Oops! I Did It Again!

  I did it again. I assumed spring was here.  Some places say they can have all four seasons in a week. Where I live, we can have all four seasons in one day. Mother’s Day was one of those days. Cloudy, then the sun came out, then there was a wee bit of snow, then the sun, then a steady good rain – which we desperately need – then hail, which is typically a summer thing, and then late at night, when I should have already been getting ready for bed, I saw it. I looked up from my iPad and saw it out the window. Snow. Not a wee bit of snow like we’d had earlier in the day. A real snow. Geez. I went to bed, and when I got up, I peered out the blinds and then closed them again. It was still snowing. Not a lot, but still. The snow was really pretty on the newly green grass, but, well, it’s May. Granted, it can easily snow here in May, and we need the moisture so much, but well, geez.  Come on.

Towards the end of May we have a holiday. Officially it’s called Victoria Day, to celebrate the queen, but everyone just calls it the May long weekend. It is considered the unofficial start of summer. People go camping, have barbecues, get their yards ready for summer, go plant shopping… it’s a time to celebrate. We made it! Summer is here!

A few years ago, I sat on our swing in the backyard during the May long weekend and watched a robin building a nest in our yard. All weekend long. It was amazing. She worked so hard.  It was beautiful to watch.  She would pick something up from in my garden, fly up to the tree, then back to the garden, back to the tree…. All weekend.  They were a family.  Mom, Dad, and a young one.  And soon there would be baby robins in our yard!  We were so excited.  We have never had baby robins in the yard.  One year a momma tried building a nest on the windowsill outside our bedroom window.  She also worked so hard.  The windowsill was too narrow for her nest, but she kept trying.  The nest kept falling down and she kept rebuilding it.  Eventually, she gave up.  We were glad, because even if she did succeed in making a nest there, it wouldn’t last and the poor babies would have nowhere to live, or worse, fall to their deaths.

But back to our May long weekend family.  While Mom did most of the work, they all chipped in.  And we loved watching them and were so excited.  Then one day a magpie showed up.  Magpies will eat anything.  They will actually eat garbage.  They will also eat eggs.  This magpie got up in that tree and took one of the eggs.  The robins took after it like bats out of hell.  All three of them.  Mom, Dad, and even the young one.  I cheered them on, but the magpie was too far ahead, and though they tried their darndest to catch it, they just couldn’t.  Another day, I was working in the yard and happened to be facing the tree that the nest was in.  I looked up and saw a crow coming.  I saw it land in the tree, on a branch a little ways from the nest.  The little robin family was nowhere to be found.  The crow was inching its way silently, one step at a time… I started yelling.  Trying to shoo the crow away, yelling for the robins to come defend their babies.  (I know, yelling may not have been the best strategy, but it was all I had at the time.). The robins came (See? The yelling got their attention.) but they had their backs to the tree.  I tried so hard.  I yelled at them to go to the nest (I know, I know, they can’t understand me, but I had to try.) and soon they turned around, but it was too late.  A second or two sooner might have made the difference, but we’ll never know.  The crow was off like a shot with that egg.  The robins tried to chase after it, but it was too late.  I was so sad.  I watched it happen and couldn’t do anything about it.  I know, I know.  It’s nature.  It’s what happens.  The crows need to eat too.  But that momma worked so hard to build a home for her babies and now not only was it all for naught, but her babies were gone.  I was heartbroken.  I can only imagine how much more heartbroken she was. I don’t know whether or not we saw them again.  We get robins in our yard all summer and there was no way to know if they were “our” robins.  But we always remember them.

Every year we all hope that the weather will be beautiful – as it was that year – for the May long weekend.  Many people are pessimistic, saying it snows every year on that weekend, which simply isn’t true, but maybe they just don’t want to be disappointed.  I choose to hope.  To hope that the weather will be beautiful, that we will have a wonderful weekend to get our yard in good shape for summer, for my husband to plant his sunflower seeds, for us to barbecue hot dogs and have potato salad, eating outside.  Last year I found out that you can make homemade marshmallows.  It would be so much easier to buy them, but it sounded cool so I wanted to try.  I bought all the ingredients, planning to roast them on the barbecue.  No, it’s not the same as roasting them on a fire, but it was what we had to work with.  I was excited to try it.

But the May long weekend was cold.  Too cold to start getting the yard ready for summer.  Too cold to eat outside.  So, I didn’t make marshmallows.  And I didn’t make them when the weather warmed up.  Somehow, in my mind, they were for a special occasion and I lost my motivation.  But I still have some of the ingredients and some should still be good – let’s face it, marshmallows are pretty much pure sugar – so I’m going to plan to do it this May long weekend.  And I’m planning to get our yard ready for summer.  I don’t know what the weather will be – and no matter what the forecast says now it will probably change anyway – but I choose to hope.  To hope that the robins will come back – do they reuse nests? I’m assuming the nest is still there – and have babies in our yard, to hope that it will be nice enough to roast marshmallows on our barbecue and eat outside.

I tend to be realistic.  To play devil’s advocate.  To hope for the best but plan for the worst because sometimes I see what could happen and I prefer to be prepared just in case.  I think sometimes people don’t understand that part and see only that I see the worst case scenario.  So, I have been accused of being negative, which really isn’t me at all.  Ironically, I have also been “accused” of being idealistic.

But while I can’t say that I don’t get frustrated or sad by world events or things I see going on around me or that I am cheery and positive all the time – who is? – I can say that

I choose to hope.

PS: Some of you may remember my blog post called “Who Is Your Favourite?”, which was about what bird would be chosen as our city bird.  I was all in for Team Chickadee.  I wanted so much for the sweet but tough chickadee to win, and was dreading the nasty magpie winning.  Several days after I wrote this, it was announced that the chickadee won! See?  Sometimes, hope wins.