Reward
Noel Laflin
7-27-22
Three ravens landed on
the edge of the old fountain in Irvine Park yesterday. I was just a few feet away
but they paid me no never mind. There was an adult and two juveniles - the kids
acted like any rambunctious children vying for attention.
Then the older raven
dipped its beak into the water and produced a soggy acorn, which he/she held
out to the youngest bird.
The kid looked
enraptured and was thusly rewarded with the treat a moment later.
Pathways
Noel Laflin
7-26-22
There's a pathway in which adults must duck by way of entry, so I imagine it was created by generations of children running helter-skelter through the oaks as they have no undoubtedly done so for over a century.
I duck through here often, nonetheless, as the sight of hawks frequently roosting in the beautiful canopy of branches high above is reward enough for the inconvenience of trees trying to, and in my case, frequently, relieve me of my cap.
Smiles and Faith
Noel Laflin
7-6-22
Our friend
Leo showed up bright and early this morning to start work on replacing an old
section of fence that blew down during a Santa Ana Wind earlier this year. I
righted the blown out section immediately afterward and jerry-rigged a
workaround to hold it in place, but was happy to see a professional, not to
mention the friendly Leo, bearing tools and replacement boards.
“Leo,” I
said, “it’s good to see you my friend, but please no more baby hummingbird
gifts this time, okay?”
As you may
recall from a previous musing, it was Leo who found the orphaned kids abandoned
in the street back on Memorial Day weekend as he was coming round to repair our
front door (there is always something in need of fixing around here). He
brought the two youngsters to me as he thought I knew something about the
raising of an orphan bird or two.
I didn’t,
but that was of no concern to Leo. He
had faith, apparently.
It all worked
out well, in the end, but was a tremendous amount of work keeping one of the
tiny kids alive for two weeks. She, who
David named Lucy (as in a diamond in the sky type Lucy), flew off to new adventures
sometime in mid-June after her recuperation/revival.
Upon my pronouncement
this morning about not bringing any more orphans our way, Leo merely smiled (he’s
always smiling, by the way) and simply replied, “It was not me, my friend,” and
then pointed upward.
“You’re
saying God sent them to me?” I responded.
“Si,” he
answered, still smiling, as he proceeded downstairs to start on the fence.
If God does
work in mysterious ways, as some claim, then Leo is a fine messenger, as he is
a man of both smiles and faith.
And he’s
going to build us a fine new fence too. I’ve got faith in that, to be certain.
