This gorgeous sycamore is just one of the old trees on the grounds of Ringwood Manor. The conditions were just right the other day when I drove by for catching its graceful white limbs against the clear blue sky.

It’s been an interesting day. This morning I opened the lid on the bird seed container in the garage and saw two shoe-black eyes staring back at me. A field mouse. I had not snapped the lid completely down and he had been having a feast. It’s easy getting in there, but not so easy getting out. So, I got the lid from the garbage can, put it down by him, he climbed on and as I raised his elevator, he jumped off and quickly scampered away. He and I have gone through this routine before.

The bird feeding area really needed to be cleaned up of spent sunflower shells, so I took a bucket and broom and got to work. I was pretty intent on my task and when I finally straightened up to spread the new seed, I looked over to my left and there in the driveway were Ursa, Major and Minor just observing me. Three black beary bodies all in a row. Did I panic? Heck, no. They weren’t doing anything; just standing there looking at me. I spoke softly to them, telling them that they could come and get some seed after I’d left. I went back into the garage, and they went back into the woods next to the house. I was surprised that they didn’t come to the seed right away and preferred instead to play in the woods. Maybe they wanted to be sure that the crazy woman that babbles on and on was not around anymore. After about twenty mintues they arrived for breakfast. You can see *NEW* photos here in the Bear Diary. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen them.

Then on to drop Sailor and Hailey off at the groomer’s, and on to the grocery. Have I mentioned before that I just adore our ShopRite? People shopping hum along to the oldies playing over the sound system. Wait—they’re making an announcement. It’s the store manager’s birthday (and someone else’s) so they break into the music to wish them Happy Birthday. The oldies return once again only to be interrupted by yet another birthday wish; this time from the bakery section. You gotta love it. I always find myself singing along with the oldies and don’t feel a bit out of place.

In the produce section, a sweet-looking older lady approaches me with a softly spoken “Miss?” She’s carrying a bunch of baby bananas and she asks me if I could please break the bunch in half for her. Her hands aren’t strong enough and she doesn’t want all of them. She thanks me profusely like I’d done something really wonderful. I take the other half of her banana bunch just because they look so tasty. She thanks me again. At the deli counter one of the people behind the counter is bantering back and forth with someone they know an aisle away.

On the way home just before I turn onto our street, an SUV is coming down the road out of control. They are fishtailing from one lane to the next, tires squealing. I don’t know exactly how or why they’ve lost control but I hope I can stay out of the way. All of a sudden the car veers straight off the road across my lane (not a close call for me), down the side of the road and hits a tree—hard. The speed at impact had to be 50mph or more. I sit stunned for a second, thinking what I should do. The wheels of the SUV are spinning wildly, churning up huge chunks of snow and mud. At first I’m thinking the driver is trying to back out, but then it occurs to me that the driver must not be conscious. Do I run to see if they are okay? Or do I head back down to the bottom of the hill where two police are directing traffic? I decide for the latter and speed off down the hill. The two police jump into their cars and head off in a matter of seconds with sirens blaring.

The neighbor at the end of our street is at the accident scene and the doors of the SUV are open. Good. Someone is right there to see to her (I can see it’s a woman now) and I feel good that I had the police there so quickly. I guess I could have called 911, but since the police were so close why not just get them? I told the officer what I had seen and asked him if she was okay. He said, well ... not really, but she’s alive. I didn’t stick around for the ambulance. They didn’t need another looky-loo, as by this time people from close by were starting to congregate to see what was going on.

So far the rest of the day has passed quietly. On my way home from picking up the dogs from the groomers, my neighbor was out in his driveway so I stopped to ask him about the accident. He said she was unconscious when he first opened the door, and he turned the vehicle off. We don’t really know the extent of her injuries but he did say the SUV was pretty compressed from the impact in front and they had to cut the door off in order to get her out. He said they took her by ambulance, but then airlifted her by helicopter, so she must have been pretty bad.

