Diary of a Morning Hour

The curtain is drawn, and I stop to notice…

A chipmunk sniffs and darts across a flag stone, then climbs into the false sunflower pot as it searches for a snack. A bee takes off from the yellow flower petals.

Yonder, in the white clover speckled grass, are two morning doves. They are joined for a moment by a house sparrow which pops out of my curbside native plant garden and back again.

Closer by, a squirrel comes headfirst down my oak tree and is joined by the chipmunk in my new rain garden. Above them, two birds startled by a passing car zoom by. A cyclist startles another pair across the street, which fly to safety in my buckeye tree.

Things quickly calm down.  A mother robin is looking after her two young chicks that have left their nest. They hop off the big rock and all around the front yard.  When the mother robin turns to the east, her orange breast lights up and glows extra bright, in the direct morning light. What a sight.

I muse on the diversity of life, living so close together. I ponder the hard work it requires to maintain a semi natural habitat in an urban environment.  I search for signs of wildlife in the empty/neatly mowed lawns of my neighbors…

Then I turn away.  My goal today is to pick bright red, juicy, ripe strawberries for breakfast. I don’t need to go to the grocery store or a pick you own berries farm. Just hoping the chipmunks and birds have left me some.

I muse again.  What it must have been like for the post glacial people that lived by Euclid Creek, as they searched for June berries in the woods.

What an amusing hour this has been.

Deborah Kramarz

Publisher

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Volume 11, Issue 7, Posted 4:52 PM, 07.06.2020