Those chattering, mildly irritating birds are back, in force, scoping out which of three apartment building sites will contain the nest for their newbies. At our river home we take bets on when the PM sentinels will arrive from Brazil to see if their former flats are up and cleaned out. I was this year’s lucky winner with March 28th.

You can tell it’s really spring in NC when the PM’s come back and with it comes the usual: garden cleanup, which I am pretending someone else is going to do this year; red ant hills, which my savvy Silver Fox has already been out treating; bugs. The mosquitoes won’t arrive for a while, but the honey bees will soon, and then the hornets which I loathe. Sugar ants came and went, ditto one tiny mouse who slipped in when our door didn’t latch properly after a storm.

Ah, the joys of living so close to nature. Did I mention I have to start watching where I put my feet for snakes????

Auntie M had a good time visiting the Grands in MN, although illness plagues us all.  The kids are terrific and the 16 mos old baby is starting to talk.  Now that Grandpa Art comes out “Bart,” the older kids are calling my Silver Fox that, so I just may adopt that name for a while. . .