As my blogging day ends, a note of thanks to James Hipp at the Gay Agenda blog (www.gayagenda.com) for asking to link to my recent posting about the rise of hate groups in the wake of Obama's election.And as I write that note of thanks, it occurs to me that I may not have thanked the Progressive Mama blog (http://progressivemamablogger.wordpress.com) for adding Bilgrimage to their list of blogs recommended in the area of religion recently. I appreciate the support--and also learning about blogs I had not yet discovered.
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On an altogether different topic, it's that time of winter again: a time I've come to think of as the invasion of the birds. About five years ago, an elderly friend gave us a Lady Banksia rose we cherish.
The thing has grown monstrous, blocking an entire east window of the sunroom Steve and his brother Joe added on to the house some four years ago. It's gorgeous in spring, when its cascades of light yellow blossoms hang down to the ground, forming a cool dark tunnel through which we walk to the south side of the back garden.
The birds love the Lady Banksia all year round. In summer, they gather in it each evening to cool off and sing as the sun goes down. But their winter activity is particularly interesting.
Each winter on a single day, flocks of sparrows suddenly descend on the rose and strip it of all its leaves, chirping merrily as they wreak their havoc. The first time this happened, I was horrified. I wondered if I'd have to tell our friend that his rose had succumbed to a horde of hungry (or playful?) sparrows.
But the rose came back fine in the spring, and for all I know, the defoliation the birds practice on it actually makes it haler. Today, same thing. As I type this, seven or eight latecomers are perched on the branches that straggle to the northeast side of the room, where I work, clipping the last vestiges of green from those branches.
I don't know if they come at the same time each year--that is, on or about the same date--since I haven't made a note of the date in any journal. Or it's possible that this activity is related to the arrival of really cold weather: a way the birds build strength by consuming as much green stuff as they can just before a really cold spell sets in. We're anticipating that knock-out blow of cold weather from the Canadian plains and the upper Midwest tonight.
Whatever triggers this invasion of the birds, I enjoy it. I napped a bit after lunch today and heard the birds carrying on even in my dreams. In a world so centered on human ways and human interests and human rationales, it's nice to see nature assert itself now and again--to remind us that we humans occupy only a tiny niche in the grander scheme of things.
Sparrows have their place, too . . . . Though that place may subvert the expectations of the men who rule us, when we learn its parameters. The men who think they know the place for all of us--securely in their control.
