Lord Sycamore

Sitting on the front porch of the cabin is quite peaceful. Although the cabin is located right near the big house, the sights and sounds are greatly amplified here. 

The birds love the old cedar tree along the cove. The catbirds frequent that tree and you’d think there were kittens all over this place. That’s just how catbirds sound. 

The numerous bird houses are occupied with bluebirds, sparrows, finches, and my favorite, the tree swallow. Currently, the boys are all quite twitterpated so their swooping and diving and showing off for a female makes for quite a show. Sometimes, though, enough is enough and I yell at them to just leave her alone!

Tree swallows are fun to watch as they dive to the surface of the pond to eat their fill of bugs. Last year, I did not see even one mosquito on our property. 

Periodically, a lone blue heron will fish in our pond as well. I watched him pull a large bluegill out onto the shore. After the poor fish flopped around for a bit, the bird ate him whole. 

Fish come up to the surface of the water to eat bugs as well. In the evening if they hear the golf cart they head toward the dock.  Schools of sunfish and bluegill ripple the water as they race to meet us. They know we have food for them. 

Our backyard is a safe haven for wildlife. Deer, skunk, possums, coyotes, raccoons, a male turkey and his little harem of four, and a lone female turkey who I affectionately named May Belle. Frogs sing to us every night and a couple of bullfrogs chime in with their deep, off-key bellows. They try anyway.

We have a favorite tree on our property. Well, we have several but this one stands out among the rest as it is the largest and perhaps, the oldest. It is a sycamore tree and with respect to its age and beauty, I fondly named him, Lord Sycamore. The best view of this tree is from the cabin porch swing. D initially wanted to set the cabin on the hill in front of the sycamore. It is a beautiful site as well, but we decided the cabin would be best suited on the cove. 

This tree is beautiful to us. He silently watches over our property. He sees the comings and goings of all the creatures here. Sadly, D says Lord Sycamore is mostly hollowed out and he doesn’t know how much longer he will stand. It’s a wonder he’s still here after the serious winds of last winter and this spring. 

Lord Sycamore isn’t as full this year and his leaves are a lighter shade of green. Maybe the three late frosts we had this spring slowed down his progress. Or, maybe he’s on one of his last seasons. Regardless, he’s still beautiful to us and we are happy he’s still standing today. 

♥️

Andi