Paradise

When I  wrote last we were getting ready to leave for California.  Most of the snow was gone, but driving to the Albany Airport on a cold, grey day we still saw patches of snow. Back on Sunnyhill just a couple of weeks later, spring is well underway. The brownish grasses that survived the winter under the snow have been replaced by vivid new green growth. The trees and bushes are all starting to leaf out, and have turned noticeably greener in the four days we’ve been home. The streams, creeks, and rivers, no longer fed by snow melt, are narrower and slower moving.  The tree swallows are amazing – there are dozens of them.  We see them from every window, swooping over the house, sailing, turning, brushing almost wingtip to wingtip, and doing what birds do in the spring, right out there in mid-air.  Jay and I sat out on the back steps at the warm end of the day Wednesday and watched their acrobatics.  Best show in town. Thursday, I saw my first bobolink of the season, sitting on the wire fence, twitching his white edged tail. There is life everywhere, including a constant stream of wasps creeping on the windows. There’s a nest in the attic we need to spray.

Walking along Gulf Road with Jay and Charlie I noticed some pretty, small, yellow lilies with beautiful speckled leaves.  The internet had a perfect picture of them – trout lilies – named for those fish shaped speckled leaves, an easy name to remember.  Most of the flora and fauna here are the same that I grew up with in Amenia, but bobolinks and trout lilies, both common here, are new for me. Also more common than in Amenia are the pretty red foxes we see here – a kit and an adult in two different places along the road the last couple of days.  The kit was adorable – like a little stuffed toy. We have not yet seen, but have been warned to watch for, snapping turtles up out of the pond looking for nesting sites. We had those aplenty in Amenia, some monster big ones, and they can snap a broomstick in half with their powerful jaws.  So we don’t let Charlie roam alone. Charlie is rejoicing in the warmer, snow free days, sniffing all the fabulous smells and playing ball with Jay in the warm evening. What a joy for all of us to go out without boots and coats and scarves and gloves – to just open the door and go for a walk!

I haven’t yet written about our wonderful visit to California or the long drive back.  The best part of the visit was seeing friends and family – especially Rowan and Asher who gave us the most fabulous greeting and who I miss daily. We also got a terrific welcome at Piazza, where Jay has made friends with most of the staff.  And although we really missed Rabbi Janet (who was in Israel) it was lovely to go to services and Torah Study, to hear the familiar music, to see friends, and to drop back in to Exodus.  (Those of you familiar with the snail’s pace of Torah Study will not be surprised that we had no trouble catching up from where we left the story three months ago – still not out of Egypt!) There is so much we miss about life there. But after three months here on the hill I found the noise and crowding hard to take.  Jay reminds me that I choose how to respond to those stimuli, and he’s right of course. But I do find it easier to choose joy walking up Gulf Road, looking at Jupiter, brilliant in the night sky, or finding a trout lily in the woods.

The stimuli on the hill connect me so easily with the memories of peace, freedom and leisure of my childhood summers.  And aside from that deep connection, I think there is something inherent in this kind of an environment that puts me at ease.  I do remember that there were city friends who could never relax in Amenia – too quiet, too many creepy crawly things, too little to do.  So we are different, and find joy most easily in different settings.  For me, this is paradise.

So much more to write about: Vi’s terrific book readings, the $2.4 M tear-down we stayed at in Palo Alto, driving back in two cars and meeting up at rest stops, the first sight of Sunnyhill after two weeks away, going back to Silvio’s Hartwick Restaurant and the Schneider Bakery and the Farmers’ Market, and meeting back up with Pete and Vi.  But it will have to wait.  There are trees to look at, and perhaps a nap.