When last I visited my Mom, she took me up to the NC State Employees Credit Union, of which we are both members, and bought me a bluebird house. I know it sounds crazy, a bank selling bluebird houses, but there it is.

She did that because she knew I liked photographing birds and a group of NC conservationists were trying to encourage the bluebird population in the state. So I brought it home a few weeks ago and picked out a good location down in the back yard and hoped for the best.

So we got a few nibbles from possible tenants about a week ago. I think the Poppa bird was sold on the house, but Momma wanted to look around a little more. But today our first bluebird family closed the deal and began moving in.

I was relieved. I had been concerned that I hadn’t done a good enough job to attract our new neighbors. Now I have a beautiful new subject for photography just outside my back door.

Something that is really cool is that when Marilyn and I bought our first home years ago in Greensboro we had a nest of bluebirds in the back yard. I love the idea of the bluebird of happiness being a neighbor, and now we have a family moving in to our backyard in the midst of a crazy pandemic! You know I am going to take that as a bright sign of good things to come, of hope and promise. I know its just a bird but I can’t help myself. It makes me happy. May the bluebird of Happiness make a nest in your back yard this year!