May 5th

Magnolias on our street

Mom would have been 93 years old today. Her mother died a few weeks shy of her 94th birthday, which would have been on  May 10, 1990. Mom was so sure she would outlive Grandma and had a bucket list that would have kept her busy well into her nineties. While I miss her, I am glad she missed many events and losses in the past 12 years. But this week of May is one of the most beautiful of the year in our province, and I enjoyed memories of past birthday celebrations with Mom and Grandma while I wandered about outdoors this morning. The week has been cool and cloudy, but the weather has prolonged the blooms of early spring shrubs and trees. Magnolia tree blossoms have been spectacular!

White-Throated Sparrow, barely visible in the brush

The song of the White-throated Sparrow, "O sweet Canada, Canada, Canada," seemed very appropriate this year, and I found several of them moving dry leaves in the brush. I only hear them sing locally when they pass through in spring and autumn.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

I saw several Wood Warblers, but only one, a Black-throated Blue Warbler, came out into the open, not more than two metres from my feet. It sang quietly compared to the nearby sparrows. 

Singing a soft song...

Many birders with big cameras and lenses were at the park, all looking for a perfect bird portrait. I thought about Grandma and Mom's low-tech birding style with binoculars and a notebook. Mom had an impressive list of birds she observed and documented at her last home in Tepic, Mexico. I counted 13 first-of-year birds this morning, the old-fashioned way*.

Spring is the time for road construction, and the major intersection I cross to go to work and to the park where I went birding today is being transformed into a roundabout. The sidewalk to the bike trail is blocked, but a new pedestrian bridge that gets me across the expressway to the neighbourhoods adjacent to the hospital has finally opened. I rode across it for the first time yesterday.

In a press conference in 2019, Pope Francis said,

"...We need bridges, and we feel pain when we see people who prefer to build walls. Why do we have pain? Because those who build walls end up being prisoners of the walls they have built. On the other hand, those who build bridges go forward..."

The neighbourhoods on either side of the expressway were divided decades ago by the new highway, and the streets that used to join them became dead ends. The distance around the barriers was not easy to walk. As I crossed the new bridge, I thought about how easy it is to build walls, not only in society, but also within our families. Some people prefer to live with bitter memories of past conflicts and cast blame for their issues on the weakest and most vulnerable around them. 

I am now a bridge between the generations of my mother and grandmother and the generations of my children and grandchildren. I need to be open and honest about the past, bridging the good and the bad with optimism, compassion and understanding. And, without compromising my values,  I have to accept change, new paradigms and ideas without staying mired in the past. I am responsible for doing the same as we move from the past, through the present, and into the future as citizens of this country and the world.

Cinco de Mayo, as a celebration of Mexican-American culture, has become increasingly popular in this millennium. It was not celebrated in the area of Mexico where Mom and Dad lived, and I associate May 5th with Mom's birthday only. On a sweet note, I made a delicious Tres Leches cake yesterday to enjoy today as a birthday treat in Mom's memory. She loved a good dessert. I lifted the photo from the recipe website, and I highly recommend the cake. It has five eggs and a lot of milk, so, in my opinion, leftovers would be a better breakfast food than a doughnut.

Click this link for the recipe and photo source

*FOY birds today:

Nashville Warbler, Ovenbird, Hermit Thrush, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Northern Parula, Black and White Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Grey Catbird, Eastern Phoebe, Solitary Sandpiper, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole