Catching Up on the Flip Side

Sorry about no recipe for yesterday all. It was dang hot here. In fact, it was SO hot (how hot was it) the Internet connection became quite wonky. Now that my friends, is hot.

Also because of heat, we do not have the next installment for "The Sleepy Hollow Inn" because M. Davenport's AC went out and Davenport is now recovering from heat exhaustion while trying to repair it and Davenport's computer is at the computer doctor trying to recover some of its files so we can indeed have the next installment of the story!

It appears heat is the topic for many blog subjects recently. I have visited my usual ones and I can say "heat" appeared quite a lot in the subject line. For myself I didn't think it was that hot and unbearable. The dogs needed to go outside so I just went out there and sat for a little while and some things came to my attention that made me quite grateful for the AC we have here at the house. Namely, the birds.

I am a big fan of listening to the birds and providing them with as much seed and water as I can. Today, while sitting outside and being very grateful to be warm and happy I noticed the jar flies were quite lazy and not at all loud. Only a few hearty souls were there to make their summer song. A lone monarch butterfly came swooping in to the gardenias planted in the pots along my ramp and I was still caught by how they flew: it looks as if butterflies sometimes are tied to a string and someone is pulling it up and down in a jerky fashion to make the wings move and thus keep their adrift. The big thing though, was the absence of bird song. The trees were a droopy green and all around me was shade. I saw birds sitting quietly with their bills open and their wings dropping in the mulberry tree, but not one peep or warble was heard. A lone cardinal male came swooping in from a neighbor's tree looking for a possible hand out, or maybe just shade, because he looked to make sure me and the dogs were not a direct threat and then headed for the shade of the bamboo.

Me and the girls came inside, drank us a hearty amount of water and then settled down with the air conditioning. It felt good to be comfortable and I am going to try and make sure Hubby can put some water out there for the birds. I just don't know in what yet. I miss hearing them sing. That makes me happy. It means summer. Summer is indeed here, now we just need to help the little birds wet their pretty sounding whistles. For all of the heat though, and the current absence of bird song, I am still most thrilled it is summer.