MEMORIAL DAY VISITORS

We're having a picture snapping challenge, me and my hubby, as we sit on the bistro bench in the shade of a white pine tree this afternoon, each with a camera in our hands.  We have special visitors today that have called us to this very spot, sailing along on the pond.  Three magnificent trumpeter swans dropped out of the blue sky like a gift this morning and have been biding their time here for several hours.
 

I can't tell what the swans relationship might be to one another, but my hubby thinks that possibly they are siblings,  two young females and one male, the male acting as somewhat of a leader of the trio.  The leader, who is a little larger than the other two swans, has more of a dusty, pinkish-brown neck.  The swans aren't feeding as we watch them now, but simply drifting along, perhaps resting, and they don't seem to be too alarmed at our observations of them.

It's about 78 degrees, the winds are blowing lightly from the west and keeping the bad bugs at bay.  We can hear robins, red-winged blackbirds, catbirds, Baltimore orioles, and song sparrows singing all around us in the trees.  A few frogs, maybe bull frogs, force out a dull croak now and then from the pond.

As I write in my journal, a later omitted side joke about the swans, a wood tick casually strolls across it's open pages.

Suddenly, three more visitors come trotting up the dike heading right toward us.  A doe and two young fawns, as shocked to see us as we to see them, panic in search of a proper direction to continue their journey.  One young fawn passes directly in front of us while the other pauses briefly beneath a small pine tree at the pond's edge.  Another photo shoot quickly ensues between my hubby and I.

While the trumpeter swans still drift about on the pond, now taking turns tucking their heads down to nap, the deer family swiftly retreats into the shady woods near Tom's Creek.

I will cherish these moments today, the gift of the trumpeter swans on the pond, and the deer family at our feet.  I also am feeling appreciative for the freedom that we have on this Memorial Day.... and remembering my husband's Great Uncle Thomas, from Wisconsin, and my Great Uncle Daniel, from Iowa, who both lost their lives in service during World War I.