Dear Reader,
This year's 16th Annual Write a DearReader Contest launches August 24th. You don't need to be a writer to enter. Simply tell me a story. Be sure to read Monday's column for all the information: cash prizes, this year's First, Second and Third Place entries will be featured in my column, deadlines, read last year's winning entries, and find out how your library will win cash, too, if you're one of this year's winners.
Stories are all around you, even in your own backyard. Sit a spell and watch a story unfold in front of you. This is what I discovered in my backyard...
There are some weird things going on in my yard.
Every day a female cardinal admires herself in the driver's side mirror on my car. Paused in mid air, her wings gently fluttering up and down, she turns her head from side to side, then taps on the mirror, ruffles her feathers just a bit, then flies off and returns with a berry in her beak. She gently smashes the berry into the center of the mirror and taps her beak against it. I imagine it's a cardinal's way of putting on her lipstick. Her favorite color seems to be ruby red, from the leftovers I have to clean off of my mirror every day.
A very fastidious dresser, she won't leave the mirror until all of her feathers are smoothed down just so. Periodically a brightly colored male circles around "my girl" giving her the once over. I know she's being courted and she knows it, too. But I think this cardinal, with the ruby red lips, knows she's good looking and that she would be quite a catch. So there's no hurry. For three days now she's been ignoring her suitors and playing hard to get.
Clever girl.
And then there's a fly who thinks he's a spider. I don't understand exactly what the fly is hanging down from, but he's always suspended in the middle of my driveway. The fly is obviously attached to something, but I can't see it and when anyone walks near him, he pops up like a jack-in-the-box and then pops back down to eye level after they've passed by. Whenever I've tried to get real close, so I could figure out the puzzle, the fly who thinks he's a spider, gets irritated, shoots up in the air and disappears completely out of sight for at least an hour. Playing hard to get.
Clever boy.
Yes, indeed, there are some weird things going on in my backyard and I'm one clever and lucky girl, to have discovered them.
* Congratulations to Willie L. the winner of Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott.
And congratulations to the winners of Well, Girl by guest author Jami Amerine: Lori M., Susan B., Marilyn T., Carol M. and Lynne O.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Start writing this weekend,
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
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