Doctor Grandma

I have a new walking route, which takes me 40 minutes. I think it’s about a mile & 1/2, but the cheap pedometer I bought is unreliable. Sometimes it counts and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s a good walk, and if I do it every day, sometimes twice/day, perhaps I may even lose some of this extra weight?

Last night I walked it rather late. It was dark when I finished, but there are lights around *most* of the pond and neighborhood. It feels incredibly, boring-ly safe here. The funny thing was, it was so late when I finished, there were little toads hopping all across my path. The night sounds are still so freaky to me, I’m not used to them. I love listening to them as I go to sleep. There is all kinds of night life around the pond that doesn’t come out during the day.

For 1/3 the way through May, we have daytime highs in the 80s, the magnolias are in bloom, the azaleas are done and gone. A 9am morning walk is still cool in the shade, hot in the sun. Dragonflies flit about, never landing on you, but there aren’t a lot of them yet. It has been very dense, or humid, so with a late evening walk, I come in sweating. This morning, I saw a little baby turtle about 3 inches across, who quickly swam under the mud and a rock in the pond to hide from me when it sensed my presence. The adult turtles here are coming out recently as well. They bob their heads above the water, are about 9-12 inches across, but as soon as they sense a human, dive down into the pond water.

Yesterday, my husband and I noticed thousands and thousands of recently hatched tadpoles madly swimming all around the edges of the entire pond. We will soon have more frog voices. When we moved in last July/August, I remember seeing them hopping across the sidewalk as we took walks around the pond. I was wondering when they would reappear. Haven’t seen many turtles raising their heads in the water yet.

Another creature starting to make its appearance for the year, are dragonflies. At the end of last summer, they were so plentiful, I counted different colors & types. They flit all around you as you walk, but never land ON you. They are beautiful blues & greens. It is amazing to watch the natural eco-system of a pond. One feeds on another, they all mate & bring forth a new generation of their kind. The cycle repeats itself. Life is a strong force with the desire to continue.

(photo courtesy of macro-photo.org )

The sounds of the pond tonight are just incredible. I recorded a little and will upload it to facebook tomorrow. It is loud. Creatures calling to each other in the night, frogs, crickets, all sorts of weird creature sounds. I have never heard anything like it before. (I’m a city girl, folks!) Deeper and lighter-type croaking, screeching, it is incredibly loud!! I opened the window, turned on the ceiling fan, and I’m going to lie in bed and go to sleep to the sounds…..

As I watch Sam go by across the pond, outside my window, I think, “What in the WORLD would Sam do if his parents moved him away from here?” He’s been outside all day, fishing. Just now he walked by, wading in the pond near the bank, with another friend. He’s about 4th grade age. Spring break week, he has been out there all day every day. He is there more than he is home. Parents here just let their kids wander. There is no fear for their safety. What a dreamy place to raise a child. We are a neighborhood with many houses, with pond and swimming pool, out away from the small town city limits, close to the big lake. It is its own community. Though something could happen, nothing does happen, to kids out here. People know their neighbors as well. They even own the STREETS! The neighborhood association OWNS the streets and takes care of repair of them– not the city. If someone tries to speed through from one side to the other and doesn’t live here — they can BAN THEM! It’s nice for safety. And it is also very insulated and excluded from the world. There are some African Americans here but few. People ride around in their golf carts on a sunny Spring Saturday. It’s a lazy, comfortable place to live.

Purple trees with low-hanging blooms have exploded open in the last week. I don’t know what they are, they look like giant lilac trees. Azaleas also exploded open on my campus and around town in the past week — dark bright pinks, lighter pinks, & white.

Okay now I’ve seen it. We get up in the morning, there is a thin film of yellow dirt all over our cars. It is everywhere. You drive past pine forest and there is literally a yellowish “haze” covering the air. Yellow cones dot the pine trees like polka dot shirts. You get in your car and can’t see out, so you turn on the washer fluid, and create yellow MUD! In the streets, near the curb, you notice this yellowish dirt making lines on the road. It is amazing. Luckily, I don’t have the allergies. It doesn’t affect my ability to breathe.