Yesterday morning, what may well have been a murmuration of starlings came racing through our back woods like a blinding blizzard. I just happened to be perched in my comfy chair in the sunroom, with a wide-eyed panoramic view of the squall.

It was wild!

Farmer Gary later explained to me the birds are rather frantic this time of year, looking for food and a bit of warmth.

They flew in from the northwest and crowded in the tree branches just yards from the sunroom (yes, it was definitely Hitchcockian) for just a moment or two. Then, following some silent signal from the leader, the starlings took off again en masse – this time heading southwest.

A few days earlier, it was squirrels. Eight of them, chasing each other about! Usually, we’ll see one or two at a time, but this was a true scurry of squirrels. They dashed about, leaping from limb to higher limb. I held my breath for them, as they certainly didn’t have a care in the world.

And what do I find next? This poem Mom wrote in 2004:

Placing the Chair

Placing the chair by the window in Winter is an act of love
a bird call becomes clearer
and the bird itself more visible
the witch hazel is more watchable
its secret treasury shows itself sooner
in the winter gold

Sometimes I sit there and look in
feasting on books and firelight and music
and the rare weather of the room itself

~ joan vayo ~ February 22, 2004

Their chairs are here in our house now, in the sunroom, library, and study. Each near a window. And the beauty of nature.

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“Placing the Chair” ©2004  Joan Vayo. All rights reserved.

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