Vroom! Vroom!

The Monday morning after a sunshine-filled weekend makes it ever-so-slightly easier to . . . 

(On Monday mornings, I share a few things I found over the weekend.)

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"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable."
                --- Mary Oliver (from the poem 'Evidence')

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Here's a word I stumbled across sometime over the weekend.  
(But right now I can't remember where.)  
Whenever I encounter this word, I always know what it means.  But I can never quite articulate the definition!

It's a great word, though, isn't it?  so much fun to say!

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Although I haven't spotted a robin in my garden yet this season, I know it won't be long before I see them everywhere!  Here are some facts about robins, compliments of one of my local greenhouses (Wenke's) in their latest e-newsletter:

 

You might be surprised but robins can withstand very cold temperatures and while some American Robins do migrate, many remain in the same place year-round. According to Cornell Lab, over the past 10 years, robins have been reported in January in every U.S. state, except Hawaii, and in all the southern provinces of Canada.

 

As with many birds, the wintering range of American Robins is affected by weather and natural food supply, but as long as food is available, these birds can do well for themselves by staying up north.

 

One reason why they seem to disappear every winter is that their behavior changes. In winter, robins form nomadic flocks, which can consist of hundreds to thousands of birds. Forming flocks allows for many eyes and ears, which is helpful when watching out for predators. Usually these flocks appear where there are plentiful fruits on trees and shrubs, such as crabapples, hawthorns, holly, juniper, and others.

 

When spring rolls around, these flocks split up. Suddenly we start seeing American Robins yanking worms out of our yards again, and it’s easy to assume they’ve “returned” from migration. But what we’re actually seeing is the switch from being non-territorial in the wintertime to aggressively defending a territory in advance of courting and raising chicks.

 

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Last week, I mentioned that Mercury was retrograde again.  Wonder what that means, exactly?  Here's a great explanation for you (from the Audible blog).  (And since it's Audible, there are even 8 book selections to help you get through this Mercury retrograde time of year.)

 

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Whenever I even just hear the words "piano man," the Billy Joel song plays in my head, in its entirety - complete with harmonica.  I can sing every word (and have actually, many times in many places . . . and often with strangers who end up bonding to a rousing group rendition of Piano Man).   I'm sure this is true for many of you.  But just in case that's not true for you, you might want to pause for a quick listen before proceeding.

 

And then . . . 

 

read this.  Just for fun.

 

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Have a great Monday, everyone!