Hi everyone!! Was yesterday tough for everyone else or just me? We had five days off of our normal schedule and Monday morning and physical therapy came very early. I am a creature of habit so I like having a routine, it was just…jarring to be up and moving so early- and without coffee. Today we have a lot to do but I am still going to finish this coffee first. Maybe even have a second cup, to be honest. I am drinking Seattle’s Best Breakfast Blend today and it has a very mild taste and is really easy to drink. Although not as easy to find, with my Miso sitting there in front of it. But I loves her so it is ok.
Hmm. When I left off we had visited my cousin’s for a get together that left me all emotional and sentimental. I get that way around the holidays, as I imagine most of us do. That was the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. Wednesday found us out and about again, at an early Thanksgiving at Billy’s brother’s house. Mike works for border patrol at the airport and had to work actual Thanksgiving, so we celebrated early with them. The kids had a blast. And so did Grandma!
Thursday, Thanksgiving, we went to my brother’s for dinner. I put my phone away and just enjoyed the day. It was a great time with lots of food and laughter. I made a wild rice pilaf with cranberries and apples and it was really good. Billy was in charge of the turkey – unfortunately we are sort of newbs at it and didn’t take it out in time so it was very frozen. Lol. Most of those attending are vegetarians so the turkey was just for Billy, my mom, and me (Wyatt is a nope on turkey) so…Billy went to the deli and picked up turkey lunch meat and we had sandwiches with our sides. It made me laugh. Billy ended up making the turkey over the weekend and we turned it in to soup.
By Friday Wyatt and I were ready for some down time. That was a lot of socializing for us both! Usually our days are so quiet and while we had so much fun we were in need of just doing a bunch of nothing. So we did. I even let him stay in his pajamas all day! We played games, watched tv, read books, laid around and it was awesome. Poor Billy had to work but at least he got to work from home.
Then Saturday. Billy and I had a much needed “date night” – or at least a night where a grandma watched Wyatt and we went out without him. I am telling you all, it was a wonderful night. Billy and I always love going to the owl prowls at the metropark, and have been going literally years. Like maybe even 15 years or so. So, that was our date! The group Saturday night was small, 6 people including us, which was perfect (9 if you count the interpreters). Everyone was very quiet and into the experience, which is important. Too much noise made will obviously scare the owls and any other wildlife away.
One of my favorite things in the whole world is standing still and quiet in a dark wood at night in the winter. The stillness, the quiet, the peace of the night. I will close my eyes and just absorb the night, listening for the night animals, feeling the cold air sidle around me, smelling the leaves underfoot and the evergreens around us. Then I will open them, staring up through the arms of the trees, at the stars in the sky. It is perfect to me.
Some owl prowls, we see and hear nothing. Saturday however, was a busy night in the woods! The moment we stepped out of the nature center to head for the trails, we heard the flying squirrels freaking out – followed very closely by the hooting of the Great Horned Owl! He was the reason for their distress, and while we couldn’t see him, he was so close. And kept hooting! They have a hunting ground of five miles so that we lucked out and heard him so quickly and so close was awesome.
Billy and I have been going so long to this metropark that we have become friends with the interpreters. There is a good-natured joke/myth that if Billy or I are on the owl prowl, that the group will not see owls. Like we are a curse! Lol. However, that is only when we are on Kevin’s prowl, not Roni’s. And like I said, Saturday was an active night!
This little screech flew in right over my head and landed in a nearby tree, maybe only 4 feet off the ground. He was so close! And he stuck around for quite awhile, letting us take photos even. I guess he was as curious about us as we were about him! They are super tiny, only about 7 inches in height. Roni was able to get close and grab this photo for me with my phone. It was amazing and otherwordly to experience.
After our magical moment, we were all sort of excited and chattering about how cool that was, walking along, not really looking for owls anymore because nothing could beat that moment honestly. Until the local coyote pack started howling and yipping. I had never heard them before like that, so loud and in chorus with each other, blending their voices in their night song. That was almost as cool as the owl, but not quite.
We did stop and look for owls again later, calling them to us, and a second owl flew in over our heads and took up a spot high up in a tree. It is always so cool to see them respond and fly in. They have completely silent flight so you have to watch the treeline carefully to see them fly in, but they will often call back to the recording.
Billy and I felt so refreshed and happy and uplifted after our walk. It was a pretty awesome night.
The next morning I wanted to take Christmas photos of Wyatt at a nearby nursery. I love this place – in the spring and summer I buy all my plants from them and this year they have started setting up seasonal vignettes for people to use for photos. Which is absolutely brilliant because you come to take photos, and leave with your arms full of other things.
Wyatt was cracking me up with his poses.
But I did get this one and I love it. (I love them all actually)
Despite being surrounded by so much cute mushroom merchandise for the holidays, I refrained from purchasing any. I did however buy an evergreen swag for our door and a bunch of holly. We are learning about holly next week in science so I felt we needed it.
