BITTERSWEET GLOW

They weren't just tumbling about and having fun in Sunday School. In worship service Jan 26, 2025, the Bates children got up on the platform and recited the church memory verse for the month.

Now nobody had an excuse not to try learn it too.

"Just want you to know, I'm coming through, okay?" I'd said to the mallards taking a walk in the park in Iwatsuki. I didn't want to scare them.

Sometimes, we learn the verses God sends...and we find ourselves stumbling over His blessings because of them. We trust and obey Him today, and, like Eddie and Nari, we may find stronger health or birds quacking across our paths or slamming into hotel windopanes as we serve Him. Maybe.

But I've learned better than to expect brighter days all the time. At the Iwatsuki Park, I found that in the daylight, some insects that looked like plain ole' beetles, when it got darker, were attractive fireflies! Hm; this month's memory verse refers to our being salt. But what if that means there needs to be a distasteful experience to highlight our winsomenes for the Lord?

ROOM FOR ONE MORE?

2 years ago, I remember thinking, AHA! I'd found two mallards hidden in the grass, and began sketching them. But their half dozen ducklings saw and wanted to be drawn too so surprised me by coming out of hiding. Adult caretaker mallards also came, so before I knew it, I needed to draw 10 birds. Dragonflies flying by wanted to know what was going on and perched on the reeds--2 more critters needed to be drawn. 2 basking turtles seemed to comment I had a big job to do. I found myself saying, NO MORE VACANCY!

When I went to the same place today, at first, I saw two turtles, a carp, and a white butterfly. I decided to do the sketch, but as I was finishing, a tiny spider crawled up the boulder near me, so I drew him on the boulder near the carp...then I saw a tiny hatchling on a rock behind that boulder. so added him. After I drew the outlines of the background, another turtle climbed up on that center boulder. I managed to squeeze him in behind the first turtle.

Whew. As I was about to go home, 2 more dragonflies came! Maybe tomorrow, I told them. On the way home, I saw a mallard at Step Creek. (He was one of the first 2 in the grass.) He probably sat there and chuckled at what he saw, thinking, it's happening again.

Aren't you glad God always has room for one more?

NO HARM

The forecast is hard rain all day. I found something from Nov. '23, a string of photos taken a sunny day at the park, and I was thinking on a rainy day, you might enjoy looking at this...but was it too long to post? Well, I remember liking looking at the pictures in a book, so there's no harm in posting these:

1 Tree - Wanna hear what happened today?

2 Mallard - I wanna hear! I wanna hear!

3Tree - The egret came back

3 But today, there was a Great Blue Heron too

5 Mallard - Isn't it too cold for herons?

6 Herons are usually gone by November,

7 Not fishing in Iwatsuki Ponds

8 Like these two...

9 WHAM!

10 Mallard - Gave me a heart attack!

11 Twist...Shake...

1

12 Down the hatch...

13 Mallard - So he really caught him, huh!

14 Heron - I guess there's no harm in

15 Staying here a while longer

Carp - HA! Some poor fish'll have "no more harm" EVER again...

That's all, folks!

This will be the last post of the year

Temperatures dropped again so the turtles went back into hibernation, and the herons and carp left for warmer places for the cold months (carp don't go to different ponds; they dive deep then drop movement/metabolism). That's probably why I was so glad to see Peter the Kawasemi Friday--most of my park friends were gone for the winter.

When I went to the other side of the park the other day, I saw the greenhead mallards in the corner of the pond. Until last year, there had been a male-female pair, Junior and Maggie, who had become very good friends. But they didn't come this year.

I doubted any of these birds would ever trust me the way Junior and Maggie did. But maybe we could have some kind of friendship, I thought, and worked hard on the initial sketch, telling them I'd probably show them a finished drawing next week.

MALLARD TRAIL

I know I just posted photos of turtles, so I should be posting drawings for awhile before showing photographs, but I found some old photos I couldn't resist, especially after my recent visits to the park and seeing most other animals are disappearing now, leaving the mottled duck--what I used to call the spot-billed mallard. Here's something I found of the ducklings when they were still swimming with their mother, altho' they grow up really fast, and you can't tell them apart from the adult ducks anymore.

Behind Mama Mallard: 2 ducklings? No, 3!

No, at least 4

1,2,3,4,5

See? There are 6 of us!

"COMMERCIAL"？

"The others are gone;" the mallards saw; "it's safe to go back," they hopped up onto the landing to resume posing for me!

The greenhead mallards had let me get surprisingly close to them to draw their picture, but as soon as other humans had neared the bridge, they'd jumped back into the water and swam away. "Well, it had been a fun experience while it lasted;" I thought then. "No one could really expect birds in the wild to...huh? They were back! I shook my head in disbelief but reached for my sketching equipment.

"Just pretend that was a little commercial," the mallards waddled back into the places they had been in before.

