<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Hannah 1(1).jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 201px; float: right;" />I&rsquo;ve had a week of &ldquo;Here I am&rdquo; moments.</p>
<p>
	Here I am at peace. Sweet, fresh, spring time peace, where even the air seems renewed. This internship began with two feet of snow, which melted somewhere in between my first snowshoe experience and the beach sandals I&rsquo;m wearing now.&nbsp; It may be trope but spring did seem to come over night; the birds flew in en-mass, green is ubiquitous, the pond is full of hatchlings, and the timid squirrels have turned into reckless, hormone-driven&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12px;">traffic hazards. And sitting beside some newly sprung trout-lilies, here I am blinking at the sheer boldness of it all.</span></p>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Hannah 2.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 201px; float: left;" />Everything about me seems to have its own business and goes about it whole-heartedly with little regard for anything (or anyone) else. Thus there is an almighty ruckus as individuals find mates, forage, build nests, establish territories and lay claim to prime real estate. Accompanying this is a cacophony of squeaks and squawks, grunts and rattles, chirping and cheeping, flapping and tufting as someone inevitably gets in someone else&rsquo;s way. And here I am tickled as two squirrels demonstrate just that, nattering on at each other from the trunks of two neighboring white pines.</p>
<p>
	I try to remember the last time I sat and watched this many creatures in such close proximity. Here I am realizing it&rsquo;s been too long. I play a game:</p>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Hannah 3.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 201px; float: right;" />Staring out in front of me I eyeball roughly fifty square feet, and then not veering from the 30&deg; field of vision in front of me I give myself one minute to count as many species as I see. I don&rsquo;t have the time to write all of them down.</p>
<p>
	Blue jay. Flicker(?). Phoebe. Grackle. Mallard. C. Goose. Chipmunk (v. pregnant). Gray Squirrel (black morph). Red Squirrel. Nuthatch. Chickadee. Robin. Some invertebrate that just blinked out of existence. RW Blackbird. STOP.</p>
<p>
	Here they all are, and here I am also. It occurs to me that I too have a reason for being here this spring and that I&rsquo;d better get busy doing it.</p>
