The Circle of Life

In my search for the renewal of Spring, I found this clump of lovely crocuses outside of the restaurant today. Sure, they were closed up against an overcast sky, but still pretty as anything.

Unfortu-
nately, a garden's surprises are not always the happiest, and I made a sad discovery when I went on a crocus hunt in our back garden this morning. This crow seemed to have simply laid down and gone to sleep, but in this case, it is Shakespeare's long, metaphoric sleep of which I speak.

A quick, but careful exam (In these days of bird flu and West Nile virus, caution is always wise.) revealed no injuries or anything to speak of a sky-borne battle with a hawk or an eagle (both of which we've spotted in the neighborhood during our tenancy here), so perhaps it knew that its time was coming and chose the garden as a peaceful place to meet that fate.

I'm sure there are plenty of folks who would take the negative stand about crows as loud, obnoxious and marauding, but I believe they and their raven cousins are some of the most beautiful birds I've seen, and anyone who knows a thing about them knows how intelligent they are. I've read that they are fairly easily trained in captivity, but also that they don't fare so well because they value freedom so.

As a fan, I'm always hoping to capture a few good photos of their large and majestic beauty, but this wasn't what I'd had in mind.

A moment of silence to consider the Circle of Life, before gently scooping up my late friend with a shovel and laying it quietly in the woods.