Happy to finally be … a little “Closer to the Land”

Carolina Carol ♦ January 25, 2013 ♦ 5 Comments

Love being able to see the back view from inside

Well after several years of planning to remodel, scraping that plan, and instead deciding it was best to build a new house … we are finally settling in to our new place (hooray :).

In the end, we picked a Donald Gardner plan (Richelieu) with lots of windows that offers great views of the farm and natural areas surrounding us and drawing us … “closer to the land.”  On the days that I get to be here, I am often treated to glimpses of wildlife … sometimes I see wild turkeys and some afternoons a small herd of deer cautiously graze across the backyard.  There is also a family of nutria feeding and making their home of the pond in the back.  Sightings of blue herons and egrets are fairly common.

Over the past few weeks, large groups of geese and swan have been flying over in view from our large window in the great room.  Early this morning about 100 swan flew over.  Even if I hadn’t heard the forecast for snow and sleet for today, I could have gathered from all the outside activity that something was up.  There has been a steady stream of birds coming to our feeder all day … cardinals, gold finches, nut hatches, sleet colored juncos and sparrows.  Still there was an even greater surprise in store.

Before lunch I was talking on the phone when a large bird with a wide wing span glided through the backyard and landed in a grove of trees nearby.  It was a stunning bald eagle – what a thrill!  After this initial sighting, we waited for it to move from the trees but it was a while before that happened.  We sat down to lunch looking back and forth to see what might appear on the landscape in the back.  More that an hour later, it finally happened.  The bald eagle reappeared.  It circled and landed on the path in the backyard.  Seems it wanted a closer look at our blue heron decoy.  It landed just a couple of yards away from it and just stood there in all its glory … long enough for me to grab my camera and click off a couple of shots.  See for yourself  🙂

Bald Eagle checking out our blue heron decoy in the backyard ~

I love living in the country surrounded by nature and today is just a sample of all the treasures that life here offers.

Today I am especially grateful to live … “close to the land.”

From our farm to you,

Carolina Carol