ODE TO INGLEWOOD

Chaim has pink eye and Jeremy has been super busy and then back down south again this week. It has been a bit of a challenge to keep a 2 year old busy without the usual playdates and social outings....Well, today I decided to take the kids to Inglewood. I stopped in at a favorite second hand bookstore, and then it was off to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary--my old stomping ground. It was such a great day...I love it there and the boys seemed to enjoy it too.

It was a great day and we saw tonnes of wildlife in the short time that we were there we saw...A muskrat, a deer, Northern Flickers, chickadees, Mergansers, and Goldeneyes to name a few...I take horrible pictures so I am sorry that I can't share it all with you...but I highly recommend you take a visit to this great place. Chaim loved it, and well....Oscar thought it was a very peaceful place.
Here is the cute little muskrat.

Chaim even made a friend on the trail...
All in all, it was a great day.
Cheers,
CP.

ODE TO INGLEWOOD
By Crystal R.
How do I Love thee...
Let me Count the Ways,
that this city-Sanctuary has come to bless my days

For each time I set foot on these wondrous grounds,
My heart is quickened by the bounty of nature's glorious sights and sounds.

So to you, the visitor, be you an old friend or new,
Please, open up those eyes and ears...for I know, today, this place will speak to you too.

It was spring of this year as I recall,
Precisely 13 days till the first of May
--though quite honestly it seems as though it were just yesterday.

That I first visited this oft-recommended "Inglewood Bird Sanctuary" Place.
And soon recognized how lucky Calgary was to have, within the city,
such a natural space.

For within just a short time of being here...
Could you believe what a treat it was to see a small gathering of mule deer.

Yes, I tell you no lie, just there off the trail...
Four adults and a fawn, their exact species revealed to me by their big ears, and the black at the end of an all-white tail.

There they sat, relaxed and calm in the shade.
And as I watched them, the feeling of being surrounded by city soon began to fade.

Well, to not disturb, I continued along my merry way...
with a feeling of excitement--an anticipation for what else awaited me there that day.
And as I continued, it didn't take long--perhaps the hopeless romantic, I willingly admit to being, can account for what next, all around me I soon began seeing...

Yes my friends, love surely was in the air...
For it seemed, that soon, almost everything I saw came in a pair.

There were the Canadian geese, the Common Mergansers,
the mallards and common Goldoneyes
that together, down the water would lovingly meander.

And of course, the familiar Black-capped Chickadees...
Were busy making ready homes to house their soon to be new little families.

And then there were the Northern Flickers, that from tree to tree would go together...
Ahh, I'm sure their hearts just knew that they were "birds of a feather".

Anyway, where was I--ahh yes--love was in the air that day,
And how my heart went out to the two male downy woodpeckers that I am sure, for a female, were putting on quite the display.

Yes, at times, I'll admit, courting can be difficult, but I am relieved at any rate,
That for the right one...It is well worth the wait.

And so I continued, once again inspired by this natural world.
And an excitement grew within me to let life's little mysteries on their own time be unfurled.

The nuthatches, Junco's, and Kingfishers too.
Were also each doing their own thing...making me feel a peace through and through.

You see, each of us has our own niche to fullfill.
And if in our own unique way, we do what we do best, in our lives joy will abundantly distill.

So in closing, before you take this nature walk.
I ask that each one of you, listen closely to how it is that nature, today to you, decides to talk

(A silly poem I wrote in the spring 4/5 years ago when I first discovered this little gem in the city)