Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Country Pleasures. #1
Hello dear readers and Happy New Year on this Sunday evening here at Steve’s Country! Well, here we are, beginning a new year and we are right into winter. Our summers are very short, so it’s nice to get out and enjoy summer as much as possible. For me I would get out and enjoy it even if we had long summers. That is a pleasure that I treasure. It’s amazing how quick we are to complain about things and yet there are so many things around us each day, so many pleasures that we can treasure. We complain about summer being too hot or winter being too cold. Although our winter so far has not been that bad, it certainly could be much worse.
But think of all the little pleasures that we can treasure. It doesn’t matter where you live, there are always pleasures around. I like to talk about country pleasures a lot since I live in a small town which is close to country living. But pleasures can be found everywhere. Ever walk past a house with beautiful flowers? That is a wonderful pleasure. Have you seen the bees going from flower to flower collecting nectar to bring back to their hive? Often those bees are covered with pollen. That is a real pleasure to see and watch.
What about a brilliantly colored butterfly flitting about? There it goes across the lawn, it stops to rest on a leaf or goes to a flower for something to eat. That is a beautiful pleasure and a real treasure. How about walking across the grass with bare feet on a hot summer day? What a beautiful feeling that is, another pleasure that we can treasure. Or sitting in the shade of a large tree on a sunny, hot afternoon? Perhaps a gentle summer shower and the amazing fresh smell afterwards?
Winter sunrise, unfortunately marred by the security netting on my balcony.
How about the smell of freshly cut grass? These are all wonderful pleasures that we can treasure. If you are an early morning person like me, there is the beauty of a summer sunrise. As the sun peeks over the treetops and shines its golden rays on the still green leaves. Like turning on a switch, those trees just begin to glow. Or if you prefer a time later in the day, there are the amazing summer sunsets with multiple colors of red, pink, purple and gold. Those colors keep changing as the sun sinks deeper under the horizon, until there is just a faint glow. Both of these are true pleasures that we can really treasure.
American Goldfinch
Then we have the many varied songs of the birds. Some can be very plain without any real melody to them. Others are very musical with long, loud songs that carry for long distances. Any time of day birds can be heard. Each seems to have their favorite time of day for singing however. Some will sing any time, day or night, like our robins. Some, like owls, reserve their calling for the night portion of the day.
Common Loon, which is not as common anymore
Our loons will call anytime of the day/night, but they can really get active with their long incredible calls at night. Those calls can carry for kilometers across the water. They are an absolutely amazing water bird. And bird songs/calls are a definite pleasure that can be enjoyed everywhere. How about walking across the hot sand at the beach? Going for a swim on a hot day.
Perhaps going for a walk on a nice country or park path. Sitting on a thick mat of pine needles shaded by the giant trees while looking out across a river or lake. Watching a squirrel high in one of those pine trees cutting down the pine cones which he later gathers up and chews them open to eat the tiny seeds within. A lot of work for just such tiny seeds. But the squirrel doesn’t complain about it. Another bunch of pleasures that we can treasure. We can learn a lot from some of these little critters too.
Well, I will leave it there for this time, but I will be back with more pleasures we can treasure another time. Have a wonderful week and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Kidnapping Case. Chapter 12. Surprise!
After communicating with Kat, Jennifer then communicated with me to find out what was happening with us. I told her we were all still together and I had told the team to surrender when I saw how many men had us surrounded. I knew that even with my skills, 150 men were too many to fight and we would end up with dead and more wounded. We are on a bus headed for a certain town where we will be allowed to eat. They did provide us with sandwiches for lunch. Then we will be heading for a small airport that has a runway large enough for a small jet to land and take off again.
They were going to drive all the way, but apparently they found out someone was up ahead waiting for them, and they also wanted our team. Likely it is Papa Levi waiting ahead of us, he certainly does get around. I didn’t know they had left a look-alike of me behind, however he was only wearing a mask to make him look like me. Jennifer said they were following in cars but she wasn’t sure they could catch up to us before we flew out of here.
She also reminded me to call for Sky at any time, but give her warning so she can bring Angel and Kitty along too. Having Kitty would be good as that would give them a jaguar to help them out too. Hmm, that might not be a bad idea, except that would only leave Jennifer and Kristina to get Yana and Cristy, plus all the cats, out of the country. That would be a big task so I said no to it, but I would consider calling Sky and Kitty, but Angel had to stay with them. We have to split our talents between the two groups right now.
