One night this week, I sat outside at dusk and observed the yard and the area around me. The fruit trees are growing. It is so cool how they send out a little green shoot that grows and grows and then adds leaves and then – seemingly the next day – the little shoot changes colors and hardens off into a branch. There is no fruit this year, but they are very happy and healthy trees and will fruit when they are ready.

While I was sitting there, I heard the Cardinals chirping away and although we rarely see the female, the male sits on the fence or on a wire near the yard every evening at dusk. I’ve learned his song and try to find him in the trees around us.

The sun is setting, so I can see the swarms of various bugs that start to circulate out of the grass and trees where they have been keeping cool during the hottest part of the day, and then the Dragonflies arrive to eat the bugs. I saw one land that had a light blue body…something I had never seen before.

High above, and sometimes closer than I would like, the bats fly at this time also. I can hear them calling and see them flying around the area until they land in the chimney a couple houses from ours. I am happy to have put a chimney cap on our house last year!

Having these weeks home and sitting still for this long has given me so much time to think about what matters most to me. It gives me a chance to truly rest and heal my foot, but I think my mind needed just as much of a rest.

There is so much nature around me in the city to enjoy when I slow down long enough to see it! =)