MUSINGS

Mornings with Charlie

Charlie is always ready to see the world when the sun comes up. One of the joys of this summer now that my 8:30am classes are a thing of the past, is coffee with Charlie in our gardens. Charlie is a cat – actually a white fluff ball of Persian fur, formal name is Good Time Charlie, but he prefers King Charles. He heads down the steps from the porch in a hurry, first to chase the squirrels eating the corn, peanuts, and black sunflower seeds Judy has put out for the crows, racoon, rabbit and our other critters including four deer who come at twilight. Then Charlie goes to the bird feeder to watch the morning traffic of Cardinals, Bluebirds, Goldfinches, woodpeckers, chickadees, and others who truly belong here plus many others just stopping by.

Soon Charlie is on his way around the house – the front yard is intriguing for him. His trips under the boxwoods, azaleas, hollies and other plants are to “see” who was here the night before. We can only see the present, Charlie can see the past with his sensitive nose. He is also checking on the dragonflies, fireflies, frogs and other creatures we may miss. We see many of these now by looking where he is looking and enjoying new parts of nature we missed.

When he looks up into the oaks, sweet gums, and osmanthus we sometimes see birds we have missed, when he looks down we sometimes see tiny frogs we would not have noticed. Of course, when the cicadas were here, he thought each and everyone was here for him to enjoy, chase, and sometimes even catch. As Charlie moves to the side gardens we notice new blooms, emerging plants, and other details day-by-day that we would have missed with our twice a week walks in the yards.

Then he is back in the woods, hidden in the bamboo grass, visible only by the movement of the grass as he explores another world invisible to us. Sometimes he decides to loop the yard on the paths that we put in to encourage morning and evening walks that were far too little used. Now we follow him as he picks different trails and we see new saplings, mosses, lichen and other things we have missed before. He comes running every now and then for a quick pat and reassurance we are watching every move, and then he is off again – this time perhaps down to the creek or catch basin where he is sure something is living in the drain.

We walk, sometimes sit on one of the patios, sometimes stand while Charlie sits under the front shrubs waiting for the morning dog walkers and other slow traffic on our sidewalk, some stop to say hi, others do not notice they are being carefully tracked. We have time to enjoy something new that is blooming or starting to grow, something we need to take care of, or just looking up at the blue skies and canopy of oaks, hickories, maples, pines, and sweetgums that make our lives so wonderful. This spring has had one day after another that we think is perfect, we enjoy each one knowing that soon even the morning will be hot and humid – but since February it feels every day has been perfect even though we know we have had days of rain, days when even Charlie was happy to see the world from his front bedroom window.