my happy place

It's been almost two months since we moved and I can only hope that every house from now on is as peaceful as this one.

Hubby put a bird feeder in the middle of the front yard (at my request) and we have tried several different food items to see if there are preferences for any of the birds. So far, all the birds have eaten all that we put out! The black birds eat side by side with the sparrows and finches; the starlings/grackles and waxeyes and thrushes eat together with no problems. It's marvelous to watch. The occasional, tiny rifleman shows up for a meal but keeps its distance.

There is a pair of fantails that live in this huge bushy, overgrown thingy in the yard. At first I thought it was a tree that had been taken over by a vine or something and I had planned to dissect it in the summertime, but on closer inspection, I see that it's not--I don't know what it is. The fantails eat bugs, so the 'thing' can stay as it is.

A pair of swallows briefly stopped by for a rest on one of the power lines the other day which surprised me. I love to watch them drop like stones from the sky before they pull up at the last moment and fly off. And watching the plovers protecting their nests from the one hawk that haunts these parts is a bit loud but it's still an amazing air battle to watch.

I look forward to getting some photos of all these gorgeous creatures, as most of the birds are very comfortable in the strange but interesting trees that are against the fence. It appears that some of them might be making nests on the paddock side.

The only traffic past the front gate is milk tankers to collect from the cows and very occasional trucks for various farm things (whatever those are), but I just hear a slight noise as they slow down to make a 90-degree turn to enter the farm.

And then there is the rumble of the trains across the paddocks. At the city crossings a few miles kms away, they are accompanied by the toots of the horn but that is so distant, I don't hear it if I'm concentrating on something else. The amount of cars, of course, determines the amount of rumble and I find myself guessing how long the trains are and which way they are going.

All in all, I will enjoy being here for as long as  it lasts.