Happy Vernal Equinox!

Nothing speaks springtime more than fluffy new "chicks"...or, in this case, fluffy new "Colts", Baby Sand Hill Cranes, born on St. Patrick's Day!

May I introduce you to St. Patrick, or "Patty", and St. Valentine, or "Valley"...or Pat and Val for short:

You can imagine my excitement when these sweet baby colts paid us a visit yesterday on our side of Still Waters Pond:

Of course, their parents were right there with them, watching over them and guiding and guarding them as they explored their big new world beyond the nest on the other side of the pond:

As you can see in this picture below, one colt is larger than the other...I believe the larger one, who I have named St. Patrick, was born first.  Then a few hours later little St. Valentine made his/her appearance. I may never know which one is male or female as they are hard to tell apart even in adulthood, except the male will be a bit larger than the other and more dominant. 

It was quite a lovely Sunday afternoon, watching these new babies toddling around on our shoreline, learning to find things to eat, while Mother and Daddy dug up juicy grubs and things to feed them.

I am sure there will be many more pictures in the future. I feel so privileged to be sitting here on the edge of their brand new world...and also that the parents felt secure enough to bring them around here for us to meet them.  They must have walked around that pond several times throughout the day, but by sunset they were all safely back over on the other side snuggled down in their nest under Mother's wings for the night.  What could be more comfy and secure than that?

Reminds me of this portion of the wonderful 91st Psalm, which is well known as a Psalm about the safety of Abiding in the Presence of God:

Psalm 91:1-6

1 "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust.”

3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler

And from the perilous pestilence.

4 He shall cover you with His feathers,

And under His wings you shall take refuge;

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,

Nor of the arrow that flies by day,

6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,

Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

 Another sign of spring is the activity of our Bluebird family. The parents are feeding their babies in the nest inside the birdhouse constantly right now, but I keep noticing that they are also bringing food back out in their beaks, trying to entice the little ones to follow them. I expect the baby birds will be leaving the nest any day now...maybe even today. I hope I get to see it happen!  I will definitely keep you posted!

So what else has been happening in this fine early spring weekend?  Well, I think I told you in my last post that Saturday was our son Scott's birthday...and of course we celebrated that evening with a delicious dinner of barbequed country ribs, cooked in the crockpot all day until they were falling off the bones tender.  We originally had thought we would grill either chicken or hamburgers, but it ended up with a forecast of raining all day so I made an early morning run to the grocery store and picked up the ribs and got them in the crock pot on time so they'd be done for supper. which is one of Scott's favorite dinners, along with rice,  Hawaiian Rolls and Deviled eggs (Rose made those) and tossed salad.   I also baked his favorite cake, a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, (although I actually use a white cake mix and put in the whole eggs with the yolks to make it a yellow cake, and also add a teaspoon of vanilla to give it a better flavor. I like this much better than the yellow cake mixes.)  Our kids Rose and Benton came over for supper and joined in the celebration:

Gotta have a picture of the "big blow"!  It's a family tradition!

Love our family:

The shirt I am wearing is one that Scott made at the screen printing place where he works. It was a sample t-shirt for a summer camp, and he knew I'd like this one with the bear on it, so he brought it to me.  

Now here is a treat that I am saving for "posterity".  Scott is always playing around with singing things, but he will never ever sing in public. I think he has an amazing voice, even when he's cutting up and acting silly.  I've told him that my greatest desire is to someday hear him use that voice for the Glory of God, and to sing in church.  He's not much of a church goer.  He's a believer, but just doesn't like to go to church at this stage in his life.  I managed to get this little clip of him singing the words to his birthday card that we gave him.  I promised not to post it on Facebook, but I never said I wouldn't post it here for my friends in blogland.  Shhhh, it will be our little secret...  

I hope this works...

The card said:

"Praying you'll have the most beautiful of birthdays--

One that is filled with God's love and sweetened with His joy.

Blessings on your birthday!"

And with that, I'd better get a move on. It's already 7:12 a.m. and I am getting off to a slow start on this Monday morning. We have Dr. appointments this morning, as a follow up to our lab work done last week, so I need to get moving.

So Happy Vernal Equinox to you...or, in common language, Happy First Day of Spring!!

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

"11 For lo, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone.

12 The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of singing has come,

And the voice of the turtledove

Is heard in our land."