A bluebird bailed me out!

20 December, 2020 A bluebird bailed me out!

I was thin on blog material this week (as will become evident when you whisk through this post) but I saw this lovely bluebird at the river yesterday. You may be an exception, but I’ll bet you’re not – almost everybody smiles when they see bluebirds. I’ve put up really junky (IMO) pictures of bluebirds from my feeder and people just flock to them (in a manner of speaking). So I was grateful when this one stopped on a branch at Pony Pasture yesterday long enough for me to click my shutter:

I actually photographed this owl about ninety minutes before the bluebird. But I wanted the bluebird on top of this post. I love bluebirds – they remind me of my dad, and they make me smile even apart from that. But I only ever glimpse bluebirds, or watch them flit. It’s much easier to breathe and think and relax and be mindful when owl watching:

**Barred owl – my favorite Pony Pasture sight when I’m not looking at the river or dogs**

Here are two more lovely animals I photographed yesterday morning at the river. Yuki (our big white German Shepherd buddy) is healthy and cheerful (Evelyn walked him with his owner yesterday) but on sabbatical. Don’t tell Yuki, but these two are my real favorites:

**Mackey and Turner saying “For the love of Dog can we please just hike already?”**

Also while we were hiking yesterday we saw this ice formed on the rings of a fallen rotting log.

It’s funny – in the Spring at the river there are a group of plants referred to specifically as “ephemerals,” meaning something that “lasts a short time”. That’s in the dictionary. Those little ice patterns are really ephemeral.

I’m kind of just plunking down in front of this computer and dashing this off – and a week from today will be the final Sunday of 2020!

I should have taken a picture of the river today. Maybe next week. I hear (often) about how difficult 2020 has been. It has been, and 2021 will bring more of the same. An almost infinite number of excellent things also happened in 2020, and 2021 will bring more of the same. The reason I opened this paragraph with a sentence about the river is, it always flows the same. 2020, 1920, 2030, it’ll keep going by. No president, new president, pandemic, new babies, it’s all good.

Have a great week, see you in seven days,

Jay

About Jay McLaughlin

I am a rehabilitation counselor. I have many friends with autism and traumatic brain injuries. They help me learn new things constantly. I hike with dogs at the James River in Richmond - a lot. I've completed an Iron distance triathlon a year for 11 years. My most recent was in Wilmington, NC in November, 2013. I currently compete in mid-distance triathlons. And work and hike and take pictures and write and eat.

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