Nature at its Best

Nature is certainly smarter than we are. We have been filling bird feeders for years, and feeding peanuts to our family of squirrels. Each year our birds bring their new babies to our yard and teach them how to feed. The Mother squirrels live in trees across the road from our yard. As soon as their babies are big enough to cross the road, she brings them to a very old nest in our giant maple tree - just a few feet from our feeders. She keeps them up in that nest until she has recovered her long spell with no food, and then she teaches them the cautious way of feeding at our yard.
But there is more to it than that, as I found out today and tonight. The mother birds brought a host of babies today and they landed on our big bird bath. The mother drank her fill and then went to the feeders. The babies sat looking at their reflections in the water, but did not drink. Why? Then the mothers returned, one at a time, with seed and fed the babies, who were waiting there. When all had been fed the mother drank again, and the babies, watching them, also learned to drink safely. In the meantime several larger birds took a bath and sprayed all over the place.
I tossed out the days ration of peanuts (not in the shell) to my squirrels and suddenly four pigeons and 2 bluejays swooped down and gathered up the peanuts before the squirrels could. I had never seen them steal the peanuts before. No wonder the squirrels remained hungry. Then tonight, around l0PM> I smelled a skunk in the area and wondered where it was. They are rare around here. Well, taking a peek out the side window ( there is a yard light that illuminates our feeders out there) I spotted the skunk digging up the peanuts the squirrels had buried. Then he wandered off down the yard, across the street, and to the yard area behind an apt. house over there. Apparently, his home is in that area and he is using our yard for feeding purposes also.
So I will switch back to peanuts in the shells and hope the squirrels take them back to their nests and not bury them in our yard. Hmmm.
My advice is never try to fool Mother Nature, or the wild animals that know her. Ha!

What is Beauty?

We often say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". What do we mean by that? Simply put, each of us sees things differently and with our eyes and our feelings we record beauty in our own way - not necessarily as others see it. On the front page of our newspaper the other day was a gorgeous picture of Keene Valley, N.Y. For those of you who do not know what, or where, that is, I will explain.
Keene Valley is a tiny hamlet nestled among many mountain ranges on one of the few roads up into the Adirondack Mountain Preserve (Forever Wild). After you leave the main highway North (Rt.87 - called the Northway) you take a side Rt 73 and begin to climb steadily up into the mountains toward Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. It is breathtaking, steep and narrow - crawling along the sides of cliffs and clinging to the earth as best it can. There are the Cascade Lakes - deep and blue - and the danger of falling rocks. This is mountain climbers heaven. But Keene Valley nestles in the middle of nowhere and the ranges are green and awesome. In the picture it is just a tiny,little opening in the greenery and it marches uphill to Keene, the on to the Olympic Complex and Lake Placid and another 9 miles to my hometown of Saranac Lake. It is then that you see the beauty of a thousand little islands in a long, long string of lakes and rivers - all green, all plush, and forever wild. Without this road - this whole area of upstate N..Y. would be cut off from the rest of the world, as if it didn't exist.
You can visit or settle in - to the perfect , ideal place to be at peace and enjoy every day without the confusion of traffic or people. You may wonder why I ever left it. Well, that is another story, but I love my mountains, and I often drive up these roads to be among them again. It always refreshes me and my spirit and no matter how far away you go, once you have lived there, you will always come back. It doesn't change much and perhaps that is what draws us back. It is forever wild, and it is THERE.