Today is Pentecost. Here is my favorite medieval illumination:
And a lovely bit from the readings in Matins today:
While they received the visible presence of God in the form of fire, the flames of His love enwrapped them. The Holy Ghost Himself is love whence it is that John saith “God is love.” Whosoever therefore loveth God with all his soul, already hath obtained Him Whom he loveth, for no man is able to love God, if He have not gained Him Whom he loveth.
(from a homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great, speaking of the scene in the image above)
And later:
“And My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” O my dearly beloved brethren, think what a dignity is that, to have God abiding as a guest in our heart…
We’ve been feeding the birds here in Rio for a few years now. I do think the Saíras were the first and most entertaining visitors. They raise large broods, and each year the group has grown. The birds tend to eat occasionally when not nesting, more enthusiastically when sitting on eggs, and voraciously when feeding the nestlings. Then the nestlings begin joining their parents at the feeder, and eventually everyone wanders off on their seasonal migrations until the next season. It was in April this year that the Saíras appeared en masse. Some dozen of them landed on the railing all at once, after an absence of several months. They didn’t bother eating anything, but it was a joy that they remembered us.
Fledglings are really fun to watch. When they first leave the nest they aren’t very good at steering. They also don’t seem to recognize depth and texture. When they get in the house on occasion they tend to land on any horizontal line – the top of a door frame, the top of a picture frame. But they also try to fly through plain surfaces, such as white walls and doors. Within a day or two this problem passes and they gain agility and a better ability to recognize objects and surfaces. They also stop accidentally trying to fly through the glass around the veranda. When they are in the early stage of poor navigation they are also not very fearful, and can be caught by hand. By the time they are more agile they are also more timid. That said, comfort around people seems to vary by species. The Saíras have been less skittish than the parrots or toucans, which rarely come to the veranda and are hyper-vigilant while eating. The toucan, who landed only once, spent the entire time carefully looking in all directions for danger, and never got around to eating anything. The parrots have stopped to eat a few times, but always have one of the group on guard and will leave if there is any disturbance from us moving around in the apartment.
The newest guests are hummingbirds and bananaquits, which are fairly unafraid and having a great time with the new hummingbird feeder. The hummingbirds are a diverse bunch so far: there are a couple of large glossy black ones with forked tails; a couple of similar size with lavender heads, green bodies and blue tails (apparently called Swallow-tailed Hummingbirds); a smaller kind which is metallic blue; and the bananaquits, which look a bit like wrens with yellow bellies.
Back on the banana-papaya feeder the species list continues with green sanhaçus (tamer now after getting used to us, and winners of the best cheerful song competition), blue-gray sanhaçus, blue saíras (spectacular!), several kinds of large thrushes which specialize in making a big mess, now and then an annoyingly loud Bem-ti-vi (a kind of shrike, I think), and on rare occasion a pair of Violaceous Euphonias (the male has a breast of the most amazing golden sunflower yellow, and his back is so deeply purple it is nearly black). They started nesting in a flower-pot once, before realizing there was too much activity nearby for their comfort.
I love watching these Criollo horses. I like the unexpected details, like the way the saddles are constructed, or the way the narrator says “this horse is accustomed to being kept in a box, and knows how to eat commercial feed. In Brazil, rural people sometimes say, with some disdain, that such and such horse is “a box horse” – meaning one who has little experience outside a show-ring or riding stable, and is fussy, hard to handle, easily startled, and not much use for real work. It’s an amazing thing to ride a horse that’s been raised on the open range. Their sure-footedness is amazing. They are extremely smart about footing, routes, and obstacles.
When I checked on the melon sprouts today, and found them nearly twice the size as yesterday, I felt a surge of delight. I remembered then a similar delight as a kid when my very own watermelon seeds sprouted in a little spot by the fence, near the grown-up vegetable garden. I must have gone every day to check on them, just as I am now. I’m already planning how to hang string on the patio railing to give them something to climb.
My only clear memory of the watermelon plants from childhood is that each morning when a tiny watermelon was discovered I would pick it and run inside to show my mom. So there were never any edible melons produced. This time I’ll just take pictures and blog about it. Which is still a way of showing my mom!
Joys and sorrows in praise of God 