Day Fifty-Nine: Kong Birds

Cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon. I stuck to my computer all morning trying to get work done, but in the afternoon I escaped into the scattered cloud light. I took off for a farm walk, feeling a need to get my heart pumping on that steep hill, but as soon as I got across the road, I was pulled to meander into the woods on a side track. It's a track that a four-wheeler could pass on, but nothing else. Everything was still dripping from the rain and I had to tread carefully on the soft ground. 

I saw so many beautiful things. Heart-shaped wild violet leaves, Russell's monarda blooming, some sort of aster-looking flower blooming, the impossibly yellow tickseed flowers. I saw an enormous pileated woodpecker, and caught glimpses of smaller birds flitting among the trees. I saw evidence of human activity long since-grown over. A tree stump cut with a saw but now hollow in the middle, a huge oak tree that had grown over barbed wire. An abandoned refrigerator. I went at a pace that did not result in an aerobic workout like I had planned initially, but at a pace where I could see things, smell things, take things in, and be taken in. It was just what I needed after days of being inside at my computer.

Discoveries on my ramble: violets, an interesting stump, and Indian Plantain.

In the evening, after a delicious dinner of smoked ribs and potato salad (with some fresh dill from my garden!), William and I took Daisy for a walk to the creek. Here, too, we went so slow we almost went backwards. William explored all the different sediment deposits along the sides of the creek, flinging mud, sending leaves downstream, picking flowers for me, splashing in puddles. I heard a bird song and wondered aloud what kind of bird it was. His immediate response was, "It's a kong bird. I know that from my brain." And how I love that brain. He's started a thing where he tells me all about different animals that he is making up completely, but he does so with so much authority! We were looking at Google Earth, and he was telling me all about the different mice species all over the world. It went something like this: "And here [pointing at a random mountain range] is where the white mice live with purple dots. And here is where the green mice live. They eat plants. And here's where the gray mice live..." He's also an expert on dinosaurs. There's one he knows all about in his brain that has two sets of retractable teeth, one for meat and one for plants. I don't know where he comes up with these things! I think the muse is strong with him.

We also saw our first Monarch butterfly of the year! They are so magnificent, it's no wonder someone named them Monarch. We saw it drinking nectar from the tickseed flowers, but I couldn't get close enough to take a picture.