Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship by Tom Ryan is published by William Morrow. It tells the story of my adventures with Atticus M. Finch, a little dog of some distinction. You can also find our column in the NorthCountry News.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Mother's Day...And It's Snowing

Happy Mother's Day to Sadie and Isabel, our mothers. Both are long gone. But oh, what fun they're having if they are looking down on Atticus and me right now. If it's true that parents want a better life for their children than they had, even if they didn't have a bad life, then they are happy in heaven these days.

It was in the 80s here the other day, but proving that this is indeed spring in the mountains of New England, it's actually snowing out. It's not a settling kind of snow; it's just spitting. Occasionally the pace picks up and it whips across our faces, but it's nothing to be concerned about. Because it is so chilly this morning we have a lot of visitors coming and going this morning. Amelia, already was on the suet feeder, then when Bernard, the male woodpecker, named for one of the characters in Tom Robbins' "Still Life with Woodpecker" showed up at the feeder she flew inside and sat on the window two feet above the love seat where Atticus and I are. Funny bird. And a funny dog. She looked down at us calmly. He looked up at her just as calmly. She comes in so often Atticus is used to her and she's obviously used to us.

I dropped some seeds for the Blue Jays on the stone patio but before they could get to it the She-Munk filled her cheeks. When I was taking her picture I looked up and saw a beautiful new visitor. As a birder I'm ignorant but my The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America tells me he's a Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

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