07:30am (04:30am!!! Pacific Time)

NORTH CAROLINA… Havelock
Ms Maxine & Jerome, "The Fifty Foot Turtle"

When I entered the kitchen she had the binoculars trained on some object in the backyard.

Her comment, "He’s like a small tank coming across the yard", took me by surprise… I hadn’t washed the sleep from my eyes or had my cup of coffee… "and he sure likes bread crumbs, but watermelon better… don’t have any right now for him."

Maxine had been up before the sun… filling her 5 bird feeders and placing food, at the end of well worn paths leading from the back porch, in spots viewable from her kitchen window… and they all came.

"I’ve been getting up at 5 (am) to feed something or someone for over 70 years"… "My late Paul always expected his food to be on the table as soon as he sat down… and he had to be on the road to work at 6 (am)… animals should have the same consideration."

As I leaned over the kitchen sink and peered out the window my attention was held by the reading of the yard thermometer – 85 degrees!!! at 07:35am!!!

Now I knew why I dismissed the noise of the heat pump outside our bedroom window… it kept us sane with its cool air.

Heat aside, they all came to eat from the small feast set for them… Yep, there was Jerome… under a mahogany shell with geometric patterns that bespoke his lineage… His head and neck were extended skyward toward the birds circling above… he was the only one with bread crumbs, sharing was not part of his nature.

When he finished he turned his diminutive body towards the overgrowth covering the moist drainage ditch… a 50 foot trek from the house.

"Reckon he’ll check the other backyards in the neighborhood and be back in a couple of days."

The warmth of the coffee could not compare to what I felt in my heart for the kindness that Maxine extended towards her morning companions,

Yep ... soon ... more on the way

Until next time … Best to all