Saturday, April 11
I’ve been watching the back hedgerow, where ten stalks have risen from our Queens of the Nile, aka agapanthus. Ten stalks, each topped with a bud. They’re taking their time to bloom, which is part of the pleasure.
As my attention has been trained on the above and on the usual backyard birds flashing about their usual activities, I missed a major development in the magnolia tree just outside our east-facing kitchen window: stealth-robins have built a nest! Didn’t know it till this morning when a movement caught my eye – mama rearranging herself on a pile of twigs, a structure just barely visible in the dense array of dark magnolia leaves. Which makes sense.
Since then I’ve been spying on her, catching a flash of orange, a yellow bill glowing in the morning sun, alert black eye ringed with white. I’m imagining a clutch of blue eggs under her breast.
So much depends on her faithful tending and his faithful meal-providing. Blessings, my dears.
Everlasting Arms 