Phenomenal Good Things

While the day has already had some very good moments in it - raisin bread french toast with my parents, a forty minute walk with the dogs(2/3 of us, not Ky, need to get back into shape and Casey was a real trooper, I expect he will nap for the rest of the day) I'm in in the process of making spinach dip, an aparagus/mushroom/quinoa dish as well as sweet potato/quinoa dumplings and listening to the Canadian Tenors - scroll down to the video that says Shine to hear Lead with your heart, the windows are wide open(take that! you firework shooting neighbours) and all is well in my world.

I popped over to the Loch of the Lowes webcam which has crashed due to volume so I checked out their blog. I've been watching over there for several years now. Theresa and I were several miles away and had considered a quick visit when in Dunkeld.  Had I known then what I know now, I would have made the effort.  We'd already walked five miles, what was another five? 

Wildlife lead precarious lives. Not only are weather and predators a factor in their existence, man has made some catastrophic changes in their habitat.  Long lives are relative.  By all calculations, twenty two years for a nesting Osprey is phenomenal. While the resident female, Lady, usually comes back the last week of March, last year's male has already returned, as has a young female. They've mated a couple of times and many wondered if Lady's time had ended.  She's unringed, has no tracking so there's  no way to know where she is or if she's still alive.  The average osprey lifespan is 10-15 years in the wild.  She is in her mid-to-late-twenties.  I doubt I'm alone in crossing my fingers each Spring.  So you can understand why this post made me cry. 

I hope your heart lifts at least once today.