A sunny Saturday! How great is that?  I've been sittinng here watching a butterfly as it flits around on the purple phlox. It is colored like a Monarch Butterfly but it isn't as big as I remember them being. Butterflys are something I don't see aroound here very often.  I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I know butterflys evolve from caterpillars, which would indicate that I don't have caterpillars eating on my plants; yet as I recall, butterflys are good for pollinating. And, I wonder, is it just my yard that we aren't seeing them or have we decimated yet another species with pesticides? ---- These are my deep thoughts for my Saturday morning.

The back yard runway is busy this morning with the flights in and out. I have lots and lots of Finches and several Cardinals all staking out territory and a place at the buffet table. Even Mr. Buzzwing has gotten into the act and has driven off several Finches that "were in his space" on a limb.

I'm still not getting squirrels in the morning at the feeders. I can see them in the trees above and at the neighbors as they dash back and forth but there is only one or two and they are a younger, leaner, and browner in color than the fat grey ones we had before. These one or two now come in the afternoon around two o'clock, eat for maybe twenty minutes and then scoot on out. I'm very curious as to what has changed. Perhaps there has been a turf war and a new gang has moved in. What ever it is; the dynamics of the back yard have changed and I'm saving money because I don't have to fill the feeders nearly as often. Yea me!!

We had a great visit with my sister-in-law, Karen, yesteday afternoon. However, she didn't bring her pictures by from her summer trip to Europe. So, I fired her. But, we all went out to one of our local taverns and had catfish fiddlers for supper; good company, good food, and a good cold beer. It is an excellent combination.

I have a wedding to do this afternoon. Maybe we'll go a little early and work on next weeks bulletins. What with it being the end of the month bulletin in which I include extra pages, and having three days of company next week, and --- the following week being a vacation week, I need to get things done when I can. Prior planning prevents poor performance is a motto I have lived by for many years and it has served me well.

The sky is becoming more overcast and the wind is picking up. I reckon a bit of rain through the area wouldn't be a bad thing. It would not make the harvesters very happy though if we get very much.

Time to put this up and get busy. Despite the fact that God has sent a whole bunch of my bird friends to the feeders now, I still need to vacate the recliner, wash out my coffee cup, and get on with gettin' on. Hug somebody today. You'll feel better for it.