Sunday afternoon

We made it to the park earlier today - 5:30 am - and perhaps that's why, but it was a good wildlife day there. First, we found the heron, in the grass near the larger part of the pond. I sat and just watched her for a while. She was hunkered down, neck pulled in so far I wasn't sure it was her. Then she extended her neck and her head; suddenly she was 3-1/2 or 4 feet tall! And then she flew. She glided across the pond to the small island in the middle of it. Perhaps that's where she's been staying.

We also saw many MANY Canada geese, as all the baby goslings are growing up now and almost as big as their parents. They swim in very straight lines behind one or another parent (the other parent, I think, bringing up the rear), reminding me of the children's book Eloise, where all the little girls walked in a line behind the nuns. Interestingly, the geese were grazing in the grass when we arrived, and 2 adults were clearly posted as sentries, keeping watch, and then herding the youngsters into the water. I learned from a book I read in the past week or so that at the same time that Canada geese nest and raise their young, they also molt, so not only the baby geese can't fly yet, their parents are ground-bound as well.

We also saw a bunny - which appeared to be on the left side of the bell curve in bunny intelligence since it saw Jessie and froze and if I'd let her go, she would have caught it. I also saw the muskrat again, watched him or her swimming in the pond going one direction and passing within a foot or so of two Mallards swimming the other direction. Yesterday morning I think I saw the fox again - or maybe a different one - just a flash in the park, dashing into some brush.


Well, June is almost over - it has been a wonderful doctor-free month for me. My hair is almost 1/2 inch long now - almost! - and I think grayer than before (but is that surprising?). I turn 60 next month, and one thing cancer did for me was make me look forward to every birthday. After I see the doctor next month, I'm going to make some decision about this blog. I have a feeling I'm going to keep on writing, because although it wasn't the motivation for this blog (which was to keep family and friends updated about the cancer diagnosis and treatments), writing here has come to be helpful to me in some other way. I thought about starting another blog, just to keep writing on non-cancer specific topics, especially about my wanderings and wonderings in and about nature, and that's still a possibility. But so is just keeping on keeping on here. I guess I'll figure it out.

One of the gas stations in our neighborhood that was Luk Oil is now BP. I wonder if they're doing any business. Not mine.

Peace.