Reading posts this morning on the joys of baseball, the wonder of seeing flowers at the side of the road that were never noticed before.... and it got me thinking of all the pleasures HP has put in my path also. 

Flowers... ahh yes, our first spring here (last year) was a wonderful time.  Driving down the road and there were all these purple wildflowers everywhere!  I would ooh and aah and about drive hubby and the kids nuts with my "Look! More purple flowers!"  And then the next month, it was yellow flowers!  Then it was pink flowers!  I started calling the months by the color flower that blossomed.  LOL  We had moved into a new home and I began noticing flowers springing up that the previous owner had planted.  I have an old hollow tree stump at the front of the house by the driveway and street, the side facing street is gone (picture a seashell shape) and I had thought to myself, a bunch of flowers planted in there would look great.  Had never got around to planting any though.... and glad I didn't, because Lo and Behold, up come these gorgeous daffodils!  An ugly old bush at the side of the house that I considered getting rid of suddenly one day bursts into brilliant orangy-red blossoms...wow!!!  I was like a kid in the candy store, wandering around my property, examining everything, waiting to see what sprung up next, running inside to announce to everyone in glee "we have a new rose bush!"  "we got our own purple flowers!"  "hey, that plant on the side is a lavender plant!"  Hubby would just shake his head and roll his eyes... LOL

Two springs before we moved here, we were living in our old apartment building, the sparrows had nests in the spanish tiles on roof.  One day daughter found a baby sparrow, no feathers, laying on the ground, it had fallen 2 stories, but was still alive.  I jumped online and began looking for information... found a wildlife bird rescue group.  They told me no water (that would cause it to drown), get dry dog food and soak it till I could make a fine mash of it, try to feed it that, keep it warm.... (of course first choice was return it to the nest, it is a myth that our scent will cause parent bird to kick it out again).  Could not reach nest, so we followed their instructions.  I don't remember now if that baby made it... they had told me the statistics were 1 out of 10 would survive.  Daughter and I rescued close to 10 of those fallen babies and were able to watch 4 fly off as young adults.  The last one we rescued before our move was truly a gift from HP to us... we found it just prior to when we had a vacation planned in our RV and was too young (not able to fly yet), so baby bird came with us.  Her feathers came in and she began to learn to fly and would flit around in the RV.  She would always come back though when we whistled for her.  We got back home and I took her outside, she flew off a little ways and tweeted.  I tweeted back and she flew back over and landed on my hand.  For the next several days, daughter or I would walk outside with food, we'd whistle and she'd fly over to us, eat and then fly off again. By then she had found other sparrows to be with, flew well, could find her own food, so we stopped taking food out with us when we'd go out and whistle for her.  After a few days of coming to us and finding no food, she stopped flying down, but would still answer our whistle with her tweeting.   What a wondrous thing that was... to have a wild bird come to your call and land on your hand... it hadn't happened that way with the other ones.  Thank you HP.

No baby birds to rescue here where we are now.... so what did I do?  I got day old chicks.  LOL  About drove hubby crazy all the peep peep peep'ing in the middle of the night (really now they didn't peep that much at night cause they go to sleep when the lights go out and cage is covered).  Then I discovered how quickly chickens grow!  Oh my!  The frantic rush to build a chicken coop... mom, the boys and I started it... my brother came over, took one look, started laughing and saying something about it looking like a chinese pagoda, and then he took over and finished it off for us (Thank God!!).  Then came the eggs.... oh my....I had eggs coming outta my ears...eggs for days... and hens don't take vacations from laying eggs!!  They keep doing it every single day no matter how many times ya tell them "hey, we have 5 flats in the fridge, you gals can take a break for a while."  Nope, they don't listen any better than my kids do.  LOL 

Collette down at the feed store giggles every time I walk thru the door.  I met her when I first got the chicks and have shared my discoveries and stories with her.  How hubby said "no, no chickens", which then progressed to "no, no more chickens", and then "ok, you can get a turkey if we're going to eat him but NO duck!", and then to "well I see the only way I'm going to get this turkey to the table is to set him a place and give him a seat.....I told you not to name your food!!"  hahahaha  They had ducklings at the feed store last year towards the end of the season... I was oohing and aahing at them when Collete walked by, I looked up at her and said "I want a duck", she burst out laughing and said "I know, you want everything".  LOL  No, I did not get one.  Learned my lesson from the chickens... have their home/environment ready for them BEFORE you get them. 

Simple pleasures... flowers, animals, nature.... the deer walking thru the yard, the squirrels suntanning on the deck railing and playing tag with each other in the oak trees, the so many different varieties of birds that come to the feeders (placed one in tree right outside my kitchen window)... these are things that cost me nothing (ok, the price of birdseed) yet bring so much pleasure and happiness to see.  All I have to do is take the time to open my eyes and look.  And on days when I'm feeling really down, what do I do?  I make myself walk outside and open my eyes and look... and ya know what?  It almost always cheers me up.  Taking time to notice the simple things... yup, makes me happy!