A Sweet Spring

I had to go out today and wait in the car for like half an hour. Normally this is the kind of thing that would drive me towards drinking, but it was actually such a lovely evening that I was fine with being in the car. I had both windows down and there was a great breeze happening. It put me in a rather nice mood.

So far it's been a really mild Spring. We've had some storms, but not horrible ones. We've had some warmer days, but not hellishly hot ones.  So far, the fleas haven't infested the house, nor have any other bugs. This overall pleasantness has allowed me to really enjoy some of the other aspects of the season.

One of my favorite things about Spring is my neighbor's yard. My neighbor is an older woman who is rather tiny and keeps to herself.  She adds so much to the overall feel of the neighborhood. She lives down the street in what used to be a rather unattractive cement block house in a big, unattractive yard. 

Over the years, she's done a lot to change all this unattractiveness. She added a room onto the house, which made it look like less of a big cement square. She also planted some things close enough to the house, which gave it a more natural feeling. In the yard, she build various little planter boxes and mini gardens, which now have some of the prettiest flowers I've seen in a long time.

Another favorite aspect of Spring is the birds. We keep some birds around all year long. I don't think those mockingbirds ever leave and the cardinals are always a bright spot of red in the dismal months of winter. We also have quite a few doves around and some robins. My roommate is always happy when he starts seeing humming birds again.

Birds, of course, don't show up without tons of bird song. Bird song can be lovely, but it is also quite loud. During the day, we constantly hear the birds singing about this or that. Well, singing and making other noises. Specifically one bird.

This bird lurks somewhere along the side of the house. We call it The Squawk Bird because it has possibly the ugliest noise of any bird ever. At any given point during the day, you will hear the pleasant little 'tweet tweet tweet trill tweet....SQUAWK!" I am sure Squawk Bird means well . . . or maybe not. My roommate thinks it was cussing me earlier today.

Squawking birds aside, naturewise, it has been a very nice season. Other things haven't been so great, but at least the weather and our outside neighbors have been fun. That helps a lot when other things are falling apart. Every little bit helps.