Thank you friends, for the kindness you've shown me over the last two weeks. Your comments, emails, phone calls and prayers were a great comfort. I don't think I can find words to adequately convey my gratitude. Please know that I thank you with all my heart.
The last two weeks have been so difficult. But I'd like to think that the really hard parts are over and I'm trying to find a new normal for my life. After the burial last Thursday we all came home, changed into comfy jeans and sweatshirts and relaxed a bit. The kids got out the video games on the Wii and quickly had us laughing. That felt so good. Art came outside and helped me clean and fill my feeders. They had been empty for so long I wondered if the birds would come back. I needn't have worried- they came back in droves! Chickadees and nuthatches, both white-breasted and red-breasted were swirling around my head as I put the filled feeders back up. At one point I counted seven red-breasted nuthatches zooming around the feeding stations.
"Thank you!" 
Check out the tail on this gray squirrel! I try to toss some seed or nuts in this old wooden pop crate for the squirrels. It keeps them off the feeders that hang on our old wooden swing set. I put aluminum stove pipes on the 4X4 uprights to act as baffles but they quickly found a way to jump from the huge lilacs to the top beam. As long as they don't destroy my feeders, I'll admit that I enjoy watching them and they are welcome.
I wonder why her tail is ringed like that.
Even the bunnies are welcome. This one lives under the play house. Rabbit damage was minimal over the summer and we've fenced in the shrubs to keep them from chewing bark over the winter.
I finally unpacked my suit case for Cape May yesterday. Of course I have no regrets about not going but I did feel a little sad about not being able to meet the bloggers. BUT- I have a year to use my plane ticket! And I do plan to use it for the Second Bird Blogger's Conference!
