“Stop and smell the roses” is an idiom that means to relax; to take time out of one’s busy schedule to enjoy or appreciate the beauty of life.
Stop and listen to the birds is another way of saying it.
On each bird survey, we stop the car at 50 different rural locations and listen carefully for three minutes. That is 150 minutes of listening or “smelling the roses.”
This morning we completed our 13th and final 2022 survey. This one began at Carr which is south of Lake Nippising, 13 X 150 minutes = 1950 minutes. That is 32.5 hours or 1.35 days of listening. Certainly worth many days of rising at 3 am and earlier.
Survey scenes:
Garden Lupine has spread to the roadsides and is very common in this area:
Other botany:
Some birds:
a note about Sandhill Cranes:
I was watching a Sandhill Crane through binoculars when a local farmer approached me. Cranes eat some of their crops. His comment “You should be looking at that through the sights of a shotgun!”
NATURE POETRY
Wake up, golden Head! Wake up, Brownie!
Cat-bird wants you in the garden soon.
You and I, butterflies, bobolinks, and clover,
We’ve a lot to do on the first of June. – Charles G.D. Roberts (1860–1943)
Miles Hearn