"Commercial?" No. Mallards don't watch TV; they couldn't have said that! I just imagined it, right?

SATISFIED？

When I got to Deeper Pond, Peter the Kawasemi had been diving into the water after fish, waiting for me. I think he just wanted to know if his picture was finished.

"Sorry it took so long Peter, but here it is," I said, showing him the drawing. I hope he wasn't too disappointed. In it, he's drawn smaller than in the last few sketches I've made of him, because I drew more park featuring mallards too.

Hm; I wonder if my satisfaction in life has to do with how important I'm made to feel or if others are highlighted and I get less credit?

to be continued tomorrow

I had to go to the park while it was still warm. After all, when I went to the park last week, Peter the Kawasemi had come out to pose for me. I thought living things would be gone by December and had resigned myself to drawing the garden lamp.

But onto a branch near the lamp, a bright blue bird had come--Peter the Kawasemi! And a few minutes later, several mallards splashed down into the pond.

"Us living things--gone? Ha!" They must've been honking and singing as I hurriedly (and happily) scrawled away a rough outline to do a real drawing later. But it got dark much too fast, so there was time to do only a very general sketch...this.

Both have been drawn here before, but...

Let me tell you the whole story behind yesterday's picture. A car came along and squashed that grasshopper. I felt like someone had run over my heart then...but Kinya was with me at the time, and I felt I couldn't cry. So I'd turned to go on to the park. I saw a duller-colored grasshopper on the pavement right about then, probably the mate, who had witnessed the whole thing.

I wanted to draw a good picture of the grasshopper so was careful to be accurate in drawing it then had one of the crows--if you look at the picture carefully--crying for it. I so wanted the female to see the finished drawing. But she was nowhere in sight.

So I told the mallard and carp to tell the grasshopper about the picture and stood at Corner Cove this afternoon sketching them, wondering if she might show up. But the grasshopper didn't come.

Maybe I'll see her sometime later on this week and can show her the picture.

And we humans think we're so smart

I expected the Kawasemi--he is so pretty--to be gone for winter hibernation--the turtle too. Imagine my surprise when both showed up at Deeper Pond this afternoon. I wasn't surprised to see the greenhead mallards. I figured this might be my last chance this year to sketch the kawasemi & turtle so did. Here is the initial sketch.

Since I'd just finished looking through C.S. Lewis's narnia books, "King Peter" rang in my mind when I saw the Kawasemi Peter looking like he was surveying his kingdom, Deeper Pond.

Aren't you glad the Kawasemi didn't go around wishing he had a robe of purple like earthen kings instead of being a stupid blue rock? Maybe he'd tell us he wasn't smart enough to realize flying sapphires were supposed to want to be something else,

TIMID LIKE THE BIRDS

This afternoon, I headed to yesterday's spot, asking God to please send people here today. My Father not only had the greenhead mallards come back to Far End and stay until June finished her drawing; but He called on the egret to come too, so altho' she hadn't been in yesterday's sketch, I put her in the center of the background today.

Yesterday's art-lover apologized for taking up my time, but she doesn't realize nothing could make me happier. I've asked God to anoint every encounter at the park, and it seems every talk turns to things of God. I need to pray--I'm so timid I'm scared to talk to people I know, much less strangers at the park.

Which is what I find myself needing to do. Please pray this timid artist be a winsome follower of Christ.

THREE CHEERS FOR AIKO

I thought it was Maggie and got all happy for Junior, took a lot of pictures for reference then made a sketch to finish at home. There, I got my photos up on the computer screen where I could see the details so that if I had any questions while I was drawing,...but wait...

I realized then that it was not Maggie, but another bird: half mallard and half mottled duck. Because crossbreeds are called "ainoko" in Japanese, I named this one Aiko.

There was a reason I mistook Aiko for Maggie. She had taken on Maggie's job of livening up the others and getting them to move. When I came to the pond today and saw a female mallard cheerleader, I of course thought it was Maggie.

I felt 3 things when I realized my mistake: I felt a little sad that Junior did not have his partner back; but there was an inner sigh--it's not so bad: Aiko and some other greenheads (a few others came with her) would be with Junior, so after the mottled ducks went home at night, Junior wouldn't be by himself.

But most of all, I wanted to give a medal to Aiko for stepping up do her job so well I'd been thoroughly fooled.

A DUCK BY ANOTHER NAME

What I'd been calling a spot-billed mallard is really a mottled duck, I found out today.

I remember seeing a mother at the park pointing to the greenhead in the pond and explaining to her children how you could distinguish the brightly colored male from the plain brown female, pointing to the mottled duck. Inwardly, I said, "She's teaching them something WRONG!" But if I'd have said, "that's not a greenhead female; that's a spot-billed mallard", I WOULD'VE BEEN WRONG TOO!

Isn't that like what we humans do, pointing fingers at others' errors? They've got it all wrong, we smile inwardly.