I’m beginning to think the only way out of this is to just go along with this group and then our team could rescue us from whatever city in Belarus we would be in. At least that is closer to a friendly country so a rescue would be feasible. I communicated this with Kat too but she told me there is plenty of time for some surprises, so I shouldn’t worry just yet. I’m not sure what she meant and she wouldn’t explain either. As the day wore on Jennifer realized that the cars they had found were definitely not fast enough to catch that bus, they had a long head start and the bus driver was pushing that bus as fast as it would go.
However, he started to swerve around the highway a lot so the head man of this group must have told him to slow down, he certainly yelled loud enough anyway, and the bus driver did slow down. We were all glad for that, a bus accident is not something we want right now. It wasn’t too long after that when we entered a town and one of the men said that we will eat soon. He seems to be the only one who can speak a little English. We stopped at a takeout type of restaurant and they got some food for us which we gladly ate.
Then we drove a short distance more and then went out of the town in a different direction, but heading away from Belarus. But maybe that is where the airport is located. It took about 20 minutes and we were at a small airport and there was a nice, new looking jet waiting for us. I was half hoping it would be one of our jets, but alas, it wasn’t. There was no name on the jet at all though, so it must be a private jet of some kind, likely owned by this group.
Well, there is no sign of Jennifer and the other ghosts, so I guess we will be going on this jet to Belarus. I feel so depressed right now. Here I am, the main Leader of the Investigators, I have all these special abilities and yet I can do nothing to protect my team. We could fight and a lot of us would die, so we just have to do what we are told. Things have not been going well right from the beginning. We should be better prepared, always, no matter what we are doing. I am failing my team at every turn. I’m depressed, I’m totally stressed and I want to scream!
I communicated this with Jennifer, who relayed it to Kat. Kat then communicated with me “have faith Steve, miracles happen, you know that.” Then Jennifer told me that once we are all outside, tell everyone to form a tight group, then call for Sky. She also said that was an order, not a suggestion, then she added “I love you.” The bus stopped and we were told to get out and go over toward the jet and wait for the steps to get aboard. Once outside I told everyone to get close together, which they did.
Then I called for Sky who tapped me on the shoulder, making me jump right off the ground. “You’re much too jumpy these days,” she said. Angel and Kristina had come with her. Kristina can form a large shield, but because she had to surround us, then Sky added extra energy for it. “Now Steve,” said Sky, “go get them with Courage!” Angel and I stepped out of our little crowd and the men were terrified when Angel got down on her hands and knees, turning into Courage the lion right before them. Then the two of us walked toward our captors and they tried to shoot us, but to no avail, we just kept coming.
I shot out some lighting at several of the men and Courage jumped on others. That’s when men decided to run but they found themselves surrounded by men with automatic weapons and the shooting began! The men who had captured us quickly surrendered, but many of them had been killed. Turns out the Black Wolves had come in on that jet and were waiting for us to arrive. Kat and Hannah had been following things closely and discovered this little airport so they sent the Black Wolves here, just in case, and it paid off.
Now we just need to wait for Jennifer and the others to catch up to us so we can leave. This jet is big enough for all of us. But Sky just looked at me when I said we had to wait for the others, she held up her hand, pointed to herself, then pointed away. Suddenly she disappeared and returned with Yana and Cristy. Bear and Oskar carried them onto the jet while Sky once again disappeared and returned with Jennifer and Miss Kitty, covered with cats. Then she went back for the remaining cats and returned.
Miss Kitty returned to being Kitty again. “Nice to have two of our ghosts that can turn into cats of a larger size,” I said, smiling. Jennifer could tell it was a forced smile though. “It was not your fault,” she reminded me, “we were not exactly prepared for such a mission as this one.” She was right about that. We had taken all the weapons away from our captors and shot the tires on the bus, so they would have to walk back to town.
We also took their phones from them, and this airport was no longer in operation, so they would get no help that way either. It felt good to be in the air and heading back home once more. It took a few hours, but soon we were driving up to our chateau. One interesting thing happened on the flight. Rock had come to me and asked if I thought he might have a chance at getting Nadia’s attention.
Well, well, someone is thinking about marriage again. Little Ana really loves Rock and Jennifer has told me that Nadia has asked about Rock too. Hmm, we just might have a spring wedding, maybe sooner. Samantha said I did an excellent job with the surgeries, but I think she was just trying to be nice. Well, I wonder what is next for The Investigators?
The End. Another story will be coming soon. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 