Spring has Sprung

The Blackbirds are back so it must be springtime in the Rockies.
Next door this morning were blackbird, sparrows, and two doves picking up seeds my neighbor throws out.

Our small ranch in the Steamboat Springs, CO area had two quarter acre “wetlands” (we called them sloughs) that my father left alone. Cattails grew there and hundreds of blackbirds made them their summer home. His belief was the birds kept the insects under control.  I’ve always associated their calls with spring.

My neighbor is a baby boomer hippie who is in serious need of a twelve step program for gardening excess. Not for her the formal English style garden. No, it is plants galore. She has four dogs, three cats, two caged birds, and who knows what else crammed into her 900 sq ft one bedroom house. She is a mental health counselor and a perpetual doctorial candidate. It is safe to say her political outlook and mine differ.  Since she bats for the other team, we peacefully co-exist. I tell her misogynist jokes and she calls me a troglodyte.  I do enjoy her yard and the wildlife it attracts. I enjoy her yard since I don’t do any of the work but have the benefit of viewing it every day. I don’t like yard work; no, not at all!

Looking like we will have a terrible summer for fires. I blame it on all the Californians who have moved here. They brought their brush fires with them.