A bird in the hand...

My parents got back from North Carolina today. Now Cami and I are talking about buying a house together down there when she graduates. Weird. But it seems like an amazing place, there are about a million environmental groups I could work for and also a community college that said I could teach classes for them. And Duke and UNC both have research labs in the area. It keeps looking better and better. But not anywhere near looking better than getting back over to southern or eastern Africa. I wish there was an easy way to split my time between the two places. Anyway, its great to have mom and dad home. For about a week Cams and I were working, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, and taking care of the dog. Running a house is pretty exhausting. Our days off were spent running around taking care of errands and such. At least we know that we can live together without killing each other.
On Tuesday I went with Cami over to Red Horse for her riding lesson. It was so warm and all the doors but one were open to let the cross breezes into the arena. While Cami was warming up I heard a loud smack followed by a thud. I turned around there was a barn swallow on the aisle floor. He had managed to fly into the only closed door in the entire barn. He was spread eagle, with his little butt sticking straight up in the air, wings way out, and his beak buried in the shavings. I thought he had broken his neck, but he slowly pulled in his wings and just sat on the floor. Due to the high horse traffic and his small size, I wanted to move him out of the way, but I didn't want to scare him. The barn manager gave me a paper towel to scoop him up and put him on the side of the wash rack. As I moved him, he didn't really do anything at all, just stared at me. When I tried to slide him onto the ledge of the stall, he hopped right off the paper towel and perched on my finger. I was so surprised. We just kinda blinked at each other for awhile and when he was ready, he flew away. It was the most incredible feeling in the entire world, to have a wild bird clinging to my finger, not scared of me in the least. It gave me this ornithological high (stupid I know, but it was so amazing!) I keep reliving the feeling of the barn swallows feet on my finger. He was so so pretty. And to make the day even better, I scheduled a riding lesson for next Tuesday! It's a hunt seat lesson, but I'm going to tell her I want to start working on jumping. I can't wait!! Welp, time for strawberry shortcake (I picked about 10 lbs of strawberry today...)

Later!