Today there are robins everywhere! The yard is filled with 'em! A darting, scratching, red-breasted multitude, eager, animated, as perkily alive and welcome as the warm sunshine streaming through the sycamores.
Perhaps their visitation is a direct result of so glorious a wealth of late-January sunshine…or maybe the sunshine itself is here because the robins are out and about and have willed it into being through the sheer natural force of their ebullient spirit.
Who really knows the truth about such matters? But in the strong, lustrous light, their plump breasts glow a rich, fiery orange, almost the hue of some of that rusty looking gold they pull from the Black Hills of the Dakotas.
I do know they're wholeheartedly appreciated!
Immediately after New Year's, I began a necessary three-plus weeks of various eye-prep measures prior to upcoming surgery. During that time, I've been unable to see anything clearly beyond about a 4-inch focus distance. Robin throngs busily investigating the yard remained indiscernible. Even individuals on the ground directly below a window were unrecognizable as living creatures—merely moving blobs which might have been birds, squirrels, or wind-blown leaves.
Thankfully, that obligatory ordeal is over. I'll have my surgeries in February. And today, I can again see clearly…though I simply don't have sufficient words to tell you what a lovely and joyful blessing the sight of all these jaunty robins are to my weary, beauty-starved eyes.
12 comments:
Thinking of you, hope all goes well with your eye surgeries.
Anonymous...
Thank you. I hope so too, of course, and I have no reason to think otherwise. But your thoughts and well wishes are certainly appreciated.
Hi Grizz - so good to "see" you and know too that you can "see". Your vision is far greater than your eyes as it filters through from your grateful spirit, soul and heart. Still, eyesight is a gift beyond measure as are all of our senses and I am thrilled your eye sight is providing you with a 'view'. I will continue to pray for you as your eye surgeries are completed. Soon it will all be a distant memory. Phew.
Have a wonderful weekend
Love Gail
peace........
Gail…
And as always, thank you. I'm so very glad to be "seeing" again. Seems you made it out and about to the spa, too, go we've both managed so good progress recently. I spent yesterday visiting my daughter and granddaughter…went intending to stay 2-3 hours, ended up spending the entire day. Left here first thing in the morning and barely made it home before dark! But I had a lovely, wonderful time and visit and it was the best medicine ever after my long vision impaired exile.
Hope you have a great weekend. It's supposed to be sunny and 56˚F here today. Incredible for January!
Hi again - yes, the best medicine indeed. So glad you had a long and wonderful day with your daughter and grand-daughter. Blessings galore! My day at the spa being pampered was really good for me. I felt so pampered and almost normal!! Of course, yesterday was blowing snow and so cold! Today? In the high 40's and sunny -
Today we are putting together a nice beef stew and making biscuits to "dunk and dip". I am so grateful for every shared moment and task at hand - I revel in the "I can" and work hard to keep my "I can't" list short. A challenge and fierce endeavor some days - and some days the 'truth' is simple- as I surrender as gracefully as possible to my reality- rhythm ebbs and flows - strengths strengthen and weaken - courage eludes and then gives way to determined outcomes - faith, hope and love prevail regardless. Happy Saturday to you my dear, wise, wonderful friend.
Love Gail
peace......
So very different from summer thunderstorms here in southern Australia - and local magpies patrolling their territories - but so beautiful. Jean
Gail…
Well, neither Myladylove nor I managed much in the way of work yesterday—though she certainly accomplished the most. Instead we did spend the whole afternoon on an unsuccessful clothes shopping trip (looking for jeans that suited Mydaylove's fancy) to various stores, picking up a dozen bags of household items at another place, a 4:00 p.m. "lunch" salad at Cracker Barrel, followed by one final attempt at the clothes, then home about sunset…fairly exhausted. But it hit the 60˚plus mark here yesterday, the sun was out and glorious, and we had a good day in spite or the lack of success at finding her some new jeans.
You're right, too, about the "can-do" and "can't-do" lists, and the need to work diligently to keep the latter as short as possible. It is hard some days, impossible others. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. The key is to never cease striving. We're not defined by our knock-downs, but by the times we arise afterwards. Remember the Alamo! Never give up!
Jayview …
Thank you for your nice comments. I'm delighted your you found your way to Riverdaze. Please know you are always welcome here. I hope you'll stop by often.
Grizz: We've got lots of robins around the northern Piedmont; we always do during the winter. They've now stripped the crabapples and the winterberry hollies of all their fruit, and I have no idea what they're eating. We had 20 inches of snow during the January 23 blizzard (most of it has melted now), so the robins must have really been put to the test. They (and the Eastern Bluebirds) are remarkably resilient.
Scribe--hoping all is well with the surgery--if it has occurred. Or will be well if it is yet to come.
We too have had a plethora of robins around here. I worry about them when the weather is so cold. But they seem to thrive.
Scott:
The robins are still here—in fact they never left. We also have plenty of wintering robins hereabouts, though they generally keep to the woods and brushy thickets. They don't visit lawns…of course our lawns are usually covered with snow. This year's almost snowless and extremely mild winter was an understandable exception. I suppose some migrated south—birds from Michigan and the upper Great Lakes, maybe even northern Ohio. But here, it was wall-to-wall robins for at least a portion of almost every day.
KGMom…
Surgeries went very well…better than well, actually. Miraculous is the right word, and in it's exact meaning. I doing great, though I've had a chest cold and congestion for the last couple of weeks; just now getting over that.
Most birds can endure the cold, it's finding adequate food to keep their metabolism going that's the concern. Robins are omnivore birds, and the mild winter has allowed them to eschew the need for making much change to their feeding situation.
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