Coffee update: It took me two whole cups to write this today!
How are you all? Did you have a nice weekend? I would love to hear your stories!
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 
Great photos and stories. I could not manage without coffee in the mornings!
I love imagining your walks in the woods, which remind me of places I visited as a child: relatives who had woods on their properties!
Enjoy your week and your books.
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Oh my gosh, Mondays and Thursdays kill me. Lol. Wyatt has early morning therapy and I don’t have time to have coffee before we leave, the drive isn’t quite long enough to drink any, and I can’t drink one in the waiting room currently because of mask rules. I don’t mind the mask wearing obviously but by the time I get home I am so ready for a cup of coffee. My husband has been making it those days and leaving it for me before he leaves for work, so when I get home there is usually some ready and waiting. Yay!
Thanks Laurel-Rain! It’s been a while since we have been able to get back in the woods. We can’t quite figure out how to get Wyatt out there right now. Kiddo has grown! I would love to have some property with woods one day that we could explore with Wyatt easier. 🙂
Thank you!
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We’re not exactly in the country, but I did see a coyote in the backyard a few years ago! There must be a lot of owls around here because I hear them just about every night in the winter, but I never see them.
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That is awesome! We are not in the country at all (sadly) – we are right outside of Detroit – so we go in search of those rural spaces often. I wish I could hear an owl from my yard or house. That would be so cool. 🙂 We do have coyotes that run around in our city but we rarely see them.
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Miso is adorable. I have never heard of an owl prowl. It sounds fun.
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Thank you! She is such a sweet silly kitty. 🙂
They are really fun!
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I want Miso!!! So cute!
That owl prowl would totally be something for me!!! I saw an owl in a tree once in my life and it was so exciting! As was the time here in Arkansas a couple years ago when one landed on my window ledge! I thought it was a baby owl but now I’m wondering if it was one of those small screeches you mentioned.
Great photos of Wyatt! He seems like he loves to ham it up.
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I had a great time recharging and lots of self care over the holiday weekend! The owl prowl sounds amazing!! Oh, I wish to find one near me! I heard a hoot hoot in my backyard last fall and I peered out my window to see a little owl in my weeping willow tree and he/she saw me. We stared at each other a few minutes, until it flew off. I love nature so much!
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That is so important! We must take time for self-care or we or just not good to anyone.
Awww!! What a great moment!! I would have been so excited about that too!
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Lol!! She is so funny too. She is 13 but forever a kitten.
They are so fun! Sometimes we don’t see anything, but when we do, it feels so magical. And one landed on your window ledge? That is awesome!! It very well could have been a screech, they are so small!
Thank you! He is a big ham. Lol. And he will request to have his picture taken, the little cheeser.
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Oh, what a wonderful date!! I love the beauty of most wild fowl…hawks, kestrels, owls! One night, several years ago, we were coming home after dark. There was a large something in the yard…it looked like a paper grocery bag except it was full. As we pulled into the drive, the headlights illuminated it! It was an owl, but I have no idea what kind! OK, Erin, now, I have to come to Michigan and hang out because I want to go on an owl prowl and hear coyotes howling (one of my favorite sounds).
I do hope you frame at least one or two of the photos of Wyatt! And, yes, holidays make me emotional. I don’t know if it’s the stress of getting everything done, missing my parents, or just wanting to make it a perfect memory. But, I often hide away and have a little cry just because that feels a little good if you know what I mean.
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
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How cool is that!!!! It sounds like it was a bigger owl too – maybe a barred owl? Listening to the coyotes howling was amazing. I have never heard so many of them at one time like that. And in the complete stillness of the woods it felt like it was everywhere.
Yes! I have lost so many close family members in the past few years and the holidays are so hard without them. And then watching Wyatt grow up, that is bittersweet as well. Thinking about my own childhood..ugh I could go on but then I might be teary! Lol.
And I think I will do that!
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It’s so awesome that you have made that park event a tradition and that you are able to do that. I thought it was so funny that the interpreters know you by name. 😂 I had no idea that owl was so small!!
I love all of Wyatt’s poses. He’s a hoot! (Pun intended).
You had such a full week. Take a breather this week and just relax.
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Lol!! He is a hoot. For sure.
Lol! I know right? We know them well – Roni and I even have each other’s phone numbers – which came in handy when I dropped my license hiking once on the trails and someone turned it in to the office. Roni texted me that it was there. Lol. They have become a part of our lives!
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That really is awesome.
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I feel like I have no idea what today is. Between TG on a Thursday, then another on Friday, and kids, and now company I don’t know one day from another. And I’m whipped! Your week sounds very full indeed!
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It’s been a whirlwind! I hope you get some downtime soon too!
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