This was certainly a different place. Here I hadn’t level ground for a garden of my own. There were no fences to mark our home’s property, just lawns that stretched over what had once been a family farm. We purchased a rolling slope instead, which colored the land with perennial greens of blue and yellowed tints, dusted with a few inches of snow come the winter.
Cardinals perched regularly on our deck posts as long as we kept the feeder filled. I soon learned to budget in some wild bird seed each month; were I not faithful, the birds soon found other feeding places in the subdivision and thought twice before returning and giving us a second chance to meet. I had to prove that we transplants were serious if I wanted to enjoy their company!
When the feeder was well filled, chickadees soon joined them; wrens and even blue jays seemed to loiter much longer here than they did among the shrubs we’d had in California. I realized that woodpeckers were tenacious but not necessarily very observant; they could not discern a metal eave from a wooden one! Robins soon discovered our porch and chose our eaves for a nest! Using our front door disturbed them briefly; they would wait until we’d settled down with our glass of wine before they renewed their back and forth trips to the nest.
So you’re from California, huh? Whatever brought you here? As though the here were not enough or was remiss in some finer sense… Yes, the area has its troubles and its flaws; but if you want to experience pure, unadulterated patriotism, sport fever, fellowship and sister city festivals, this is the place!
Okay, okay; so the humidity is REAL; it is AWFUL; and totally CRUMMY (fill in your adjective)! Yes, there are those days this native Californian could actually believe I understand what it’s like to be a goldfish!
You’re going to Misery??? I’m not going, you can’t make me…
It is your loss, my friend, because you will never see brighter blooms or lovelier seasons or more beautiful cardinals than here in God’s country.