Good morning once again everyone!  This promises to be another beautiful day with abundant sunshine.  And…Sir George and his mate Lady Pearly returned yesterday morning.  I looked out my window and Sir George was sitting on top of his pole looking around.  So I went out with food for him and that’s when I noticed that Lady Pearl was also here, sitting on the roof.  So I put the food on the feeder and just barely stepped back when Sir George came down, so I stood there talking with him for a bit.  Then he filled up with some food while Lady Pearl looked on, not quite sure if she should come down.  She did decide to come down at a different time, along with Sir George.

To back up briefly, I cut up a wiener for them, 12 pieces, and Sir George picked up 8 and flew up to the roof, bowed to Lady Pearl and then fed the pieces to her which she accepted, meaning that she once again accepts him as her mate.  A ritual performed each year.  They are one of those birds that “mate for life”, a term that means staying together until one mate dies, then they will pick a new mate.  So nice to watch them go through this ritual each year.  This is one of those “pleasures” that I like to talk about at times.

This is probably a good time to stop and take a look at all the amazing “pleasures” that we can find around us.  It’s a good idea at any time, but when stressful times really come along as right now with this Covid-19, then it’s good to remind ourselves of all the pleasures that abound around us.  This will help give us a much brighter outlook on things and help us day by day, if we will allow it too.  Like the beauty of this flower below, a definite “pleasure”.

We get thousands of gulls back each spring and they are here right now.  I was on the deck last evening and the gulls were flying around, some low, some high, I am sure probably 2 or 3 thousand just in the area I could see and all of them squawking away having a great time.  A lot of people hate those noisy gulls, but for me it is such a wonderful time, letting me know that spring has come once again.  The clouds of a cold, long winter have been put behind and the sunshine of spring returns.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of these gulls, but it was getting late and not much light left in the sky.  But it was another “pleasure” for me.

And then yesterday morning I could hear the chirping of a robin but couldn’t see it right then.  But a little later, there he was, sitting in the birch tree behind my apartment, singing so beautifully as he warmed himself in the sun.  And I got a pic, but unfortunately not while he was in the sun, but later in the day once the sun had set.  But it still turned out rather well.  Robins are another bird that really signals spring for us here in the north and another real “pleasure” to enjoy, both by sight and song.

I am going to stop it right here for now, but there will be a part 2 coming up a little later.  I hope you will come back for more “pleasures” to be shared at that time.  Until then, I hope you have a beautiful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

© 2020 Steve McLeod.