We have a pretty sizable Martin house in the back yard near the lake with 12 "apartments" that stay vacant over half the year while our Martin family travels across the hemisphere to Brazil. They come "home" to the lake house in February and chirp and sing, clean house, lay eggs, have babies, feed, feed, feed hungry mouths, and then…. the mothers wait patiently for the babies to learn to fly so the whole clan can fly back to Brazil. Chuck and I were away in the Keys for 10 days during this process of family growing and our neighbor Dave told us several babies jumped out to the edge of the "balcony" and …. gulp…. fell off. I considered for a moment trying to help them, but can you see me feeding hungry birds in a shoe box and doing all the stuff I have to do with the houses and to assist our dear Chuck? I couldn’t do it and anyway Dave said he couldn’t find the babies after they fell out of the nest… perhaps a hungry neighborhood cat found the babies and dispatched them in nature’s way.
So is this a blog about birds? In a sense yes, but the bigger picture is one I’ve written about before. I will never forget the first time I left Chuck "alone" in the hospital, or the evening I left him in the capable hands of Heather as he took his first flight from the nest to go to the Keys without me. …. I stood there alone in the driveway barely able to resist calling Heather on my cell every five minutes… "Is he OK? has he swooned?" He didn’t swoon and he’s fine. Last November, Chuck took a big hit to his brain that rattled him, and we all need to be aware of the horrors and dangers of simple head bumps. But the human is a remarkable machine and the brain, silent and hidden, repairs itself. So we hope. Neuro surgeons (the prima donnas of medicine)… will tell you, as ours has, they don’t know why the brain jiggled in Chuck’s case, jiggled and frazzled, swelled and was angry, but he’ll heal; so they say, "Just wait." So I stood in the driveway yesterday and waved goodbye again. This time… it was Chuck himself driving himself off to take care of some construction and renovation items, to "pay the man" who is doing the work at Trudy’s, to mow the lots and spray the weeds, and generally to get out of the nest. Chuck doesn’t know about the nest. He’s very happy to sit here at home, "perched on the balcony," waiting for his dinner. I think it was me who encouraged the solo flight. My friend Michele said he got chicken wings and I know he bought ice cream… buy one get one free… so he got two. And so I wonder, do the darlings ever think about broccoli as part of a balanced diet? If I don’t make it, it doesn’t go into that mouth. So mother birdies of my world… keep making the broccoli and let the birdies rest a while on the balcony. They’ll go, they won’t swoon, and they’ll have a good time. I’m off to do some long needed spring cleaning, clean the art room, clear some piles, and put some stuff away!!!!! Love to my family and friends from hot sunny south Florida.