Bridget Bryan

When you journey through life on this earth, you’re bound to see some animals. If you frequent the outdoors, you’re bound to become rather familiar with them. And if you have anything of an imagination, you’re bound to find amusing parallels between our life and theirs!

This post features two such parallels!

Here in Kansas, as you walk along Gideon’s Way through the old Jesuit campus, still active as St. Mary’s Academy and College, you’ll notice a cluster of locust and walnut trees as it nears the New Immaculata.

At the bases of these trees, there are little mounds.

All though the fall and winter I started noticing little clumps of hedge apple (which smell like a blend of apple and melon, curiously enough!) shredded at the feet of many of the trees.

Observations showed me that squirrels would sit up in the tree branches, safely away from pedestrians and school children, and eat their meal from their lofty woody perch.

It struck me that they had quite the view, hence “Lunch with a View.”

Humans sit and eat high up in the Eiffel Tower or the Space Needle in Seattle observing the city life below. So the squirrels munch and watch the goings on and the Immaculata rising up, a cathedral on the prairie.

Below is a look at the menu of the ‘fine dining’ experience, as well as my thoughts of the observations.

Now on to the next parallel…

Below the building site, about a mile down through town, is historic Riverside Park.

The Kansas River used to run nearby, and a horsetrack used to encircle the park.

On the outskirts of the old racetrack there’s a walking trail. Along side are big lamps that light the darkness.

Mishka the Mastiff and I occasionally walk alongthis path after dark.

In the dark night all the birds were in for the night, right? Wrong! As I passed one of the lamps, I heard a scurrying and a swooooosh before I saw a dark glossy starling flap away into the dark.

I looked up behind me into the fluoroscent lamp and saw another starling chilling out on the edge of the lamp. He just needed a cigarette hanging out of his beak.

Chuckling I instantly envisioned the blinking disco lights and lights of a nightclub: while all the other respectable birds were in their cozy twiggy homes, these bad boys were hanging in out gathered round a squinty obnoxious fluorescent radiance.

These guys were painted a second night of seeing them. Right after I saw them again, I went home and loaded up my car with paint stuff, Mishka, music, chocolate, and a drink and made this entry on site.

A friend and I had just had drinks at a speakeasy just prior to these evenings; also, I had done some writing on the prohibition era, so the connection really made me chuckle! I wouldn’t say the starlings are the mafia of the bird crowd, but they definelty aren’t afraid to have a good time with their peeps!

The next day I saw robins hanging out by a giant puddle – what would human activity would you conenct that to? The Roman baths were the first things I thought of 😆.

Well, peeps, that’s the late post for last week! I’ve been in the process of moving and getting a new job that will require traveling, so I’ve allowed those things to slightly derail me. I look forward to telling you more about it another time!

Enjoy these recent views on the new Immaculata rising!

Before I leave you, would you like to get to know nature a little more intimately? This book has helped me be more intune to what is going on around me and to see more of a connection between birds and us humans!

(Note: when you click the above photo-link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Click, and you’re the best! 🥰)