Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Steve’s Journal, Country Pleasures.
Hello everyone! It is such a beautiful day so I thought it was time for a look at my journal once more. Let’s see what we have for today…
It’s a beautiful, still morning as I look out the window of my cabin in the woods. The sun is just barely above the horizon and shining magnificently through the pines. But here the mornings can still be a bit on the cool side so I have a fire going in the old wood stove. Listening to the crackling of the wood as it burns is a real country pleasure. And that fire quickly removes the chill that was in the air as I got out of bed this morning. A wood fire warming a country cabin is a real country pleasure as well. And I have my pot of coffee sitting on top of the stove perking away. Not many people use a percolator for making coffee these days, but listening to it bubbling away and filling the cabin with such a beautiful smell of fresh coffee is another country pleasure that I thoroughly enjoy.
After a wonderful breakfast I look out each of the windows to make sure there are no surprises waiting outside, mainly I’m thinking of bears. Outside the air is fresh, a wonderful country pleasure. The sun has risen a bit higher in the sky, still shining through all the pine trees adding that golden hue to everything around. It’s early June, the days are long again for the summer, another true country pleasure. Time for a nice early morning walk. I start off down the road and then off onto a path that I use frequently through the forest. Listening to all the birds singing away, a real country pleasure. Sometimes it seems like every tree has at least one bird sitting in it, singing it’s own unique song. Now that’s a marvelous country pleasure.
Everything is so nice and green with many wildflowers blooming in their favorite spots, whether in sun or shade, adding so much color and beauty to the early morning landscape. A true country pleasure. Over under those trees I see some ladyslippers, some pink, some yellow, wild orchids that are a real country pleasure, a joy to see every time.
Over there at the base of that pine tree, a red squirrel eating the seeds from a pine cone. They go through a lot of work chewing through that hard exterior of the pine cone to get at the tiny seeds inside. But they do it without complaining, just sitting there enjoying their breakfast. Another country pleasure.
Here’s where I turn around on the other path to head back, just a shorter walk this morning. A woodpecker is tapping away at a dead tree to my right, also looking for his breakfast, maybe some ants or grubs of some kind. Back at the cabin a little chipmunk greets me, looking for a peanut, which is his breakfast. So I go inside and come out with peanuts for him which he happily puts in his cheeks and runs off with them to his little home. Another country pleasure. Well, time to water my little flower garden, another country pleasure to enjoy. I hope you all have a wonderful day full of country pleasures and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Thursday’s Thoughts #2.
Good morning everyone! So glad to see you all again! It is such a beautiful morning that I was outside on the deck until now enjoying things with my cup of coffee. Things have sure changed at the feeders now. All the juncos have gone and I only saw 3 white-throated sparrows and a chipping sparrow. Even the pine siskins were not here and I only saw 2 purple finches and 9 evening grosbeaks, 2 days ago there was more than 60 grosbeaks. But they are all spreading out now to fill the forests with their cheerful songs and little nests. I finally went back down to the river yesterday afternoon. It was beautiful, the temp was 68F (20C) and a light south wind. It was nice to hear all the birds along the path again and at the river too. It had been so quiet before. But now it is more alive once again.
There were 4 different species of butterflies as well, one small blue one that wouldn’t sit still for me, a large white butterfly which also would not sit still, then there was the mourning cloak which I have shown before and is always our first butterfly of the season. That one has been out since early April. Then there was a nice orange type butterfly that doesn’t seem to really fit anything in the book I have. The closest is the “eastern comma” which is an angelwing butterfly. It still doesn’t quite fit, but I’m staying with that name until I find something else. While I was sitting on the bench some ducks flew past, 2 others landed on the other side of the river and 2 more were already on the other side of the river. What’s wrong with this side? They never come swimming along on this side so I can get pictures of them. Amazing really.
This path I walk on is 6 feet wide (not quite 2 meters), so it’s plenty wide enough when passing someone to keep with physical distancing. In some places it’s even wider, like the place I met this guy, his little girl and his big dog. He did say “good afternoon”, though he didn’t exactly look happy. I said the same and mentioned our nice weather, but he said nothing else. His little girl hid behind him when she saw me. She looked terrified, like “there’s another human being on this path, we need to hide”. That’s what it looked like. Or do I really look that terrifying? I know I don’t like to look in the mirror any more than I have to, but still.
Then the other day when I was walking along the path I met this young woman who wouldn’t say hi and actually went off the path, easily 20 feet off (about 6 meters). She had to go through bushes and slide down a rock. So maybe I do look that terrifying. Such things could give a person a complex of some kind. I will admit, I do have a bit of a terrifying look to me, which is why you don’t see a lot of pictures of myself on this blog. I don’t want to scare people away. So now I have proof that I’m scary looking. Now, let’s see, how can I use that to my benefit? Oh well. It’s still a beautiful morning. Lots of squirrels out here this morning, more on that tomorrow. Have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 