beach roses and song sparrows

maple tree by the sea
6.5.22 ~ Avery Point

The patient is safely home from the hospital and all seems to have gone well and as planned. Tim has a resting pulse now!!! So many thanks to you all for the healing energy, well wishes and prayers. ❤️

northern mockingbird eating its breakfast

A couple of days before the surgery to put in the pacemaker we took a long Sunday walk at Avery Point. It was a gorgeous day, with beach roses blooming!

the biggest clump of beach roses

This song sparrow was singing away, claiming the beach rose shrub for his territory no doubt. We listened to him for quite a while.

Then we moved on to some smaller rosebushes farther down the path…

Avery Point Light

The lovely flowers embarrass me,
They make me regret I am not a Bee —

~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #808)

Another song sparrow staking his claim on his bush with the sweetest melody. The adjacent garden no doubt provides plenty of buggy delights for his dining pleasure.

horse chestnut blossom

We’re planning to try a post-surgery walk here again on this coming Sunday, a week after this one. This was also the first place we took a walk after Tim’s heart attack and by-pass surgery in 2007. It’s so hard to believe that was almost 15 years ago!

Finally Connecticut’s daily covid positivity rate started to go back down this week, even if ever so slightly. It had been creeping up for weeks. Let’s hope the downward trend continues.

36 thoughts on “beach roses and song sparrows”

  1. Glad to hear Tim is home and doing better. Hope the next upcoming walk goes well. This is a lovely post and I enjoyed each and every picture – nature just cheers us all up. Here’s to a Yeah for covid going down in your area. It is going up here in Arkansas.

    1. Thank you, Peggy. As you say, nature cheers us up! I think we all need big doses of it for mental health and sanity. Sorry to hear covid is on the rise again in your area. Sigh. It seems like the virus is playing whack-a-mole with us. Stay safe, my friend!

  2. Glad to hear the surgery went well and Tim is on the mend. He’s good for another 10,000 miles! 🙂
    Your seaside photos are so beautiful – the sun, blue sky and sea, roses and birdsong… I’m rather envious!

    1. Thank you, Eliza! Looking forward to those 10,000 miles, or 10-15 years until the battery needs changing. 😉 Every once in a while it strikes me again how blessed we are to live so close to the ocean. I hope you get a chance to go to the shore this summer!

  3. As the other commentators, I enjoyed the photos and colors – and sympathize with Tim. I had a husband with 4 heart attacks behind him, and he still worked as much. A Pacemaker sounds wonderful! May you both soon be up walking and posting again 🙂

    1. Four heart attacks — wow! About 5 years (2012) after his first heart attack Tim had another “cardiac event,” basically an angina attack without additional damage to the heart. It’s been taking a lot of medical intervention to keep him going all these years, for which I am so grateful.

    1. Thank you, Rosie. He came home chafing at the bit… I had no idea the mockingbird had a bug in its mouth until I saw the picture on my laptop screen. Never know what the zoom lens will capture. 🙂

  4. These beach roses are stunning … and I always enjoy your lighthouse photos, Barbara (maybe because we don’t have any in Central Illinois?!?). So happy to hear your husband’s surgery went well, and I hope the new pacemaker will be just what he needs!

    1. Thank you, Debbie! The pacemaker is already giving him lots of energy and a new lease on life. 🙂 It’s hard for me to imagine the landscape of central Illinois as I’ve never been that far west. In my mind I picture grain silos as possible photo ops?

    1. Thank you, Anna! It seems like a new chapter in our lives has begun, hopefully with many more walks ahead of us.

  5. Good news about Tim being home and on the mend. I was wondering. I love the beach rose shrub photos. Those flowers are perfection and your photos of them and the bird are beautiful.

    [Being nosy here but what kind of camera do you use? I’m thinking of getting a new one, maybe.]

    1. Thank you, Ally. I’m so glad you enjoyed the photos. I use a Canon PowerShot SX60 HS, but I think it’s been replaced now by a SX70. What I love most about it is the zoom lens because I can go back and forth from distant pictures to close-ups without having to carry two lenses and switching them out.

