Quiet Fun

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Sometimes when I was young, I wanted some quiet time by myself. I found some things I loved to do that I enjoyed a lot all alone. Here’s some of my favorite alone spots for my quiet fun.

 

 

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Quiet Fun

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The Clover

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During my growing up years there were many things that I loved to do. In our front yard we had a huge patch of clover that was much greener than the other grass in the yard in the springtime.The clover had these round white flowers which smelled like honey suckle flowers with the most pleasant smell when I sat right in the middle of the clover patch. I would sit there for hours slowly looking at each of the individual clovers searching for that four leaf clover enjoying the sweet smells listening to the mocking birds that nested in our backyard singing their soothing songs. I would almost always find at least one four leaf clover and I would always walk away from this experience feeling awesomely refreshed feeling good about life.

 

My grandson Ben also likes his quiet time in the clover with the fragrant flowers in his front yard. Perhaps, his quiet time is a little less active than mine. Very relaxing either way.

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The Swamps

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Not too far from our house in Phillips, there was this one area that we called the swamps. The area was actually an area where a lot of yard seepage surfaced. There were thousands of small swamp willow trees in the area where the ground stayed wet all the time. Around the perimeter there were many large trees which were mostly cottonwoods and elms. All kind of birds stayed in this area, so many afternoons I would walk down to the swamps and sit under one of the big shade trees and find me a good piece of wood and whittle on the wood while I watched and listened to the birds. There were many meadow larks in the area always singing their beautiful melody. I would listen to them and copy their song by whistling back to them. Many times I would talk to them for hours sitting under that tree. On one occasion a great horned owl landed in the tree on the limbs above me. We stared at each other for thirty minutes before he decided to move along to perhaps hunt. On another, a red headed woodpecker landed above me and tapped out his tune as he pulled insects from the tree. I was sitting there one day when a chaparral walked up to within a few feet of me, looked me over good, and then sped off running on his way to where ever he was going. When I needed to be by myself, I always headed for the swamps to see want fun adventures I could have sitting there under my tree enjoying the great outdoors.

 

 

This was one of my favorite ways to have quiet fun sitting under a tree in the swamps whittling when I needed some time by myself with nature as a young man.

 

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Backyard In Arkansas

 

I loved to sit out in my grandparents back yard in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, in the evenings barefooted with my shirt off observing the sights and sounds of nature. In the early evening, the bull bats (Common Nighthawk) would be out cruising the skies just floating high in the sky. Then all of the sudden, one of them would fold his wings back and dive bomb straight down. When he got down to the bug he had spotted while floating on high, he would break his wings and you would hear this loud noise as the wind whistled through his feathers. He would snatch the bug out of the air and head back up for another dive. This was fascinating to watch. About the time it began to get dark, you could hear the lonesome sounds of the whippoorwill singing his song way off in the distance as the fireflies began rising out of the grass putting on a beautiful light display. I loved those evenings in Arkansas because the sights and sounds were so much different than the ones around our home in Phillips, Texas.

 

 

The bull bats were fun to watch and hear as they fed in the evenings. The whippoorwill topped off the evening with his lonesome song as I watched the fireflies rising.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading Quiet Fun,
Bill