There has only been one family of birds this year, in the nest on the porch. They have fledged, and are about to leave the nest for good, I'd say within the week. Usually, another pair moves in and repeats the process, often as many as three times in a summer. Not to mention the cardinal nests in the privet at the other end of the porch, right outside my study window. Avian encounters are a frequent feature of my environment.
My nest--of lo! these past eight years--will soon be empty.
4 comments:
Great photo of the four birds crowded in the nest! Bittersweet, I know. I will miss it too, but those longings are juice for the adventure ahead!
It's a "Jebi" in Hanguel. There is a fable associated with this story. It's "Heungbu and Nolbu brother".
Thank you for sharing that--it was easy to find several versions of this fable on line. You remind me of yet one more area of culture to investigate! Essentially, the brother who shelters the injured sparrow is rewarded with riches. I hope that's me, but I have an ugly secret.
About three years ago, the Spring Break I repainted my house, it was my plan to go around the nest full of eggs; therefore, I pressure washed the porch carefully, being sure to avoid the nest.
Unfortunately, I wasn't careful enough, and a few minutes later, I heard a splat sound behind me. The nest lay upside down on the concrete slab, the eggs inside broken.
It sounds callous now, but I turned the spray full on the avian carnage and sent it skittering across the concrete, under the rail, and into the organic Neverland beneath the boxwood hedge that surrounds the porch.
I was tired—-I had been painting my house for most of a week, lugging my considerable hindparts up and down ladders, wrestling with water hoses and electrical cords, spraying myself in the face with the Wagner more frequently than I care to admit-—and besides, I did try.
But no matter. Not long after the paint dried, several twigs had somehow been stuck up in that corner. In three days, it was a nest. In three weeks, it held a clutch of chicks. True story.
Heh. Yeah, that last month is hard. You’re excited, but also you start to listen to all the negative things and have second thoughts. My only advice is to listen to EVERYTHING, both the good and the bad. That and to come in with low expectations. I know that sounds depressing, but honestly, it will make you less frustrated once you get here.
The problem with learning to ask questions in Korean is that you then get the answers in Korean. If I even say “I don’t speak Korean.” then they tend to seem to think “Yes you do, you just did.” and continue speaking to me in Korean at 90mph. I end up just saying “mulayo”, which means “I don’t understand/I don’t know.”, which tends to get the point across.
I have really worked on trying to learn Korean here, but at the end of the day, it’s hard to find the willpower to, as since I’m surrounded by it all day, the LAST thing I want to do is hear Korean when I get home.
A warning about soju - it hits westerners like a ton of bricks, for some reason. I had one bottle recently - about the equivalent alcohol of 2.5 beers, and I was reasonably tender around the edges in the morning. I hear some horrible stuff about the hangovers that come from drinking any real quantity of the stuff.
I assume you are well acquainted with eslcafe.com?
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