        1. That’s so very kind of you to say, Ally. The camera and I have a good partnership, I think. 🙂

  6. Oh no I didn’t know about Tim’s surgery and will have to scurry to read your previous blog. Sounds like he had a pacemaker put in? It is wonderful that these things are available to prolong life during our time and that you both will enjoy many walks in nature in the upcoming years.

    1. Yup, a pacemaker, a medical/technological miracle! It’s amazing what a difference it makes to have his pulse remain above 60. 🙂 The amount of energy he has now is remarkable. Looking forward to our first post-surgery walk tomorrow. I hope all is well with you and am looking forward to your next post!

      1. Thanks for the update. The worst part of taking an all-out blogging break is missing what’s happening in other’s lives. I am not sure when I’ll write another post but dreamed about writing one a couple of nights ago!

  7. I’m glad to hear that the surgery went well! And I’m very surprised that Tim is already walking around the house, even stairs. Impressive that he is up to trying an out door adventure walk on Sunday. You kids rock!

    Definitely enjoyed the sparrow. The flowers are lovely too.

    1. Thank you, TD! I’m surprised, too. It’s like someone just flipped a switch and he’s on the move now. He does have to be careful not to lift his left elbow higher than his shoulder for 6 weeks, but other than that he seems good to go. And he can’t carry his cell phone in his shirt pocket any more. I’m glad you enjoyed the pictures!

  8. Well Barbara, here you are a week later and with your intention to walk here again. I hope Mother Nature cooperated and you made it back here today as planned. Those beach roses are beautiful. In my quest to see wildflowers, they are on the top of the list. I liked the song sparrow and the Emily Dickinson quote you put in here – it was perfect

    1. Thank you, Linda! We didn’t get back to Avery Point on Sunday, but we did have a nice walk at a “new” place on Saturday and a short walk at a “new” farmers market on Sunday. But I hope we’ll get back to Avery Point soon as I never get tired of seeing and sniffing my beach roses…

      1. I hope you get back there soon Barbara – wait until this one or two-day heat wave passes, then venture forth in search of beach roses … let your nose lead the way to them!

        1. Will try again this weekend. It’s supposed to get hot on Friday and then cool off for the weekend. Nothing like the heat they’re having in other parts of the country, though.

          1. Hope you get there Barbara. We didn’t break our record (95 degrees) as we only got to 93 (heat index of 103). We have a cooldown after tomorrow and the weekend will be *below average* – just crazy weather, but another few days in the mid-90s next week. Poor California cannot catch a break!

          2. We’re all definitely on a weather rollercoaster ride! I never know what to wear when I leave the house…

  9. I’m so happy to hear that Time’s surgery went well; bravo!
    The beach roses are so darn pretty. Not sure that I’ve ever seen those in person myself.
    I smiled seeing the lovely sparrow against that amazing blue sky!
    Continued healing for your honey.

    1. Thank you, Suz! Rosa rugosa came from Asia but has become naturalized all over New England. It’s been in Connecticut since about 1920. Somehow I cannot imagine the shoreline without them. And the song sparrows are very happy to make good use of them!

  10. Oh, Barbara, I missed your comment at the end of your last post mentioning Tim’s surgery. After starting to read this, I had to jump back to seek out where I missed it. So very glad to hear his surgery went well with the pacemaker. Now he’s going to outpace you on the trails! 😉 He should now feel a whole lot better overall. As to your photos in this post, well done, girl! Of course, I love the Song Sparrow, and the Avery Point Light composition and lighting is stunning. I enjoyed all the colors presented here. Enjoy Sunday’s upcoming date walk! 🙂

    1. Thank you so much, Donna! Tim continues to amaze me with his newfound energy — it’s as if someone flipped a switch and now I can’t keep up with him. 😉 He’s not as pale and out of breath as he once was. I can’t tell you how much that song sparrow lifted my mood that day. I was so anxious about the upcoming surgery but it went off without a hitch. I’m glad you liked the lighthouse — I went down some steps to a parking lot below level to get that angle. 🙂

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