I am participating in The Two Writing Teachers' Slice of Life Story Challenge, writing every day during the month of March. My theme this year is "Outdoors".
I filled the birdfeeder hanging from our old, rundown playscape a little later than usual, and kept looking out the kitchen window to see if I had any takers. I spotted something small and brown moving quickly from the playscape to our back patio. It seemed to walk on top of our yellowed, winter-weary grass and not through the blades, so I thought it was a bird...until it climbed up on one of the logs from our fallen oak.
It was a lovely spring-is-coming day, perfect for a lizard to warm up its cold-blooded little body. Almost camouflaged against the wood, it cocked its head in my direction as I said my hellos through the glass. It didn't rest long. Maybe the sun was a bit too hot today, and it skittered down the log and out of sight.
After a few minutes, I heard my son call out to me from his bedroom--"Come here, quick!". He had opened his curtain to let the light in, and there was our scaly friend, peeking in for a few minutes before making its way to who knows where, on this balmy springlike day.
Aww he's cute! I'd say he's the unofficial welcome Spring committee.
ReplyDeleteI think you might be right! The birds visit year-round, but the lizards, only when it warms up.
DeleteKeep it outdoors with your theme, please. I still remember when we had a scaly friend upstairs in our Houston home and my frantic attempts to catch it and return it outdoors!
ReplyDeleteComment is from Ramona.
DeleteI would be a bit freaked out if I saw this on my wall, Ramona. We do get the baby geckos from time to time, but they are easily captured in a cup and taken outside.
DeleteA lizard skittering around already? Such a flip in the weather switch as we were freezing last weekend and just a few days later, I hear the crickets cricketing on a stroll at dusk. I like your focus on a theme. Thought about it, but of course, the idea flitted out of my brain.
ReplyDeleteJust wait five minutes in Texas, right, Alice? The outdoor theme comes from a need to focus on something other than the news and work...
DeleteOh my goodness! Look at him! How incredible. Thank you for sharing this. Nature gives me so many moments of joy. This morning I watched the red-shoulder hawk (well, one of the pair) circling overhead and calling to its mate as I filled the feeders.
ReplyDeleteNature is a good go-to for moments of joy, to be sure! And life-cycle moments...our neighborhood hawk(s) occasionally visit our yard for a meal; those poor doves are slow.
DeleteAwesome photos, Chris! Your scaly little friend is cute. I love these sentences, full of lightheartedness: "It was a lovely spring-is-coming day, perfect for a lizard to warm up its cold-blooded little body." As you know, I turn to nature often, for finding peace so elusive in the world of humans. So good to read your words again, and I cannot wait to see what the "outdoors" brings you next!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Fran. "Go outside" is my mantra this year, after realizing what the lack of daily sunlight is doing to my body and soul (I work in a windowless library, in the center of the school). Writing about the outdoors is certainly more joyful that writing about the news these days!
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