Of Cottages--and Kings

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cottages--and kings--"

This little ditty kept running through my head the other day. It's one of those famous poem lines I had to memorize as a child. After a while I realized that I had it wrong - the last line is 'of CABBAGES--and kings'. (Methinks it might have been a Freudian slip). I had been asking myself why I was still at sixes and sevens two full months after the big move, and what comes to mind but a Lewis Carroll nonsense rhyme!

It's called 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' and is from 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'. Since I was thinking about it, I decided to look up the rest of the poem. Here's the first two stanzas:

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.


The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

I've never been a big fan of Lewis Carroll or of nonsense poems in general, so I was shocked to find that it was making sense to me! Everything is topsy-turvy and not in the place it's supposed to be. Even the sun and the moon seem to be in the wrong places.

I can relate to that. Since 1978 I've lived in houses that were oriented East to West. My new cottage is oriented North to South. I can't see the sun rise OR set. I always tried to do my morning devotions at sunrise and it was great to see a new day dawn. If I could, I tried to do my evening devotions at sunset - sometimes with spectacular displays as a backdrop. The last house was a great one for sunsets.

And that's not all: every time I automatically reach for something, it's not there and I have to stop and think where I've put it. Every time I write my address, I have to stop and really concentrate to get it right. I used to just jump into my car and it would go on automatic pilot to wherever I needed to be. (Okay, some days I'd end up in the wrong spot, but not too often). The first night we were here I didn't realize that I was sleeping on the wrong side of the bed because it was turned around. I ended up falling off in the middle of the night. And on and on it goes.

I really like my cottage and don't miss my old house at all - certainly NOT the stairs. But I have been disoriented. I'm sure it's not my age!

O course, sooner or later, this will all pass. In the meanwhile, I think I'll dig out my Alice books. I may be able to relate to her in a whole new way!

From Bats to Buzzards

One of the great joys of life is to be tuned into the natural world that is all around us. Bird watching has been a favorite pastime of mine for 60 plus years. I've always had a garden and am well acquainted with all the gentle visitors that have shown up to eat at my flowers and feeders.

The first few days we were here, I didn't see ANY birds. I could HEAR some jays and finches in the woods at the side of our house, but never saw one. Then one evening as I sat on the deck watching the sun go down and waiting for the first star, I was introduced to my first visitors - BATS. It wasn't even dark yet, but there they were bombing all over the place.

The next visitors were crows - lots of them. Of course years ago we had crows stop by every now and then on garbage day, but the West Nile Virus had wiped them out in our area. So, it was fun to see them again and to watch their raucus antics.

While I was watching the crows, I began to notice smaller birds walking around with them. Kildeer! Actually, they are not so small, but were dwarfed by the crows. They really grow them BIG out here. Well, the kildeer are delightful. Eventually they came closer and even play in the puddles on the walking trail. The way they walk/run reminds me of the Road Runner.

At first, I didn't realize that there was a creek in the woods. J-man II took me exploring in there and I was amazed to find a 10 foot deep ravine with a creek at the bottom in a very dense wood. This has promise! It seems to be teeming with all sorts of wildlife. J-man says he's run into large snapping turtles. But, I'm not the only one who's noticed that there's life in there. A great-horned owl hunts there in the middle of the night and has a lot of fun sitting in a tree next to my bedroom window hooting for hours.

But the prized sighting goes to Mr. Bill. He had noticed a dead red squirrel on the road one day when he was going to the nursing home to visit his brother Tony. When he returned, he found a determined Turkey Vulture feasting on the carcass. He barely moved when Bill slowed down to go around him. That squirrel was HIS and nobody was going to contest it!

Yesterday I rigged up my bird feeder and put out my 'bait' - sunflower seeds. I'm hoping to lure some of my old gentle friends out of the woods and onto my deck. I can HEAR them, but I would like to SEE them, too.