Sunday-11am: Nostalgia

I don't know...talking about the barn swallows (the first year here-2005) and with Ruby arriving tomorrow (met Dagan and I when he was 12-he's 36 now-haven't seen her in 9 years)...was feeling a titch nostalgic. ;)

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Here's baby Karma! Born sprawler!

When I got her she was one sick little girl--bony with worms and terrible digestive problems. She would eat and eat yet you could feel her bones. Finally meds and lovin' fixed her all up, she was well probably for the first time, and she made up for that starving feeling--LOL!

She always slept with abandon...

...had that look in her eye...

...and claimed anything new that came into the house (like Jennifer's purse).

She loved to watch the sparrows for hours. Here she is by the porch door. (Note the wooden slatted floor of the balcony.)

And here she is watching from the bedroom window sill. (Borrowed metal furniture from Dagan and Leah and then couldn't sit out there after all because you'd be attacked by Mr. and Mrs. Swallow.)

One of the dutiful parents sitting on the railing.

The nest was on top of the porch light.

I think it was fall of 2005 that Leah helped me put up the mesh screen. Since it was an enclosed balcony, I asked at the office if I could do that. The person who gave me permission is long gone, so I hope they don't give me any grief when I leave. But you'd think whoever gets this place after I finally leave will love having their little "porch", right?

It was awesome! Now I could let little Miss Karma outside and not worry about her falling to her curious death from third floor. Flies and all kinds of crawly bugs can find their way through any crack, so I couldn't leave the porch door open much. And the mosquitoes!! Easily found their way up between the boards and drove me off the porch all the time, so Dagan helped me put down some indoor/outdoor carpeting in 2006. (Which I tacked down later because the wind popped it up so I almost couldn't open the door!)

Ordered the metal gliding chair and table that reminded me of grandma and grandpa's place when I was a kid. Got a padded chair & ottoman, chair cover, and a glass folding table from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Leah put some hooks in the ceiling...and I had a "porch"--tada!

Karma's probably even more thrilled than I am with our porch. Otherwise she wouldn't get to loll about in the heat out there day after day by herself. She would have spent most of her life looking through window screens and not have her own personal piece of the outdoors. ;)

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And just for nostalgia's sake...another photo. By 2006 they started plowing under the fields past the garages there. There was always standing water in the spring...a small pond...and later more like a marsh...where the ducks and geese stopped on their travels...and from which came a symphony of crickets, frogs, and toads singing away every evening. I loved it! I'd go to sleep thinking I was out camping. Have missed that wild music.

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If you click on this picture you'll see how much of that field they couldn't plow under. The guy got stuck in the mire out there and had to be pulled out...more than once He plowed all around it as close as he could get over on the left side there. It looks like a big patch of grass, but from way up here it is deceptive. It was very tall marsh grass...probably 4-6 feet high.

In the spring it looked like a pretty little pond, but as the summer went on the marsh grasses grew so high you couldn't see the standing water anymore--like in that picture.

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It took them 2 or 3 summers of hauling in dirt before they had filled it all in the best they could. Some geese and ducks still stop out of hope and habit, but they leave quickly now. Haven't been pond sounds for years. Rabbits used to cavort all over the field around the pond, white as snow in the early spring. Karma and I used to watch them roam and play, but we haven't seen any for a few years now.

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Things change. I'm sure they will eventually be able to sell off that land to some company for building. Especially now that there is even a connecting road--LOL! ;)

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Anyways, I'm not sure if I will have much computer time in the coming week. Just know that us two old Scandinavian women will be laughing and gabbing over coffee like we just saw each other yesterday! I can hardly wait to throw my arms around her tomorrow!!

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Have a fantastic week!!! :):)

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"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same."

Elbert Hubbard