Ed Newbold's mailbox is full so I thought I'd share this with the rest of
you. I don't think he'd mind.

Hi Ed:

I just wanted to share that one of the loves of my life are my Barn
Swallows. Most years they have produced two batches of kids. This year it
looks like only one. Seeningly, they got off the wrong wing so to speak.
I don't know what happened and I usually pay close attention. They seem to
be working on a brood now.

The Barn Swallow songs and their chiddings of invaded space have brought me
out to the garden many time. Not the least, their morning song always
makes me smile.

My photo archives are repleat with past fledglings sitting on the "red
door" just below their mud abode, waiting for their parents to feed them.
And my heart does a little painful contraction when I first see the babies
fly. Their parents are such swift and grand fliers. The babies have all
the moves but it is as if their passage is more rounded sort of liquidy, if
you know what I mean. Sort of like watching a kindergarden ballet rehearsal.

I am presently working on a barn swallow babies "red door" painting. In
some of the photos I took you can tell the first batch from the second
batch, by size and attitude. They all hang out together.

As you can tell, I am way gone on "my birds" and in their case "me casa et
su casa" . I know I didn't spell that right but you know what I mean !

Ingrid Ossanna
taiona at centurytel.net
Elma, WA