Fox & Owl

perfect weather: warm, breezy, sunny with fluffy clouds.

we walked today, the boy, the dog, and me, our favorite trail these days, along the railroad track. as we looked at the wildflowers, we heard a crow call above us. so loud and ragged, i wondered whether a human was making the sound. but as i looked up, i spotted the crow's subject: a fox trotting alongside the tracks ahead of us by a few hundred yards. it stopped, turned to look at us, with the crow circling and calling above it, then continued on. stopped again, stood still watching us, then on again, all the while the crow calling its location to everyone in the forest. foxes are said to represent protection of family.

sewer pipes going in for the new house behind us. our little blueberry bushes and silky dogwood lifted gently out of the earth by the crane and set down in a cluster on the green grass. so gentle, like a mother bird shifting her eggs with her beak, the crane moved slowly and carefully.

boy, dog, and i spent the whole day outside. pulled up the bolted mustard greens, planted lettuce seedlings, mulched strawberries with pine needles, transplanted marigold seedlings into garden beds, re-seeded strawflowers, mulched garlic with straw. boy sat on his blanket in the garden, alternately chortling with glee at the world (crane operator said he wished he had a picture of him), and then planting his face into the earth in the spaces near him that i hadn't covered with blankets. took his spills well, fussing just loudly enough so i'd turn to see how he was doing, then happy to sit up again.

inside at dusk tonight, looked out the window at the sound of birds shouting. in the evening light, caught sight of three little songbirds chasing and harassing a large, strange-looking bird of prey, which flew directly over the center of our house. realized after it passed that it looked so peculiar because it had a flat face; it was an owl. spoke with my husband about it tonight, he reminded me that modern cherokee culture considers owls to be harbingers of death, but that traditional cherokee culture held them as harbingers of change, all kinds of change. what change will be coming to this house?

getting something from the car tonight, i noticed the moon, round and orange coming up over the trees in the far southeast. showed it to the boy, who looked at it for its light, and we stood and watched it float ever so slowly up, free of the trees, balancing itself in the night sky.