Fecundity

Fe-cund adj. 1: fruitful in offspring or vegetation : prolific. 2.: intellectually productive or inventive to a marked degree.

All the senses are engaged...

The sounds...

The sights...

the smells....

the colors....

Spring has come on with a rush. It is everywhere outside...

and some of it finds its way into the house.

I put the hummingbird feeders out today. I saw the first ruby-throated hummingbirds about an hour later. I put two more feeders out on the other side of the house. By mid-afternoon, another hummingbird had arrived and the two of them have begun squeaking angrily at each other as they chase each other around the house, fighting over the hummingbird feeders. They don't share or play well with others,

The wrens have an umbrella full of baby birds to feed, and we all day long we hear the parents twittering as they approach the nest with an insect or grub in their beaks.

The cat lurks on the porch and drives them nuts.

A young opossum came to the porch last night for the dog food and apple cores that I leave out every evening. She was so swollen with babies in her pouch she could barely walk. Her belly barely cleared the ground, a veritable watermelon with legs. Most people here hate possums. Indeed, if I still kept chickens, I probably would hate them too. I like them though. They serve a useful niche in the environment.

Besides, they are very clean animals. They always wash their faces when they are done eating.

The horse trader who owns the farm across the road where we walk has resumed horse-trading. A few weeks ago a new mare appeared in the pasture, and she is swelling as well. In the last few days she has been joined by 3 other mares, at least one of which is also heavily pregnant Before too long, there will be spindly-legged foals will be at their sides.

Rabbits have been chasing each other around the front yard. I have a feeling I know what they are up to. The other day our cat was sitting in the driveway watching two rabbits darting about. She crouched down in the typical posture that a cat assumes when it is about to start stalking something. One rabbit took off in into grass by the side of the house, and the other came running up the driveway and stopped about a foot from the cat. She jumped at it and it leaped and took off. She didn’t pursue; it would have been a waste of energy, the rabbit was as big as she is.