Thickly overcast but cool morning coffee muses

Texas, the weather charges minute to minute. See these pictures, overcast, dark… that’s what greeted me this morning, both at 6 a.m. and at 8 a.m. But, 30 minutes later we have this…

And that was after I checked in with the weather prognosticators to see what was up. Their foretelling was of unending clouds right up till the next rain chance on Thursday… Like I said Texas.

It’s a funny thing how you can miss something you have never had, and not realize it until you have it on a daily basis, and how the converse is also true… you can have something in your life for ever, lose it, and not realize you missed it till it shows back up. That pretty much sums up my relationship with bluebirds and mockingbirds.

Bluebirds have only been in my life for the past eight to ten years, but once they arrived in my life I realized I had really missed them for half a century and not known it. Now, when they are not around for awhile their absence is noted.

Mockingbirds on the other hand, they’ve been playing a prominent role in my memories for my whole life. From the one in the oak tree by the walkway at my great-grandmother’s house that would fly down and attack whenever you walked to the door… for years. To the one that would perform on the tv antenna at the peak of my grandparents house. They’ve always been around… until they weren’t. And, truth be told, I didn’t even notice till last year. Then all of a sudden, they’re back in droves. Singing from the top of the chimney, singing from the peak of the house. Singing in the woods to the east, the tree to the west. Chasing each other from one side of the yard to the other. And their songs fill a void that I was unaware of for the first few years it was there.

Sitting at the computer last night I became aware of the who-who-whoop coming in the window. When I walked outside I could hear an owl in the trees out front. When I then walked out back I could hear another along the bayou. I tried but couldn’t talk the closer.

The Mississippi Kite is back on the dead tree limb rising above the greenery to the west. I saw him there yesterday morning, and again at sundown. I guess the pair plans to stick around awhile. Nice…