Thursday, February 4, 2010

Robins

The robins are back! Every year, our back yard is full of robins for 2 days. I mean, branch-sagging full. We must be in some migratory path. I first noticed them when I took a break one year at the end of January, beginning of February. I'd read about a woman who committed to sitting outside every day, rain or shine, for an hour. She had been feeling disconnected from nature and the seasons. So sometimes she sat for an hour in the morning with the paper and cup of tea, sometimes at night with friends, always in her little urban backyard. She noticed things she'd never noticed before.

I could never commit to an hour a day of anything (except maybe picking up puppy poop :), so I just tried to take some time in the afternoons to look out into the backyard. We have a creek running through our yard, so there's always something going on - deer, raccoons, even people. But when I noticed the robins, I got really excited and I bought some feeders. But 2 days later, the robins were gone. The Stellar Jays enjoyed their food. So I watched the pair of jays for the year. Then the robins came back. When I noticed them the 2nd time, I noticed that our Tulip Tree was starting to bud. 2 days later, the robins were gone, but I watched the tree bloom.

Now, when I notice the robins, I know spring is around the corner. Since moving to California from Wisconsin, I'd been looking for something to mark the seasons, the passage of time. Weather was such a big part of my life in the Midwest. When you live there, you have to know when a storm is coming - rain or snow. You have rituals around Memorial Day (the first cold swim in the lake) and Labor Day (back to school and the last official day of summer). But in California, it's possible to wear shorts in the middle of 'winter', then drive for a few hours to go skiing. I miss that ever-present reminder of where we are in the seasonal year.

I guess the return of the robins each year helps me mark time here.

And now I'll always remember that the robins came one year and the puppies left.

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