Today at work, we were entertained for a while…well, entertained isn’t exactly the right word…mesmerized sporadically by the antics of three huge hares that were loping along on the verge outside our office windows. Our building is bounded on the north side by the loop that circles the parking areas and the building itself, a skinny strip of beech hedge, an even skinner strip of grass and then an extremely busy 4-lane road that is the direct access from the highway that goes past Lund.
The hares, which were as big as big small dogs; like, bigger than chihuahuas and bigger than poodles but maybe not so…dense…as corgis, were doing what hares usually do. Skipping, moseying, lolloping about in the undergrowth, nibbling fresh new spring grass and once in a while, making a dart out into traffic. Each time that happened, my teammate Emelie would screech or gasp or inhale loudly and all of us would get up and stand at the windows watching. I like to think we were watching in the hopes that the hares would NOT be made into rabbit pancakes but who knows? There were audible sighs of relief every time the hares darted back again to the safety of the grass.
There are hares and rabbits (of the usual, smaller variety) everywhere, even in the business areas where people are endlessly about. Normally, they don’t care at all about you if you walk by, and they ignore you completely as long as they are under some semblance of cover. Driving back from lunch this afternoon, my colleague had to brake abruptly when yet another of them (or maybe one of the same ones, fired by daring to play with traffic all day) loped out in front of the car as we turned into the parking lot. I’m always amazed at how BIG they are. I expect hares to be, I don’t know, out in the DESERT somewhere, not in the parking lot of the Ideon Business complex in Lund.
I came home from another busy busy busy day of work and melted into a puddle of slack on the sofa for a good hour, after popping a couple of headache-killers. Anders was out in the garage sanding and came in just after 5 to start supper. He’d taken the afternoon off and stopped at the grocery store on the way home and sent me an email to tell me he’d bought dinner fixings. Yay! Any time he is fixing dinner, I always ask if I can do anything to help and he always says no and I go back to lounging around waiting for food to be served to me.
He outdid himself tonight, even though it was simple. Simple at its best! He marinated salmon fillets in salt, pepper, lemon juice and sliced red chili peppers. Then he grilled them but kept them underdone which is just the way I like ’em. He had already tossed together a salad using 1 mango, 2 avocados, half a red onion and 10-12 cherry tomatoes chopped in half and all drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil. Utterly delicious! Who needs carbs when you can have salmon and a salad like that?
A small army of house sparrows is combing the lawn for seeds, and congregating busily under the bird feeder. I don’t have much bird seed left and our local ICA has probably already stopped selling it, so I am being sparing with filling the feeder, especially since the side that has only sunflower seeds is still basically full. The little sparrows and finches and tits like the other side that has the small stuff better (though it also includes sunflower seeds) but I think mostly the big seeds get tossed to the ground for the fat pheasants to vacuum up. The big birds, which include the black brigade of crows, ravens, rooks and jackdaws, along with their flashier magpie lieutenants, often land on the feeder, and simply shake it to fling as much as possible to the ground for convenience.
It’s a simple weekend ahead, with no real plans in it, other than the purchasing of pansies for potting. If Karin doesn’t hoover it up tonight, I’ll eat the rest of the simple salad for lunch tomorrow. And since the weather is supposed to hold through the weekend, I’ll soak up the simple pleasures of sunshine, bee-song, and books, and go out and admire the pre-lilacs several times.