For Rent

The sounds of fall were in the air today. Well, some of them. The farmers took one last sweep around the hay field behind the office, collecting round bales and bush-hogging the grass in preparation for the winter weather. As I took Peppermint out in the back for a walk in the field, I soaked in the warm sunshine and the distant hum of the machinery.

One sound that I’ve missed lately, though, is that of the songbirds. They’ve been gone for a few months now, their houses empty, and the surrounding oak trees only hosting the resident squirrels who scamper up and down their trunks caching acorns. We still have some winter birds visiting, and the calls of the Blue Jays and Cardinals will tide me over until next spring. And by then, their houses will be dry and welcoming for the next wave of nestlings.