Helen and Buddy and Towhees

Jay is away for business and for a visit with his brother over the weekend, so Helen came down from St. Paul this afternoon with Buddy. The weather is going to be iffy while they are here, but I am sure Tom will think of things to keep them occupied. Tonight he is dragging -- I mean, taking Helen to a meeting of the Stewards, to be followed by a talk on the local flora. I was invited, but I try not to get too involved in all of Tom's projects. I decided to stay home to keep Buddy company and try to finish reading J. M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year. (Ted, I think you might enjoy it. At least some of it is pretty libertarian in spirit.)

Tom decided to make shish kabob to welcome the guests, using some lamb that Joe and Evelyn had given us. This meant that he had to put together the grill that he bought about a month ago. Cassidy and I helped -- me by handing him parts and stuff and Cassidy by lounging around on the deck to protect us from any predatory birds, I guess. At any rate, the grill got assembled with relatively few problems. I went off to do some banking and other errands while Tom went shopping for the rest of the kabob ingredients. They turned out great, and I expect the grill will get a good workout this summer.

While we were eating dinner, a bird new to all of us showed up at the feeder. After studying the bird guide carefully, we decided that it was an Eastern Towhee. Adults have reddish sides, a white belly and a long dark tail with white edges. Helen also convinced me that what I thought had been a purple finch was just a house finch. At least I had the consolation of reading that it is hard to distinguish them from one another.

When Peggy was here for dinner Sunday night, we saw our first hummingbird of the year. It was buzzing around the back, and so Tom went to hang the hummingbird feeder back up by the front door. Since then, of course, no sightings. We had two families fighting over that feeder last summer, so I am sure someone will find it soon enough.