Jlknapp505's Blog

I haven’t written the final part about reinventing myself, but I thought you might be interested in this short essay I wrote this morning:

I woke up around 5am this morning. My time of day…I’m still eager to see what the day brings. Nature usually doesn’t disappoint.
Cup of coffee, feed the dogs and let them out for a run. Bare hint of light off to the east across the Manzano mountains.
The light grows slowly. Dawn patrol of hummingbirds are at the feeders as soon as it’s light enough to fly. Astonishing metabolism; they need to tank up after sleeping in a tree for eight hours or so. I think this is the real reason they fly south in late fall; they just can’t tolerate going without food during the long hours of night, 35º north of the equator. They’ll migrate south, wait around in South Texas and Louisiana, stock up on fat, and then make the long flight across the Gulf to South America for the winter.
When they leave, the cranes migrate in. They’ll overwinter around here.
The first finches appear around 6:30, but there’s been another visitor before that. A tiny field mouse is hiding somewhere behind the hot tub. Now he’s getting his breakfast, dropped seeds from the finch feeders.
Finches are messy eaters. They pluck a seed from the feeder, try to crack it with their beaks (they love sunflower seeds!), and if they drop it, no problem. Just grab another. But the finches aren’t out yet.
The mouse appears under the privacy fence around the hot tub. Pauses, waits a few seconds for danger, runs over and grabs a seed, races back to cover. He did that a dozen times, waiting a minute or two between his forays.
Some mice carry diseases. I don’t think the ones here are exposed to that. Birds, possibly; bird flu is a problem this time of year in New Mexico. I’ll take the chance.
Almost no breeze. A slight rustle of the leaves on the cottonwood. Early clouds, ghost rain that may not be hitting the ground, but it’s close. Finally it vanishes as the sun appears. But I got a photo; download it and post it on Flickr later.
The morning newspaper is here. I’ll bring it in now. The dogs are asleep, Kevin’s awake. We chat for a few minutes. Patty’s still asleep. She’s a night owl, I’m the early morning guy. But now my time is over. I’ll have to share with others.
It was fun while it lasted, and that’s why I enjoy rising somewhere between 5am and 5:30am. Second cup of coffee now; I’m using the cup that Katri sent me from Finland.
It’s all good.

This entry was posted on August 17, 2013 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.