What do I miss?

I haven't felt like blogging for a long time.

It is 5:30 am and the inspiration has hit me.

I must blog.

Many people ask me if I miss Maryland.

How can I not miss Maryland when we lived there for 18 years?

Some things are ingrained.

Today when I woke up at this early time in the morning,

what did I miss?

The woodpecker, that woke us up each morning.

He/she sat on the metal covering of our chimney,

just above our heads,

and very distinctly pecked away at that chimney.

They peck fast and furiously for a couple of seconds, wait and do it again!

The first time we heard it, we didn't know what in the world it was.

Took us a few mornings until we discovered it.

and after that we expected it.

The person who bought our home may have experienced the same thing.

Or maybe not, maybe he has always woken up to a woodpecker pecking the house!

Other things I miss . . . . . 

The footsteps of squirrels dropping off of their tree highway,

onto our roof on their way to their next limb.

(our lot was wooded, 32 very mature oaks and pines)

The mole in the back yard,

who is digging his way through our used to be lawn.

Actually, I don't miss him.

The ground bees which are making their appearance in our used to be lawn.

Who keep the mole company.

Who one year, I caught as they hatched.

The most amazing thing!

As one hatched, it stopped, helped the other out of the ground,

flew off . . . . as the next one stopped to help the next one out,

and so on and so on and so on.
They were very docile bees.
You could walk through them and they took you no notice.
We fought and fought and fought those bees.
Who wants bees in their lawn?
On second thought, I don't miss them either. Ha!

The red robin, who built her nest in our front shrub,

in which we had a perfect view of from our front window.

She was less than a foot away.

She would,

Build the nest,

lay her eggs,

sit on her eggs,

hatch her chicks,

feed her chicks,

the chicks would become too fat for the nest,

and would soon gone.

They grew so fast!

The cardinal that would try to nest in the robin's place.

She never quite was able to take over the bush!

The blue jays that were more plentiful when we had a dog.

They love dog food!

Later on in the year,

when our holly trees were full of red berries,

(did you know there are male and female of every tree?)

only one of the genders had red berries.

A flock of robins would come and all at once,

peck each berry off of the tree!

An awesome sight.

Right now the hostas will have unfurled their leaves.

Some of those leaves twice as large as my foot.

The Japanese Maple will be it's full purple/red wonder.

The dogwood will have bloomed,

The azalea, the rhododendron, the camellia,

the magnolia, the ornamental pear.

The rain that watered the yard so thoroughly

that a sprinkler system was not needed.

Do I miss Maryland?

Yes . . . . . but Maryland was traded for so many other nice things.

Which if this post weren't so long, I would choose to elaborate.

But will not.

Good day.

Or if you lived in Maryland the saying would be . . . . no kidding . . . . . 

Have a blessed day!

What a nice saying.