My husband is in his room working on a friends computer so the television in the great room is off. I have already listened to all of the day's news on NPR and the house is silent for a change. Usually it is not this quiet until after midnight but tonight I am doubly blessed. We are having an early spring this year so I have my window in the office open. Normally I hear one of my favorite sounds long into the wee morning hours. Across the road and midway across an open field the county built a lake on this property. The county owns, I would guess about 80-90 acres of land surrounding one of it's newest buildings built on the edge of town. I find myself, a long advocate of the "Early to bed, Early to rise theory, staying up later and later working in my office with the window open listening to the lonely, haunting calls of the Canadian Geese flying in and landing on the lake on the property. Tonight, I hear an owl for the first time since selling our house and moving to "the city".
Several days ago just before the sun dipped completely below the tree lined drive I happened to hear a sound that I was unfamiliar with. Similar, but different to the honking of the Canadian Geese. I looked out my window just in time to see a pair of huge white birds fly in below the tree line onto the lake. That was the last I had seen of them until yesterday morning. A pair of big white birds drifting across the end of the lake dwarfing the geese in size. A pair of Trumpeter Swan? A rare event anymore. Their nesting grounds have all disappeared and like many of America's natural beauties, an almost dying breed.
Strangely, I want to walk down this gently curving drive and follow it to the lake that seems to beacon to me with its water's that ripple and reflect the morning's light sending little pricks of sunlight that are there and then almost instantly vanish to be captured and sent in another ripple and off in an other direction. I want to stand and admire the raucous Canadian Geese who fly through the night honking and calling as if they were coming in from a boozy night on the town. I want to search to see if that is truly a pair of Trumpeter Swan that I have seen.
The land is gently contoured with a slope falling gradually to the edge of the water. There is an back entry drive that curves round about from the road beside my house and passes around the far edge of the lake and leads up to the building with a line of trees that obscures most of the lake. Across this drive is a barricade forbidding entry to this property save for those that have a pass and a valid reason for entry.
Still, I want to enter the property. I want to share in the beauty the county has provided with a small pocket of green grass and still waters with homes for the ubiquitous Canadian Geese, the lonely noctural owl and the rare Trumpeter Swans. But, I have no valid reason- unless I do walk down that drive to the lake. That would give me a valid reason! Yes, I could become a resident of that county building by walking onto the property since the property is the new City/County Jail.
1 comment:
nice post. as I read it, it felt like I was there with you listening to the quiet and then the loud obnoxious geese. I'd love to see if those are swans. let us know!
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