Here is today's sketch of a foraging...mottled duck. Today, a dragonfly came--probably the last to make its appearance before the onset of cold--as well as a butterfly, so I decided to put them into the picture. It seems a carp nearby wanted to be included too, so I managed to squeeze her in on the side. After all, the place is named "Carp Walk". But what's in a name, right? A rose is a rose; a duck is a duck...

Duck Pond End, Ballpoint Pen Start

This has happened a few times before. I forgot to bring my brush pen. Any sketching would have to be done by ballpoint! Well, I'd be coloring and filling in details later on anyway, I said to myself, and just started. Here's what I ended up with.

The Creator of our universe didn't need references, brush/ballpoint pen, just the words "let there be --".

COMING IN FOR THE STORY!

I began telling the "Koree and the Fish that Grew" story, but the Mallards began to swim away. "We're not interested," they seemed to communicate. It was then I remembered I had just told them that one. It was the "Koree and the String" I hadn't told them yet!

Mallards are pretty open about how they feel--they will not give you a polite show of acceptance if they don't feel it. However, no other living thing is as encouraging when their responses are positive either. By their honks, nods, wing flaps, and general carryings-on, there can be no mistaking of their approval when they are happy about something.

Today's picture is of one of the spot-billed mallards who came in from a little far out in the pond. Most of the time, these birds will run away from people, but if they know they can get a good story, they come instead. Kinya is witness. Today, after the doctor's visit, he came to the pond with me and saw the mallard come near and stay as I apologized for the mistake of the first paragraph then gave the introduction for tomorrow's story.

HE CARES

Even from a distance I could spot that enamel green spot among the spot-billed mallard mass moving towards Deeper Pond. THE GREENHEADS HAD COME! My heart danced. Junior and Maggie were such good friends. I hurried to meet them...

Snorkel the turtle noticed. "Where's Maggie?" In past years, when the others went to their nests at night, Junior always had his partner by his side, but now he would be alone.

I don't know if illness, accident, or death kept Maggie away this year; all I know is our Father knows, cares, and is worthy of our trust. If mallards would do so, surely we can too.

I HOPE THEY SAW IT

The mallards who live at Step Creek have found the stream facing Duck Pond has been stopped up, but the side facing the waterfall is still a bit open. Yesterday, I sketched two mallards cooling off there (at the "open side"), and they seemed to be real happy when I told them I'd color the picture and show it to them today. I forgot I would have no way of identifying them.

Today, the mallards were in two large groups at Step Creek, and then in another group at Duck Pond. I was real careful to spend time showing the drawing to any who wanted to see--I hope this included yesterday's two mallards.

I never have to hope God didn't miss something! Did I say that right? I meant God never misses, but I managed to say it all funny.

A MALLARD SHRUG

I looked--both at Deeper Pond and Duck Pond--for my new mallard friend with the spot on his neck. But he was nowhere to be found. 

"How come?" I asked Mister Mallard, preening at Corner Cove. He simply stuck his bill under his wings (a mallard shrug?). So I just sketched him today.

THE SPOT DISAPPEARANCE

"If you're the mallard I sketched the other day, come over here," I said, really not expecting it to. Imagine my surprise when it did! One mallard had been swimming in this back pond by itself, when most of the mallards were on the front side of the park, at Duck Pond. Maybe because he knew I couldn't tell it apart from the others?

As if it read my mind, the mallard turned his head and showed me a spot on its neck--something I hadn't noticed before. I could pick it out from all the others! "Thanks!" I felt all smiles on the inside and decided to call it Nicky (you know, from the spot on the necky.)

But when I came back the next day, another mallard had left Duck Pond and joined it too. "Is one of you Nicky?" I asked. But I was sure I could spot it this time. Strange...that mallard played some kind of trick on me or spots disappear as you grow, because neither of those mallards had that spot on the neck. Ohhh no. How now brown...mallard?

I Sketched Him Six Times This Month!

They were back at Duck Pond again. But the critters knew I couldn't say no. I had to sketch today; I didn't have a choice! I'd forgotten to insert the memory card into my camera, so I couldn't take any photographs.

Snorkel and Ruby didn't come tho', so today's picture is only of the birds. Also, I felt like much of the detail in the original sketch would be lost if I colored the whole thing, so after talking it over with Kinya, I decided to color only the birds.

Besides, it's the design of the Mallards I think handsome, the flash of the Kawasemi I feel striking. Most people, when they see pictures of these birds, don't give much attention to the color of the boulder, water, foilage...do they?

At the tail end of my park visit this morning, I noticed the cameramen were engrossed with the six grown ducklings who showed up at one pond and were swimming together. I left the charming sight and came to a quiet corner. In a few minutes, I heard a familiar call--it was Peter the Kawasemi! I showed him the drawing, thanking him for posing this morning--and all month, for that matter!