Lazy Summer Days

And so we came to Mid-Summer week. Days were at their longest and nights at their shortest. Evening twilight ended at the exact moment that morning twilight began, at 1:00 in the morning. You wouldn’t have known it on June 16, however. It rained all day as it had the day before!

Later that day, thank goodness, the sun came out and there were others out seeking. This little guy caught my eye during the Goslings’ afternoon photo shoot.

June 17, it rained again. Our world had narrowed a great deal and it is telling that, when I go back to check my photos for that week, indeed, for most of the rest of the month of June, the only pictures taken were of the family, with some few exceptions of flowers in my garden. I know I was walking the dog. I know I was doing things around the house, but uncharacteristically, I was not taking photographs.

Photos have been my memory record since I first got a camera. In many ways, my photographs are my journals. When I cannot write, I can always take pictures.

An interesting thing about Canada Goose vision … I often comment that I know I’ve been seen; unfailingly, I know. It’s hard to miss, really. If you look at the picture above, you’ll see what I mean.

I was told, at one point, that they have monocular vision — they look at things one eye at a time, if you know what I mean. And I know that they have extremely wide vision. I figured that the two eyes would, at some point be sharing information, so to speak. So, I looked it up, today. And over at Research Gate, I found a paper entitled “Testing the Terrain Hypothesis: Canada Geese See Their World Laterally and Obliquely” by Esteban Fernández-Juricic, Bret A Moore, Megan S Saenger and Travis L. DeVault.

Canada Geese do see most clearly from a monocular standpoint; that is, using only one eye. Their range of vision is actually quite broad; technically, 180 degrees. They have 156 degree monocular vision in each eye, with a small blind spot at the very back of their heads. In front, however, looking over the bill, is 22% binocular vision. When I say I know I’ve been seen, it’s because I have.

It really was feeling like our world was closing in. Fears for family back across the pond, concerns for friends here and abroad. We did everything we could to minimise the risk to ourselves and at one point, had even stopped walking the dog through the village, turning the other way instead. It was a shorter walk, but more what we both felt we could handle, physically, given our health issues. At least it was a walk.

My sweetheart has a lifelong gym habit and I go … well, I have to in order to keep my body moving, so I go out of necessity. We hadn’t been since the very beginning of March and we were both feeling the effects. But with the country potentially opening up, and visitors perhaps being allowed in the garden, that meant that we could do our workouts outside, in the garden, and our Trainer could come to us. With this in mind, I went online to find Kettle Bells for us that could supplement the TRX system we already had.

We had a plan.

And then the Solstice arrived. One of my favourite days of the year. From this point on, every day will become shorter, but for 24 hours, we are at the peak and it’s wonderful. Of course, we couldn’t let this day go buy without a visit. These were taken between 12:39 and 12:45.

Later that day, as I worked at my desk, they came over to the window for a visit.

I spent the next couple of days working on a song. That took up a fair bit of my energy and as it was raining, again, I didn’t see much of the family. But June 23 dawned bright and sunny.

As I turned on my system for the day an hour or so later, I looked up and there they were. They looked so grown up. Their feathers looked glossy and their muscles well-developed. They were almost as big as Mama, now! I was almost comforted to realise there was still the slightest bit of scruff on their necks and heads.

And so, we come to their two month birthday. They’d become elegant and strong. No more gawky teenager, but not yet fully Juvenile Geese.

As I composed this installment, I realised that it was their First Birthday – April 24 – and wondered how they are. So much has changed in our world; so much is still the same as it was, some of it worse. But Mother Nature continues her miracles.

Papa has been on his own for a month, since late March. That morning, as I was having morning coffee, my sweetheart came into the living room. “I think we have Goslings!” he cried, as he looked out the window. “WHAT???!!!” I yelled as I ran for my camera.

And there they were. Six of them, all fluff and innocense. Proof that what happens to we humans, really, in the end, is just part of the equation. There is so much more than us. Whatever happens to us, is ours to live, not theirs to have to deal with; although, we certainly given them enough to deal with in our wilful blindness to what we do.

In the end, we all start out as little bundles of curiosity and joy, no matter what species we are. Life, to be cherished and nutured. Life, to experience living in all its glories and shadows. Life.