Lately I’ve noticed that each morning around 8:30AM there is a House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) that hops around on the branches of the Lilac and Evergreen trees outside my bedroom window. In the beginning, I paid no attention to the chirping as it just blended in with other outdoor noises. But then I started to realize that he actually is there every day!

Who knows what he is singing, whether he’s desperately calling out for his lost friends, looking for a mate or simply chirping happy love song. Anyway, I snapped some photos of the Wren and figured I’d share them:

Wow! Mother Nature has been relentlessly punishing us with hot temperatures and unusually high humidity here in New Hartford. I don’t mind the heat so much, but it’s the sticky, sweaty and just plain uncomcfortable humidity that is killing me! Anyway, with summer also comes lucious flowers of all sorts. On our property we have several lilac bushes that have already graced us with their beautiful blossoms, but it’s not over yet! Our peonies (Paeonia rockii) are just starting to blossom.

Indoors I have several window plants, but one is very special to me. It is a clone of a geranium that lived in my late grandfather’s house for quite some time. I didn’t feel comfortable taking his original plant, so my mother provided me with a clone of his plant. Pruning the dead flowers and watering the plant gives me an opportunity each day to slow down from my busy live and observe the geranium’s beauty, and of course remember my grandfather. Here are some photos I took earlier this afternoon: