A soggy Day in November

This is a post I began prior to my Mom going into hospital, I never really finished it but I'm going to use it for this weeks post until I get myself back up to snuff

Nov 8th, 2019

I normally start writing a post on Monday and it's done for posting on Sunday...I've been covered up with projects and I have done very little birding this entire week in fact I turned in one list to ebird in 7 days.  Last weekend it rained on Sunday but my sis and I went out birding anyways! We did mostly car birding.

Next to some cotton fields we had lots of Palm Warblers!  We had some Song Sparrow at this location as well.  

Then we moved about 1 mile down the road to a sod farm my sis ran in and got permission for us to cruze around...it was raining pretty hard....we had about 7 horned larks on the ground...

Not a bird I see very often and a horrible photo thru car glass with drizzle.

Lots of Crow both Fish and American were about..

We had a couple Hawks hunting from atop the irrigation machine....here is the Red Shouldered we spotted against a really dull sky....

Two large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds moved away in the distance...

And we had a couple White Ibis out there in the fog also.  This sod farm is just barely out of our county.  We sighted other birds like American Kestrel, Turkey Vulture, and at least one Northern Harrier was there early on, but left after he saw us. This is a spot I want to return to on a sunny day. 

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...and my post just ended there....we had an enjoyable outing but by the next day mom was quite ill...

My Mom Memory for this post is a day trip we made to Swan Lake And Gardens in  

May of 2009, Swan Lake is in Sumter County southeast of us.  Mom was only having to use a cane at that time, 10 yrs ago!  This friendly Canada Goose decided to be Mom's pet for a while as we strolled around checking out the flowers, Swans, and other bird life of the garden... 

..what a great memory. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Resume normal...

This was a really hard week for us, and now the "work" of wrapping up someone's life is either done or a lot of progress has been made.  Mom had a wonderful send off but the weather was not very good...cold and rain battled us.  She was so beautiful in life and in death.  I know death is not something any of us want to talk about but I do encourage you all to have a conversation about it!  

We were so happy when we got word her oldest brother and sister would be attending, they made a heroic drive down with their families so we had 10 family members at her entombment.  One miracle was in searching for some photos we wanted to share at her visitation my sister found a sealed envelope with my Aunt Jeans name on it, mom's sister.  She had written her a special thought and never for some reason given it to her so that was given..and what a sweet message it was.  A treasure forever.  

Mom made a lot of decisions herself, she had purchased her mausoleum space long back and so we had some decisions to make but not a whole lot...also she had enough life insurance to cover her final expenses but not excess amounts, so keep in mind your passing is not about leaving people wealth, its about your funeral and the debts you may be leaving behind.  

I am ok so far but each day leaves that empty feeling of "I really miss Mom", I can't have any more conversations with her, all the remaining wisdom of her lifetime she took with her, now we are completely on our own...she had always been there for each one of us...I don't know how a single child deals with this without my sisters I would have had a complete meltdown.

I hope to resume my normal routine soon, I do believe normal is good...so soon. Today it's raining again so I made time to catch up on your posts and found all has been good in each of your lives.   I haven't taken any photos in 2 weeks or more because I was working on a project for mom when she started to have problems...so for an entire week or more I was busy doing that, unfortunately she only got to use it 3 times...but more on that later.  So I am sharing some old photos of some of my favorite flowers and stems. Saw the first Junco in the yard this fall from the water dripped window, my sis and I had planned to visit the sparrow fields today but that won't happen.  Maybe tomorrow?  

As a tribute to Mom for the remainder of the year I will post of photo of her and explain what we were up to.  Many of you were along with us in real time as had our little adventures...so today it's

July 30, 1998, Yellowstone National Park.  We were into our Great Adventure Road Trip -- you can find the tab on my home page to the journal entry of the entire trip.  Mom was always a little nervous about being close to natural wonders sometimes she saw them as a natural hazard..lol, note the apprehensive look on her face.  She was 74 yrs old in this photo and I think I see one grey hair my hair is solid grey now at 66 she didn't grey till she was in her 90's! 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Mom (1924 - 2019)

The post I never wanted to have to write

Sadly today I'm heartbroken, as is my entire family, we lost Mom yesterday at 1:55 pm she was after 95 years at the end of her time on this Earth and there was nothing to be done except what she did so gracefully and that was to pass into whatever life comes after this one.  She was kind and gentle and she loved the outdoors and the Earth's creatures and her family.   We will miss her and mourn her till the day we join her.  I wanted just one more....of everything we shared...

She passed peacefully with us by her side.  Our family has gone from 6 to 4 in just 2 years, so we are due some days of Peace and Serenity.
I am not a religious person as you have guessed...I do believe in the life spirit I have seen it as we all have and I can only hold onto hope that Mom's in now with her mother who she has been embraced with in spirit for a couple of years now.  I dream she is sitting on the old home place porch with her Mom Dee, and her Grandma Dovie,  or her cousin Hestle down by the spring she loved so much from her childhood.  

Life will never be as it was for me...

Thank you's to those of you who wished her well in my last post I did tell her of your wishes and she held a little smile for a moment at that news. I will put up a link to her online Obituary once it's released I welcome all of you to join us in wishing her happy trails on that unknown journey to eternity.

OBITUARY

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Mom...

I will be Missing in Action as my Mom is not doing well and is in the hospital so until then I don't know if I will have time to come to blogger, I will be back when I am able...until then send your warm thoughts her way...

💟💟We Love You MOM!! 💟💟

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Fall colorful...

I've been immersed in Projects all of October! I'm so happy I took that day trip to go and find the Hudsonian Godwit a couple weeks ago..and I'd like to go back there as ducks arrive! I have made some Vlogs on my Youtube Channel (link on the right sidebar)  of my projects, both of the recent ones were pretty big projects...and I'm happy to have that hard work behind me.  I hope soon to be able to get back to making some of the Nature Vlogs I enjoy doing.  

Well it seems October NEARLY skunked me in the 5 mile radius.  I had  hopes when a person who had not birded this hotspot all year long reported a bird that I had not seen there this year.  He provided no photo of his early rare sighting (Louisiana Waterthrush) so I dunno it was not confirmed I did not refind that bird, if it was ever really there! Danggit.

BUT just today, the 30th, I was sitting in a chair at Mom's I saw movement on a tree via the window, a bird 'creeping' up the side...jumped up grabbed my sis's bins, and yes it was a Brown Creeper! A new yard bird for us and one for the Radius! #(124) I really didn't want to have a Zero month! No Photo as I was sitting with mom, and I don't normally take my camera on those days.  If you have never seen a Brown Creeper...then check this link to a photo

 ... the fall color is nice around the lake...

 sweet day

Cyprus trees loose their needles each winter but first they turn this awesome rusty orange color

focus focus focus

some early morning fog hangs around

Pied Billed Grebe swims in a puddle of color...

The side challenge for the month of October in our 5Mile Radius was "how many sparrows can you find" so I ended up with 3.  The Song Sparrow, the Chipping Sparrow, and the Eastern Towhee.  

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On Halloween Night we had a terrific thunderstorm pushed in by a cold front.  It drove the nastiest gulf air possible into our area for 2 days prior to hitting us...humidity was 99% if you even had a thought in your mind you would sweat so the AC was back on high! That morning on my way to do my last day of birding for October, a black cat with 2 white feet ran across my path! OH MY--you know I'm superstitious...what a day to have that happen.  Later the storm hit with a fury unlike any October storm I recall.  The wind swirled, trees swayed, rain pelted, the sky lit up with forks of lightening tossed hither and tither...then the power went out!  No spooky movies for us on this night so.....

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.