A Special Treat for your eyes

I started reading Julie Zickefoose's blog after last year's Festival of the Cranes at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. She is a talented artist, a musician, and a great speaker. I find her blog interesting because we get a glimpse of her family life, wonderful birds and plants, and sometimes her art. This week she ran a series on a painting that she just did. This series is worth reading and enjoying for several reasons. For one thing, you get to see how a beautiful water color painting is done. For another, the birds she painted are beautiful.

So, go on over . . . enjoy the story behind that beautiful painting.

Keynote Speaker - Julie Zickefoose

I had met Julie briefly at the Black Belt Birding Event. Her husband, Bill Thompson, rode in my van. They began the evening with Bill playing his guitar to accompany Julie's song with a lovely set of photos on the screen.. Her speech was a delight. She told of three sets of animal rescues that she and her family had done over the last few years. I was charmed by the story that is also available on NPR, "My Hummingbird Summer" . They ended up with four baby humingbirds that required feeding every 20 minutes. The story of the bonding, the personalities of the hummers, and the continued relationship even after release is heartwarming and well worth the time to hear her tell the stories.

"When Hummingbirds Come Home" tells the story of the following summer when at least one of the hummers returned.

Another year, they had baby chimney swifts, another remarkable tale.

July is an artist, a writer, and a wonderful story teller. She has a new book that also looks to be worth reading,
Letters from Eden: A Year at Home, In the Woods.

When checking out the rest of her books at Amazon, I found many interesting titles.

I was glad I got to hear her stories first hand. She combines her love of nature, her art, and her role of mother of two children and shares her fascinating world with us.