Pictures for Pam, Day 47: Joy & Peace

(+1 inset)

Just like any child the world over, Pumpkin woke up at 5am this Christmas morning and entered my fluffy, comfortable dream.

"Peep!"

I kept on sleeping, but wondered what that odd sound played in my narrative. Who knows was I was dreaming about but I could surely say that the next announcement woke me up.

"Burble-burble-burble-burble…PEEP!"

I cringed when I saw the time. "Peep-PEEP!" Nope. I wasn’t going to answer. Without shame, I pretended I didn't hear her. However, she knew it was Christmas and there was no stopping that little beaky of hers from chiming in another "Peep!" every 5 or 10 minutes. *whimper* I felt as one with all parents on the West Coast right now…all of us trying in vain to get our children to allow us another few moments to sleep. At least my child wasn't running all over the house and sneaking peeks at the presents Santa brought! Memories of joyful Christmas mornings as a child brought a smile to my face.

However, I wasn't going to get up at 5am. Nor would I arise at 6am or even 6:30am, thank you very much! Pumpkin finally lapsed her "snooze" feature to 15 minute intervals and eventually I dragged my bedraggled corpse out of bed at 6:45am. I stumbled, zombie-like, into the bathroom to start the day. Once I was up, of course, all was well but I certainly wore a pair of very heavy-lidded eyes to begin with!

As predicted yesterday, this morning wasn't rainy and it wasn't terribly cold either. As I started my walk, I watched the sun lighten the sky and colors appeared. My present from Mother Nature was a spectacular sunrise full of lemon, orange, purple, blue and magenta. All against lovely cloud and fog formations that whispered around and over the Upper Table Rock in the distance. (See my inset!) The lovely show continued well past the end of my walk, and Steve would go on to mention the beauty of this day. Colors bounced off the clouds. Fog crawled up and down the valley, socking in our property and then falling back again to reveal the valley beyond. Wisps and tendrils of mist created delicate lines into the sky like a diaphanous curtain. It was wondrous.

The birds gave me their present too. Early off on my walk I heard the resident turkeys down in the woods making themselves heard and I enjoyed every note. I heard a pair of acorn woodpeckers calling back and forth to each other. Many little song birds--finches, sparrows and juncos--twittered in nearby trees and flew together from tree to tree.

As I started my last lap I looked up and was overjoyed to see the flock of turkeys near our shop. I stopped for a moment to listen to their lovely contact trills and purrs, smiling happily. They pecked at the dirt, relaxed and comfortable as they wandered towards the hillside. I resumed my walk, hoping I'd see them when I returned back up the hill. I didn't see them at first but I did hear them and watched as they appeared from the rear of our shop.

Quietly I padded up the hill, knowing they hadn't seen me. They wandered up the side of the hill just on the other side of some thick brush next to me. I stood, totally captivated. For the first time I was very close to them as they were vocalizing their beautiful, intimate purrs and trills. Such soft notes was like sweet conversation among a loving family. It was so wonderful to hear them cooing so sweetly, and blissful moments passed as I drank it all in.

The flock climbed up the steep hill and disturbed a trio of mule deer does. They trotted away and stopped to turn and stare at me. They could see me, but the turkeys hadn't, or if they could, were far enough away now that they weren't bothered.

I heard some deep flapping and tried to spot the birds through the trees. One of the turkeys was putting on some sort of wing-flapping display, and with that, all of the turkeys began making a lot more noise. In fact, they were making such a ruckus I tried to record the racket on my phone--to no avail, unfortunately. The flock was obscured by trees but it sounded like they were having a turkey convention up there! No alarm "gobble-gobbles" but all kinds of noisy calls…it was completely crazy! After a while I crept back down the hill to the house, thoroughly delighted by the amazing Christmas present I'd been given by Mother Nature. I am so happy!!

Today's picture is another holiday card! I thought it would be perfect because today is Christmas here in the United States. It also gives me the opportunity to share another picture from my "Birds in the Snow" folder! I spent some time looking through the hundreds of pictures and found lots of really neat shots. I'd set up our 100-300mm lens so I could take multiple pictures in succession, a technique which I have a love-hate relationship with. I love the many choices you get this way but it also means an absolute GLUT of pictures and you must look through them. UGH! The most horrible thing of all was that I discovered that I hadn't processed a single picture from that photo shoot. What a shame, but now I am sharing the second picture. YAY! :)

Pam, I hope you had a very merry Christmas! I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you enjoying ipernity more these days. I know you'd like to be 100% better but gosh, you're doing so well! Let's hope you keep seeing more and more improvement…you sure do deserve it. Many, many great big *HUGGGGGGSSSSSS*!!!

Explored on 12/26/18, highest placement, #5.