Notes on "Scene at the Pond"

I had to admit to my husband that -- well, I'm not actually surprised, but -- I am pleaseantly pleased with something that happened this week.

I was heading home from the dentist. He finally put in the final bridgework and took out the awful temporary bridgework that had kept my gums sore and raw for five or six weeks. And it seemed like a good idea to take a different route home than I would usually take. I'm not sure which is the quicker route. Probably the usual route because the route I took offers too many opportunities to observe the Remnants of Nature in Our Midst.

I do live in farm country. Quickly, though, the fields are waking up one fine sunrise to find a "for sale" sign dangling out by the road. The corn, hay or soybeans groan and the ground just wants to crack up and crawl away at the thought of being turned into one more housing plan or gotta-look-like-a-golf-course lawn.

Knowing I would be driving very slowly past the little ponds and marshy areas, looking for turtles and heron, for trumpeter swans floating in the ponds, for sandhill cranes in the fields, and tricolor herons or bitterns in the trees, I turned on the four-way flashers instead of just my blinker light. As I was shooting a heron in one of the larger ponds, the cardinal flew over the hood of my minivan and landed in the tangle of tree and weed next to me. I tried to shoot him but wasn't sure what I got. Was happy when I got home and downloaded the pictures to see that he turned out so well.

As I crawled along about four miles of road, stopping often to shoot through the open windows of the minivan, I actually had three different people stop to make sure everything was okay and that I wasn't broken down.

It's nice to know there are people out there who aren't afraid to stop to help a neighbor in need. Thanks.