A Late Autumn Saturday Morning

A week ago today, we were enjoying the company and warmth of family, here at Little Bird Farm. The Commander was in town for several days, and we wanted be sure he had time to visit with as many of "our people" as possible in a short period of time.  One of the best things about being back in NM is the company of family!   We wish our own kids could be here too, when we all get together, but this is their time to be having adventures elsewhere, a notion I entirely respect.  So, back to our Saturday, last.  We cooked up all the ingredients for breakfast burritos, and everyone concocted their own.  Three breakfast meats, scrambled eggs, spicy potatoes, anasazi beans, cheese, and the absolutely requisite red chile and green chile.  Folks in our family tend toward a very high aesthetic when it comes to plating their food - and the creations this day were various and lovely! Amber and Tim took the breakfast burrito prize with their last touch being a quick zap in the microwave - melting the cheese on top.  Gary & Mel made beautiful oatmeal scones - most shaped like hearts, and one in the shape of a gingko leaf, or nearly, anyway.  Delicious with triple clotted Devonshire cream.   Two-year old Miles accomplished most of his aesthetic work with a bottle of sprinkles.  I am still finding the occasional green or blue sprinkle here & there in the house!

This Saturday morning, the day after the Commander's birthday, I am here by myself (and he is in Oakland by himself....seems we are always apart on his birthday, given his line of work).  I am not exactly by myself, really, as the sky is wild with families of sand-hill cranes heading south toward the Bosque del Apache; this week is the Sand-hill Crane Festival and they seem to know it!   Rather, they possess an age-old instinct to travel the sky above the Rio Grande to their winter home in the mild, fertile bosque, as "their people" have done for centuries.  Every few minutes, I hear the loud "honking" of these magnificent birds!  I race to a window or throw open a door, just to get a good look!  Now and then, I see that instead of cranes, the troop overhead is a large "V' of Canadian geese.  I can't yet tell the difference in their sound, but there is no mistaking the image; the cranes' long slender, grey bodies and long legs.....gorgeous!  The geese are pretty too, and fly in tighter formation, seems to me.  They often land in the field west of our place.  Must be good eats in that field!  

It is a joy to be living back in NM.  I am never alone, what, with the scraggly coyote, the occasional skunk, the sweet little birds, and the magnificent large birds of autumn!  Add to this, the frequent company of family who live here, and the knowledge that our boys and their little families are living their dreams in other locales, for now, and I am one contented "Little Bird" myself!  

Gotta run!  I hear honking!!!!