By Riva Hawkes
On Dec. 23, at about 3:30 p.m. a group of young ladies (ages 10-12) from the Island Falls and Oakfield area, knocked politely on my door, then gathered in a group by my steps and sang several Christmas songs. They were led by Richard Canavan, whose daughter, Emily was one of the group, and who also is the granddaughter of “Sparky” Whitney. The singing was lovely and clear and I was very impressed by the whole thing and very pleased that they chose me as one to sing for.
Recently, I had a phone call from The Delongs, who are former residents of Island Falls, now living in Brooksville, Fla., wishing me a Merry Christmas, and also to have a good long chat about “The Good Old Days.” Tom Hawkes, son, Chris and grandson, Joshua, have been recent visitors for the day, returning home to Glenburn just in time to miss a bit of snow that had been predicted.
During the cold weather we’ve been having, I have been very busy keeping the bird feeders full and also supplying all my wildlife with the peanut butter and lard mixture that they all seem to really like. The woodpeckers have been seen grabbing great pieces of it, flying off and then returning to do it again and the nuthatches and chickadees make short work of it too.
I still have the battles of the red and gray squirrels to see who gets into the sunflower seeds and it is quite a circus to see them flying in and about the cedar tree. The cardinals are there every day and as they now will eat from the feeders can get a good look at them both. And, one day, last week the spikehorn deer appeared after being absent for a week or ten days. He also likes sunflower seeds and cleans out the feeders quite rapidly—-plus the bread and apples I give him. Good way to get exercise trotting out to the cedar tree and around with food to keep my wild life happy.
