I got up early enough this morning (at Houghton Lake) that three quarters of my morning walk was in the dark. The (uh) Aspergers-like part of me was calculating how many twelfths of my walk was ahead and behind me. The rest of me was listening/watching for motor vee-hickle noises/lights. I had a weird and scary experience walking at HL when I was 30 and seven months pregnant (fer kee-reist!) where a *kid* stalked me on his dirt bike. I am over that. Sort of. Nowadays, I mostly encounter older folks outside their houses or going by in SUVs or Caddylacks or whatever. I’m pretty much non-scary to them, so they always talk to me. But. I was just a little spooked out this morning. It was dark. Anyway.

By the time I got back to the Houghton Lake group home, it was getting light. As I was on the last one-twelfth of my walk, I heard a White Throated Sparrow! I grew up listening to White-Throated Sparrows, hanging out in the clearing between the Old Cabin and ours on beautiful calm days. White-Throated Sparrows have two songs. One of them has an ascending melody, the other descends. I heard the descending one today. I didn’t see the bird. I am not a birder and the birder in the house was a bit skeptical but various searches confirmed that I did hear a White Throated Sparrow.

And so. It was very quiet at Houghton Lake this weekend. I hope that the deer-hunting season brings more folks up. And (sigh) we could use fewer deer along the freeways. As much as I hate for aminals to be killed, I would rather have someone actually eat them. I am taaarrrred of watching for them on the freeway…

And yes, the GG did haul all of his pumpkins up to Houghton Lake, carve them (with power tools), and haul them back. There they are in the trunk.

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