Thursday, 07 August 2008

• Why I Could Never Be a Big City Girl

  by Mama Monkey

  There is a (small) chance that some of you may have heard of the EAA Airventure Event that is held annually in Wisconsin. Well, I live less than 30 minutes from the location of said event and it is a crazy huge thing around here. Our house happens to be right in the directed flight path for many of the planes to come in. More than 10,000 different aircrafts - from homebuilts to warbirds to vintage aircrafts to featherlights - arrived this year. People from all over - Canada, Australia, Brazil... - attend this event. For me, since I grew up around here, it isn't a huge deal. It means loads of traffic, route changes, and delays and the impossibility of having a quiet afternoon outside since there are always at least 3 airplanes/helicopters in sight. Of course, my kids love to see the plane flying overhead. And the airshows they do are nothing less than amazing. But it doesn't have a huge draw for me and I haven't attended since I was in high school.

  I was blessed a few evenings ago, though, to have my own private air show - and it was much more peaceful than the one mentioned above.  I was at my in-laws' house for dinner and needed some quiet time so I went to sit outside for a bit. In the background, I could still hear the sound of the planes at the EAA, but it was very faint as the wind was blowing in a direction such that the sound did not carry as well as it sometimes does. What I could hear much better was the sound of birds flying about and squawking at each other. There were two yellow finches (both males, so I think it was a territory thing) that were resting on the rain gutters. I could even hear their little nails scraping on there. They were going back and forth from one side to the other, refusing to be anywhere near each other and squawking something terrible. It really didn't sound like they were too happy. Every once in a while one would fly off into a nearby tree and the other would strut about the rain gutter all proud thinking he had finally won when the first one would come flying back in and land a mere 6 inches away from him. It was very entertaining.

  Then, in an open grass area on the other side of the house, I saw swallows 'playing.' (What I think they were actually doing was eating small bugs off the grass, but it looked like a lot of fun to me.) There were at least a half dozen of them and they would fly nearly straight up in the air and suddenly start dropping back down, headed straight for the ground. While dropping, they would spin. Then, at what seemed to be the last possible second to make a narrow escape from death (or at least a really good crash) they would flatten out and fly so low to the ground that their bellies had to be touching the top of the grass blades. And with 6 (or more) of them doing this at the same time it was amazing that they never collided.

  I sat outside for a good half an hour watching this air show (of sorts), feeling the breeze blow gently and enjoying the peaceful feeling of it all. I need those times when I can just 'get away' (even if it is just outside, myself for a short while) and enjoy the peacefulness of nature and the wonder that surrounds us. I don't think that I could ever be a big city girl, 'cuz I love and need my nature fixes. I also want my children to have the opportunity to experience these types of things and learn to appreciate them. Airplanes and all the technology we have today sure can be amazing. But to me, there is nothing more amazing than the random things that can be experienced each day in nature.

  How about you?  Are you a big city girl, or do you prefer the quiet suburban life?

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