Nearly Four Years

Four years ago this month we were housesitting for a friend in Village Homes. While I worked on removing the huge numbers of weeds that had built up over the rainy season, Numenius put Feathers of Hope together.

Since that time a lot of blogging friends have come and gone. It’s a shifting culture. Many people start out not knowing whether they’ll have enough to say; then it turns out they have plenty; then they think they’ve said all they can and stop.

One of these has, I’m really pleased to find out (better late than never), decided to come back. Rana writes about the natural world better than many. What she finds to say about the natural world at her doorstep is so evocative I can smell the wet earth. I can see the small black cat’s pipe-cleaner tail. I can hear the screaming blue jays.

—-

Today the first of the rough-winged swallows were back. The only one I haven’t seen in Davis yet this spring is the barn swallow, but they should be back any day. On our bike ride into town we had the show of white-throated swifts diving over and under the freeway, chattering madly. I have dirt under my fingernails. The first assassin bug showed up, oddly enough, on Diego’s coat. The insects have started emerging just in time for the swallows. We have leapt almost into summer, here, and it’s only March…