I don't know what happened - if I lost interest, or just ran out of seed and kept forgetting to get more. Doesn't matter, I suppose - as far as the birds were concerned, there was just no reason to come back. So they didn't.
Even after I filled the feeder again. Weeks and weeks, and then months - and the feeder didn't get any emptier. I NEVER saw birds back there. It finally got to the point where the birdseed was so wet from staying out there in the rain that it sprouted and rotted in there, and the whole thing became a festering toxic mess that probably killed any birds who might have happened onto it. Through an extended period of neglect, I had wrecked a perfectly good thing.
The blog, of course, is the birdseed. And you, my dear readers, the birds.
But 90% of you were here for the weeks when I didn't write anything, so you know exactly what was going on. And the rest of you are about to find out. I'm in a bit of a dead zone here, time-wise - I'm back from work and errands, it's the first day the kids are back in day care, and Janneke and her mother are still at her office, where they're moving her in to her new space. So I take a few minutes to write the briefest of updates.
First, the visit: Janneke's mother, her sister Sonja and her husband Christophe and their kids, Natasha and Steven, as well as Janneke's sister Dominique and her husband Octavio, and their four kids: Milena, Adrian, Stefan, and Flavia. All in the house for all waking hours, unless we were out having fun.
Crazy busy, super entertained, and happy as clams swimming in the great hot sauce that is family. Many, many photos were taken, most of them, luckily, by someone much better than I at photography. (Which is to say: anyone at all who is not me.) Here are a few:
The three sisters at Coyote Flaco, a popular local Mexican restaurant, run by an Ecuadorian. What a great evening that was.
Almost everyone who came, plus the natives. Octavio is the only one not in the photo. (He wasn't here as long as the others, having places to go and things to do. Don't worry: No one forgives him.)
There were many fun activities - bowliing, both candlepin and standard; ping pong (at which the non-Massachusetts members of the tribe excel to a much greater extent than those of us who live here year-round); white-water rafting; vegetable-picking; backyard soccer galore; and lots and lots of Olympics on the telly. It was just plain loads of fun, and I cannot, in this brief update, do it nearly sufficient justice. But I have to admit that the motivation for so doing is low, since almost everybody who would care to see the details, was present. And there's the time constraint. But rest assured, it was much nicer than this telling.
So there you are, birds. A handful of seed. Please feel reassured and return often, for I promise to be more consistent in the future. And you should know, that in the actual, non-proverbial backyard, the birds have returned. I am about to go and refresh their larder now. Besides which, the robins on the front porch are about to fledge their second batch of youngsters, which grew up while the family was visiting. So we've turned into a veritable bird sanctuary again. You see? Dreams CAN come true!
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