Objectively, this is a rather poor photo. It is cropped from a photo taken on my phone in a brief moment with no time to think. But it’s a glimpse of what makes my garden special to me these days.
It all started several weeks ago, while I was working in the garden. I was weeding the stone walkway that wraps around the side of our house when a robin flew down and perched on the rhododendrons just a couple feet from me. If I looked straight at it, it got shy and backed away, but if I kept my head down toward the weeds under me and just peeked out if the corner of my eye, the robin would hop within inches of my hand. He was probably trying to take advantage of the little bugs stirred up by my yard work, but it felt a lot like making a friend.
That robin comes to visit regularly now, and sometime after that visit my husband decided to get a bird feeder for the house. Instead of a traditional freestanding feeder he got this one that sticks to the window outside our dining room. For the first time (that we have seen) this morning another bird decided to perch on the feeder and nearly cleaned it out. Needless to say we’ll be stocking it regularly from now on.