When I Took a Bike Ride, I Saw...

                                                    Two moose, including this one.

                                      A pair of ospreys; this is the female landing on the nest.

                                           Here's Mr. Osprey, keeping an eye on me!

                A butterfly, which I've identified before but can't exactly remember the name of.

                                                   Deep-fried fiddleheads, anyone?

             Here's a Northern Flicker, keeping a sharp lookout from his home in the birch tree.



            This squirrel picture wasn't taken today, but I thought it was too cute not to post!😊

The Bird Nerd Reports

Thought I'd show you some of the birds I've seen this year:

This is a hooded merganser. I had seen them before, but never gotten a good picture.

Here's an agitated female mallard, taken the same day.

This bird is a white-winged crossbill.

These are wood ducks, the first time I'd ever seen any.

Here's an European Starling, in a snowy tree.

This yellow-rumped warbler (or myrtle warbler,) was outside my window just this morning.

We've been hearing a pair of birds for a while, just up the road, but we could never figure out exactly what they were. Now, according to this picture I took on our walk this afternoon, we think it's a red-shouldered hawk.

Have you been seeing any interesting birds lately?

Meet Corona

  I hadn't heard of Corona until last month, when she visited Washington and stealthily made her way to the East Coast. Every day we ask, "How many people have entertained her now?" or "How many have succumbed to her deadly grip?"
  She's caused a lot of panic in the world. People, in fear of her, rush to stock up on flour. Toilet paper. Bread. Molasses. Canned food. (Why not ice cream? That's an essential in my mind.😉)
  Two people have recently had Corona who live/were in our county, so now Corona has control of our local library. She's closed down the thrift shop, the gift store, the restaurant, only deeming grocery shopping as essential. She's even taken control of what we WEAR. Now people have been seen with face masks and disposable gloves on! And most everyone has that bottle of hand sanitizer in their pocket, or wipes in their car.
  Worst of all, she's canceled church services all across the globe. Birthday parties. Writers' conferences. She's allowed for bike rides, though, or for walking the dog (at least in Maine.)
  A few good things about Corona? Well...those are few and far between...but she's actually encouraging families to stay home and spend time together. And she's helping me save my money, instead of buying those tempting stickers.😏 And--may I say it?--she's also encouraging old ladies to have white hair (instead of going to the hair salon) and discouraging movies and drinking. Isn't that great!?

COVID-19 vs. Sin

  "Where's all the toilet paper? Where did all the baby wipes go? What will we do without enough sugar?" People (including us😉) are now walking around town with little bottles of hand sanitizer. Church services are being held live on Facebook. We can't go through a day without asking how many cases of the coronavirus are in Maine. How many cases are in the world. How many people have died from it.
  All this hoarding, too. People are CLEANING OUT the paper products, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes. NO bread left (except for the expensive kind.) NO sugar or flour. And where are they keeping all these extras?
  This got me to thinking; if the whole world can go into a frenzy over something like a virus, then why aren't Christians going into a "frenzy" over sin? You know--why can't people be hoarding Bibles instead of toilet paper? Why aren't people asking how many people in the world today have died without knowing Christ? Maybe this virus will make some think about their souls. I hope so. It's hard for me, as an introvert, to mention Christianity to someone, but I could certainly get out from behind my comfort-zone respirator (that protects me, supposedly, from the sin virus) and tell them about God!
  Remember, that man with the cart-load of flour and bottled water needs to hear the Gospel! The woman who wears a face-mask and disposable gloves, who wipes down every nearby surface, and who stays 6 feet away from everyone needs to become a Christian! There are many dying from the coronavirus, but there are MANY more who die without Christ.

Pets

  The first pet our family had was when I was fairly young. It was mostly my pet-a lop-eared rabbit I named Chet. We kept him in a rabbit hutch outside.

  Our next pet was Timothy, an orange tabby. He stayed in the house the first year or two we had him, then he moved to the outdoors, finding shelter in our storage tent. He was so tame he let me push him in my doll stroller. Unfortunately, he was too independent, and took off when Daddy tried to transport him from one of our houses to the next.
  We had an Australian Shepherd  named Dusky, a really loud dog who loved to jump up on people and was trained to shake hands.
  Also, during the time we had Timothy and Dusky, we got a kitten we named Josephine; we should have named him Joseph, it turns out.😏The two of them tolerated each other, but had tussles every once in a while. Josephine wasn't the smartest cat in the world, so when she disappeared one day, we weren't all that surprised. Here are the two of them-Josephine is the one in the rabbit hutch. (Don't worry, we had sold Chet, so he wasn't in there too.)

   After those two cats were gone, we were given a gray cat we named Martha, and another orange cat we named George. George was a pig, stuffing himself with whatever food he could find, whether it was meant for him or not!😊 Martha had four kittens, which we named Albert, Buddy, Polly, and Ginger Ale. (My brother named Ginger Ale, but he HAD wanted to name it King Darius, for some reason.) Martha hid her kittens just before we moved, so we didn't bring any of our cats with us. There were plenty of warm barns for them to find refuge in.
  Since we were Amish at the time, we had a horse named Abby. She was 16 years old when we bought her, retired from the racetrack. She knew how to go at a fast clip down the road! She had a habit of tossing her head from side to side, which is why she came with the name Flipper.
  After we moved, we got a free orange tabby at the local animal shelter. We named him Shuffles, since he would shuffle around at first, before he got used to us. We had him for about 8 years before he disappeared one day and never came back. He was probably around 9 or 10 years old, so perhaps he died of old age. Whenever there was an available lap, he'd jump right in, settle down, and go to sleep. And if a lap wasn't available, he'd jump on your back!

  Our current two pets are Leonard (a Lionhead rabbit, that we bought while we had Shuffles) and Hope, a black and white cat that's over a year old. Leonard has a mind of his own, and doesn't always like to be held or brushed.

  Hope is very friendly, and loves to be held and petted. She catches rodents, the occasional bird, and even eats earthworms and slugs! Here she's having fun with a mouse:

  She also enjoys the outdoors, unless it's too cold or wet, and climbs a lot of trees, as you can see:

  So that's an overview of our pet experiences! I wish I had pictures of all of them, but we either didn't bother taking pictures, or were Amish, and couldn't take pictures.

Addictions

  I'm not addicted to drugs, or to cigarettes. I'm not into following the latest fashions. But...is there any possibility I could be addicted to something else? Such as reading? or to watching videos? or to any number of things?
  In I Corinthians 16:15, it says: "...and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints." What a thing to have said about yourself! Why can't we be addicted to that? or addicted to reading the Bible? or encouraging others?
  This year, let's think about what we're truly addicted to. Yes, addiction sounds bad, but if it's channeled in a good direction, it is a good thing!

This Year

I plan to...
  learn to drive,
  grow and thrive,
  ride my bike,
  take a hike,
  skim new books,
  ply steel hooks.

    This year,
      I want to...
        grow in grace,
        run the race,
        do and dare,
        pray and care,
        read God's Word
        and be assured.

          This year,
            I get to...
              serve the King,
              praises sing,
              fellowship,
              mercies sip,
              cheer and bless...

  I'll be busy, I guess!