Hawks on Rt 17

I saw about 5 hawks on rt 17 heading to and from Aunt B’s memorial service.  Also 2 bald eagles, and 5 deer.

My kids (even K!) behaved pleasantly in the car.  K is apparently able to follow the dramatized stories on cd – she asked questions about the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, she used to just ask if we’d put on music – “ask” is a translation really, you know pre-schoolers.

Dan drove us through heavy fog in the Berkshires, and heavy rain at night on rt 88 when it was hard to see which lane we were supposed to be in.  We dropped in on my Aunt Marcia, then stayed with my Aunt Susan who figured out some gluten free food I could eat on very short notice. I packed fillers, including gluten free halal frozen chicken tika marsalla.  (The kids did indeed look up from their hamburgers and ask if they could try my rice crackers in hummus.)

I got to hear my four cousins sing En Quero Ser Encontrado Fiel (I Want to be Found Faithful) in parts with Cousin Ben on guitar in the Houghton Wesleyan Church where the stained glass included a lot of the blue-grey Aunt Bev liked to wear, and the organ pipes teased my eyes into finding patterns. Being there reminded me of the stirring Methodist sermons I used to hear when I was in college.

It was good to laugh and weep with people who remembered Beverley, I loved hearing phrases that described her.  I need to get the Brazilian saying about hospitality written down, it’s just “Add more water to the beans.” but it sounds cooler in Portuguese.

“Gracious in chaos.”

“Not afraid of late nights, she is now where there are no time issues.”

“She was on Brazilian time all her life.”

“Mercy!”

The second cousins played a bit wildly at the lunch.  M tried to play too, but the game settled into he was the hawk, and they were little birds mobbing him.  Height and weight do not stand up to numbers.  When things got wild, Dan took my crew and one more up the creek to look for fossils,  the rocks are sitting near my elbow at this moment.  I saw facebook photos this morning with my little K in her pretty red dress dancing in front of the formal arrangements of family and friends.  Oops.  I’m thankful I got to visit with relatives while I wasn’t watching my daughter very well!

This morning that heavy fog we drove through last night arrived here.  As I walked to the Y to swim, I caught sight of a hawk landing on a tree limb over the 10 mile river.  I got to watch him eat his (her?) breakfast, some little grey mammal.  The hawk would * look left, right, straight at me, then pull a bite from his catch and gulp it down.*  repeat * to * until meal is finished.  He/she had about a bite or two left when the little birds started calling for a mob, but he flew off without followers.