PRE-INTRODUCTION – Chose my topic, put my thoughts together for this article, placed those thoughts onto my screen, and then looking at same, ‘Something just wasn’t right!!’  Why do I have an uncomfortable feeling??!!  

Any other year, talking about Spring and its beauty, its renewal of life, would always be an exciting and fun experience for me, knowing I would be sharing some special or precious moments with you, giving some ideas of places to go or reminding you to keep an eye out for Nature’s miracles, miracles unfolding right before us, sometimes like here, unfolding right under our noses!!!!  BUT, then reality begins creeping in.  This wasn’t any other year!!  Some people have been stuck in their homes, others have had their lives totally turned upside down, staying at home to work AND needing extra time to teach their children, etc., etc.  AND THEN, here I come, extolling ‘Everything is Beautiful’!!  Go out and Enjoy!!  Guess, I just wanted to make myself comfortable with the concept of being exuberant and excited amid times where those concepts may seem out of place or out of touch!!  Wishing all the best for everyone, hoping my messages may provide a haven, if you will, during difficult times!

Story behind Photo of the Week:  Last Wednesday 3 p.m., I have been out and about shopping with the rainy weather, returning home, it is beginning to clear up. I am approaching my house and I notice my neighbors flowers, with that nice half lite and half in the shade effect, then top that off with some water droplets atop the petals, the camera is soon in hand!! Done with the flowers, I am now looking at some of his cedar trees along the road, interesting bark, mixed with surrounding beautiful shades of greens, I’ll check this out!!  Trying to decide some shots, looking for a possible photo, I begin witnessing a commotion in the same area! STOP-LOOK-LISTEN and I notice a little motion in the grass, then see a bird fly down to that site/sight!!  It’s a baby bird!!  Not sure if this baby fell out of the nest or is in its very beginnings of learning to fly!! It could fly a short distance, a few feet, across the lawn. I would have taken more photos, but the baby came over to one of the cedar trees right by my car and I realized, I was now interfering with mom and dad!!

REMEMBER, Charlie says, “Within every panorama, there are many pictures – I can’t think of a better example of this than today’s Photo of the Week story!!  TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES!!!

Watching, it became clear to me, just how busy mom and dad were!!  AND, just how hungry, Junior was!!  Food would be presented and taken, the parent would immediately fly off, and then, we start all over again!!  Obviously, there are a lot more insects around than we notice!!  This scenario of fly down, drop off and present food and take off was like a continuous conveyor belt!!  Not like they were flying all over the place searching for food!!

While this entire encounter, from flower to birds, lasted only about four minutes, it was what I would describe as a ‘Precious Moment’  Not for just the interesting and enjoyable obvious reasons!!  It was precious, because it caught me by surprise, AND, it caused me to be totally focused, meaning the only thing I was focusing on, pun intended, was unfolding right before me!!  Every other care of the world, etc. was for those moments, totally disconnected!!  Moments like these, to our brains, are like naps are for the body!!  A chance to relax, unwind and replenish!!  

ENJOY Your Open Space!!  Never did get those cedar tree photos!!  

Charlie Fineran

Charlie Fineran is Allamuchy’s Director of Open Space, Allamuchy Township Environmental Commission Chairman and Allamuchy Historical Society President.