"Goodbye" and "Hello"

"Goodbye" to the early blooming azaleas.



"Goodbye" to the fresh lovely Primroses.

The high temperatures of the past two days have hastened their demise.

But "Hello" to a new bird at our feeders, the Red-breasted Grosbeak. Two males have suddenly shown up after all these years and are giving the Downey Woodpeckers, Red-Headed Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Bluejays, and Goldfinches some competition in the "most handsome" contest. Here's a photo of one taken by R.H. Cummins, which I found at irscience.wcp.muohio.ecu/.../TOC-18.html. Isn't this a beautiful bird?




In addition to their beauty, we've enjoyed the wonderful songs of all these birds coming into the open windows and doors the past week or so. Yesterday it got too hot in the afternoon and we turned on the air conditioner. As wonderful as a.c. is, it's always kind of sad to turn it on because we lose joy of waking up to the bird's songs. When we first lived here we didn't have a.c. and slept all summer long with the doors and windows open. It was wonderful to hear the birds and the summer storms. But as the area got more developed we felt less comfortable about having the house so open and it seemed to be getting hotter, or else we were just less tolerant, so we put in central a.c. I love it, but I also know what we've given up. We still love to be out on the porches to see and hear the birds, and our new big window makes it very easy to keep an eye out on them.