon

Last of the ICE...today is 60F!

The last of my ice fairy photographs. I took snow boots in hand, without treds(!), onto the icy road and docks, but found it was not as slippery as I expected. And the walk was so worth it. The sun was just coming up adding a soft pink to the ice on the wooden structures. At the dock the sun kissed the tops of the trees and then I was also able to get a lovely sunset as the winter day moved onward.

The days ending looked much warmer than it actually felt.

A Break From the Monotony of gray

We did not get above freezing for several days. Even today, with all melted, the air is very crisp and I am staying indoors. Here are a few more photos of the lovely icy artwork that Mother Nature is so famous for.

If you look closely, there is still a lot of color out there.

The birds were feeding each and every day and I should buy stock in birdseed.

My cut-leaf maple that hangs on each year.

The last of the rose hanging in there!

Hellebores blooming in snow and ice.

Crepe myrtle seeds.

Above I had fun with layering to bring out the female cardinal. I am always amazed at how they weather the weather!