I am grateful every day that I live in the city, not because it is better than the suburbs or the rural areas but because it meets my needs so well. I love the vibrant, busy,always changing nature of the city and I really love Nature in the city.

My backyard is an awesome place. I have contributed to that awesomeness through gardening, maintenance, and the addition of habitats that many animals like. This year my husband and I made the environment even better by including an above ground fishpond ( I will post photos soon.)

What is fascinating to me is that no matter what I do, nature continues to make the space even better with features or animals that are completely out of my control. I have had raccoons, stray cats, dogs, possum, a wild turkey, hawks and all types of new england birds in my yard or bird bath. The big surprise this year has been my friend the parakeet/ budgie that has hung around most of the summer. I have gone to on-line lost pet sites, called the local zoo and looked for posted signs about a lost bird and non of these methods have worked. I don’t know his or her name and he or she won’t come to me. He or she comes everyday with the sparrows and tweets and twitters and eats. Friends and web sites have warned about the up coming winter and how hard it will be for my new friend the budgie. I’ll do what I can… any suggestions?