Saturday 6 March - A Coyote and the long stroll

Another gorgeous morning. While going out to get the paper I saw a Great Tailed Grackle sitting in the tree across the empty lot across the street. A very interesting call and loud too.
Joanne came down about an hour after me and we chatted. She went for a walk and I blogged. We all had porridge for breakfast and just as we were finishing I saw a coyote crossing the street coming toward the house. I ran to get my camera and headed for the back patio. I surprised a covey of quail and waited.
Then there they were a big male and a smaller female. I tried to get some photos but only got one good shot. they were beautiful. that set the mood for the day.
We talked about different possibilities for the actions of the day. We could go on a hike. We were going to church at 430. We could go to the market. we ended up hanging around the house and just going for a short walk. we did get a house finch singing its little heart out. we had a lovely day. two large roadrunners came through the yard and entertained us for awhile. Joanne took a little nap and then we were off to church. After church we went to the waffle house. I had eggs, hash-browns and toast.
Jo and I thought It would be nice to take a walk down the golf path in the twilight when we got home . We startled about ten doves who were roosting in the tree right outside the gate and they scared us half to death when they all took flight almost right in our faces. It was a great way to get the heart going for a walk. We originally thought that we would just go for a short walk but we took a left turn when we should have taken a right turn and ended up walking pretty much all the way down to the gatehouse, about two miles. It was actually lovely in the dark as we could see the paved path in the ambient lighting and we had a great talk. The stars were really bright when they peeked out from behind the few clouds that were out. At a few points we stopped and tried to figure out where the house was. we were not concerned as we knew we could not get lost. we were on a golf course path. what was the worst thing that could happen? ending up at the club house not dressed properly? We heard crickets and we thought maybe frogs. We were hoping to see the owl that the landscapers or Jim had told us about but we did not. We did hear small rustlings in the shrubs along the path as we passed and tried not to disturb whatever was making those sounds. I thought probably birds. We did not want to have them scare us again. I could have brought my camera but figured that pictures of black would not be that interesting. Before we got home we had been rained on a little and there had been lightning and thunder off in the distance. our short evening stroll turned into a 4 mile walk.
When we got home we figured out the dvd player and watched a movie Martha. It was very good. got to sleep about 1130.