Now as I look out the window at 3:30 p.m., Doris is paying us a visit. She must be the laziest bear in the world—she lays down in what I call her prayer position (front feet curved inward) and just laps up seed. She’s getting a special treat as I didn’t expect another bear visit today and sprinkled some cheese popcorn out there that I had bought and didn’t like. So, both sets of bears on the same day. I guess I should be honored.

That’s enough excitement for one day I should think. Don’t you?

Doris says: “I’ve been praying for popcorn, and look, here it is!”

I took a walk this morning sans dogs. I just wanted to be alone, to think, to contemplate, and to take some photos while our last snow was still with us. My mood this past week has been all over the place; happy one minute, kind of depressed the next. I’m certain it’s partly hormones, partly the fact that our house is still not sold back in Colorado, and partly late-winter-nearly-spring-blues. I don’t know exactly, but whatever it is I’ve been in kind of a funk.

My walk took me through the now familiar path in the woods down to the pond. As I walked along on top of the crusted snow, I couldn’t help but notice that something had been walking here besides me. They looked like duck prints. That’s odd. What would they be doing walking down the forest path? I was a little mystified.

I also couldn’t help noticing the shadows that the morning’s strong sun was casting. The trees and shrubs were using the snow as their mirror. Traceries of stems and tiny branches looked like veins and arteries under a “skin” of snow.

Some of them looked exactly like mirror images [or in this case shadow images] of themselves. Others looked a little warped, slightly skewed, or just plain refracted.

It started me thinking about how people were much like the trees and their shadows. That other people might see only the reflection [or shadow] that we each cast, and it might not be the true or whole person at all. Who we think we are is not necessarily what other people see; a slightly skewed image of our true self. Only part of the whole.

Do other people see me as I see myself? Not likely. Perhaps we all reflect—or cast—an image of ourselves as we think people should perceive us. Food for thought anyway as I trudged along with my odd mood.

We all have warts and imperfections, but we rarely allow other people to see them. Keeping them hidden rather than wearing them for all the world to see.

Finally at the pond, I was rewarded for my efforts by a beautiful pair of swans. I’ve not seen swans here before. They graciously allowed me to take a few photos of them. Like the trees, they too were using one of winter’s foils for showing off their reflections; the icy mirror of the pond.

But try as I might to ignore it, they also seemed to be trying to say something. Do we sometimes give out the wrong signals along with our perceived self-reflection? Seemingly aloof and detached when we really aren’t?

Now the prints in the snow that I had seen earlier made sense.

The seasons seem all mixed up. It’s almost like autumn did not want to give way and held on throughout the winter.

I enjoyed my walk and am very glad I went when I did. On the way back the snow had softened just enough that with every other step I took, my foot plunged through the three or four inch top crust. It was like being on a StairMaster that I couldn’t get off of. At least I got a workout.

Just after I got home the wind picked up and brought sulky, brooding, grey clouds along in its wake. Rain, or perhaps more snow on the way for tonight, washing the slate clean for tomorrow.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel more in focus.

Just when we were getting in the mood to BBQ, Mother Nature played a cruel joke on us Friday night. We shoveled it out today and tonight we’re grilling steaks and lobster tails! Want to join us? Sorry, we can’t eat outside on the deck just yet.

I hope I don’t offend anyone with this photo, but nature is just amazing to me; albeit seemingly cruel at times. This broad-winged hawk that lives in our woods and cruises my neighbor’s chicken yard, happened on the poor, wet, cold birds at my feeding station yesterday. One did not make it. I don’t what kind of bird it was, except that my best guess is a dove. It was quite large and the feathers fit.

I had glanced out at the bird station to see what was out there [because it could be the bears, deer, you name it] and saw something large on the ground fairly close out of the corner of my eye. When I saw him ripping the flesh of one of “my” birds of course I was upset. But on this snowy, sleety day it was also like watching a segment from Animal Kingdom. It’s what hawks do. There is a reason they are classified as raptors in the bird world. No wonder there weren’t any birds just then! But, pretty soon the other birds decided that the hawk was not a threat anymore [after all his appetite was being sated] and returned to the ground to feed.

Nature—truly amazing.