Our week

This week we have really enjoyed having the start of summer. We moved J back home from college on Monday, worked in the garden and did yard work while being serenaded by a couple of mockingbirds and a score of killdeer, cleaned one closet (major task!!) and the dust and last of the pollen off of the porches, cleaned out the wood stove ready for next winter, went to the pool, had friends over to visit, and been amazed by nature. First, I saw lady bugs being born on the leaf of one of my tomato plants. Now I've seen lady bugs all my life, and even "battled" them in the upstairs of a house we used to live in when they "invaded" the window sills each spring but I had never imagined being able to see them right as they were born (hatching from pupa and getting their spots within hours). Amazing. Then on Wednesday we saw movement in the purple martin nest. Tiny downy feathers peeping over the edge of the nest. New birds born! Thursday I forgot and went out the front door where a finch had built a tiny nest in my silk flower wreath. I peeped in the nest and saw the perfectly formed eggs that looked exactly like they had the week before and was worried that they had been abandoned. Later in the day I came back around the house and through the door and something moving caught my eye. Inside the nest was the teeniest tiniest homeliest creature I had ever seen! No bigger than my thumb nail was a newly hatched bird. By this morning his/her siblings had cracked through and I just pray the mama bird hasn't forsaken them (I haven't seen her in several days). Tonight as I sat and swung on the back porch in rhythm to the cool breeze after a rather warm day, I heard the whippoorwills off in the woods. My mother's favorite. I think of her every time I hear one and can't help but smile. God is so good to give us so many wonders to watch and hear. So much beauty to see. So much love to share. Great week.