The last week of August into the first week of September was a busy one for us as we did the Fonda Fair in Montgomery County. Frank went down on Sunday, Aug. 24, to clean up his Pancake House. Then he, Dad, Mom and I spent the next day there as we set up the booth in Scott Hall and Frank also set up the Pancake House.

I haven’t had a bird report in awhile, but we are still enjoying our summer birds around the area. Bill and Marsha Mabie have had numerous finches, some orioles, flickers, a pair of cedar waxwings, busy little hummingbirds, among other birds.

Our garden this year is doing well, but last week was surely hard to do much in it with all the rain we received and the constant thunderstorms off and on throughout the week.

My dad and mom visited and enjoyed lunch with my sister, Donna Hatch, and children, Dillon and Jekara, in McGraw, on Monday, June 16.

The calendar says summer arrives on June 21, but with this heat (84 degrees, as I write this column on June 7) and humidity, I believe it’s already here! Now this is weird — I have one calendar that says summer begins on June 21, but in looking at another calendar, that one says June 20! So which one is right?!

I think maybe spring is finally here to stay as our hummingbird population has now increased. We had only seen a couple of hummingbirds until last Friday, May 30, when we had at least six of them, maybe more, zipping back and forth to the feeders. They sure are busy little birds!

It looks as though the phoebe’s are returning to various areas since disappearing after last year’s April snowstorm.

If nothing else, I sure have lots of bird sightings to report this week. They started coming in last Monday, May 5, when Sharon Thompson phoned to tell me the brilliantly orange and black northern oriole had arrived. Then she excitedly called me again the next day to say she had two male rose-breasted grosbeaks.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers! The past week has been rather cool, hasn’t it, but at least we’ve received some much-needed rain.