“I get up in the morning looking for an adventure.”
The clouds are still around, but the day is warmish at 53˚. The trees are quiet. My neighborhood too is quiet now. I say now because around 4:30, yes 4:30 a.m., I was reading in bed surrounded by the dogs when I heard a noise from outside so I sat up and listened. I heard a turkey gobbling probably from my front yard. The dogs didn’t hear it or they didn’t care about a bird. The gobbling went on for a while. I was tempted to get out of bed to go downstairs to look, but the dogs were asleep, I had room in the bed, and I didn’t want to test fate so I turned off the light to the sounds of the turkey.
When I was a kid, I was thrilled to see wildlife. On family car rides we’d yell out even when we saw just cows. I remember thinking how funny skunks walk with that little waddle. I also remember running from that funny, waddling skunk. On one ride, we yelled when we saw some deer eating in a field, their heads down to the grass. My father stopped so we could watch.
We used to go to Maine to my father’s friend’s cottage in Ogunquit. It was a tiny place where every available space had beds. I remember sleeping behind a wall in the kitchen which hid a bed. The wall went up and down. One Sunday, I woke up early before every one else and went outside. Another friend of my father’s who had a cottage was there. I said hello, and because I was the only one awake, he invited me to go with him to a monastery for mass. I did. It was a most amazing morning. I remember every bit of that experience, but I don’t remember the man’s name. He was old, at least to the young me. He wore a suit and a fedora. We chatted. He pointed out places as we drove through town to the next town, Kennebunkport, to the monastery. I remember the chapel. It was old with stained-glass windows, finished wooden walls and statues in darkened wood. The pews sloped a bit. The monks wore brown. They sang during the mass. Their voices were beautiful. My father’s friend gave me a quarter for the collection. I was used to a dime. On the way home, we stopped for donuts, hot chocolate and coffee. As we drove pass the harbor, I saw seals and did my look at the animals yell. He stopped the car, and we ate breakfast watching the seals.
That is one of my best mornings.
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March 26, 2022 at 2:41 pm
We would have had a really nice day here but we had a somewhat strong wind and it was cold as well so I preferred to stay indoors most of the time. The kitchen door was open all the time till the sun went away again.
We saw wildlife all the time in my city when I grew up, a big park followed by the forest made sure of that 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
March 26, 2022 at 4:59 pm
Christer,
I was out a few times this week, enough times. I’m glad to stay home today.
The sun finally beat out the clouds. It is quite bright but not so warm. It is down to 50˚ and will fall to the low 40’s.
We used to roam the woods near our house, but we didn’t see much beyond squirrels, skunks and chipmunks. I see a lot of wildlife here on the cape. Turkeys are actually commonplace.
Have a great Sunday
March 26, 2022 at 4:28 pm
Hi Kat,
Beautiful sunny day with a predicted high of nearly 90°. The weekend should be clear with even warmer temperatures tomorrow. Today we had pizza for lunch. This is unusually warm weather for late March and early April.
Our training center is located on the west side of the DFW airport across the street from the west side north/south runways. The airport is the size of Manhattan Island. When they designed the airport in the late 1960s, the airport board bought a lot of the land surrounding the airport to remain as a buffer zone to prevent development which would drive noise complaints. We had a wild turkey living in the woods on the edge of the employee parking lot at the rear of the building. It wouldn’t runoff but would retreat to the edge of the pavement when someone walked towards the bird. That was several years ago and I don’t know what happened to the turkey. It probably became dinner for a coyote.
I always wondered what would cause a man to want to become a monk. Did those monks take a vow of silence? Was that monastery considered cloistered? I never thought about monasteries. And, I didn’t know that there were seals in the North Atlantic Ocean. I’ve seen lots of them along the Pacific shore in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington State. And, of course in zoos and aquariums. 🙂
March 26, 2022 at 5:22 pm
Hi Bob,
The sun finally came out today but it is getting chilly as the day dies. We could get to the 30’s tonight. That is a typical spring in Massachusetts.
Usually wild turkeys don’t travel alone. Here rafters are as small as 5 and as large as in the 20’s.Turkeys have been known to attack so you have to approach them gently but not too closely.
Those monks were Franciscans, and they are involved in the world. There are other orders where the monks don’t speak. I think it is, for them, a sacrifice to God.
The reason the cape has so any white sharks is because of the seals. They loll on the rocks and make huge targets. We get two kinds of seals: grey and harbor. People on boats touring Monomoy, a big shark area, have been appalled to see the shark jump out of the water and take a seal.
March 26, 2022 at 6:57 pm
Didn’t your family wonder where you were?
March 26, 2022 at 7:38 pm
I don’t remember any problems with my having gone so I must have left a note or told somebody.