Feathered Friends

Many of you know that if there is a scrapbook supply with a bird on it that I will be the first in line to own one (or fifty), but you may not know that I have birds all over my home. No, they aren't live birds, just statues, paintings, drawings, or photographs.

My love of birds began when I was very young. I lived with my grandparents for large periods of my life and my Gram loved birds. At their home in Maine they had lots of wonderful feeders around the property and on the windows. The clear window feeders were my favorite, the birds were just beyond the glass and you could really see God's intricate creation. Their home was only 78 feet from the Atlantic Ocean and my Gram would spend lots of time looking out the bay window of their den with a tiny pair of binoculars at the ducks and Loons swimming by. She would call to me in excitement "Huse, come see the Loons they have their babies with them." or "Huse come see the woodpeckers." Gram could identify so many birds and very rarely needed the help of her National Audubon Bird Guides, yet she kept them on the side table near the window just in case. I used to love to look through those books at the beautiful color photos.

Now that I am older I have feeders in my yard and watch for the birds from my kitchen window. I can identify some, but others are new to me, they are different from the birds in Maine and I enjoy spending time discovering what they are. One of my favorite Colorado birds in the Flicker, it has coloring similar to a Mourning Dove, light tan streaked with peachy pink and chocolate speckles, but it makes a noise like a Guinea Pig! Whenever I gaze at the feeders I am reminded of the warmth and love of my grandparents and I feel close to them even though they are gone.

Another reason I love birds for scrapping is that we call Coleman "Bird". It all started when he was an infant. Coley would squawk and not cry, he would flap his folded arm like a wing when he drank his bottle, and he would make little motions with his mouth like a baby bird. Coley has always loved sitting on the sofa as the sun rises and listening to the birds outside. He was our "Baby Bird", our "Little Bird" and now our "Bird"y boy.

Well, I have so much more I could write but I will stop here. Enjoy the peace of the snow today.

Houston