Today permit me to sweep up

a few loose ends and stir them into a column. ...

If you've been outside for

even a minute lately, you've had to notice that the birds think spring

is coming, no matter what the weather forecast. Cardinals especially are

piping up, and red-winged blackbirds are "chunkaree-ing" in

their old neighborhoods.

'Tis the season for Carolina

wrens to begin the frenetic nest-building that heralds the laying of their

first clutch of eggs. It's all part of the cycle; they can fill a box

or an old shoe or a misplaced hat with a litter of straw in hours, then

suddenly go elsewhere and build their "real" nest, a sphere

lined in moss and cat fur.

Dave had the heart-breaking

task to pull such a structure, nearly finished, out from behind the engine

of the boat, while both birds screamed their outrage from a nearby branch.

It was a question of the lesser evil: to destroy the nest while it was

empty or to haul it away next week, possibly containing eggs, when he

takes the trawler down to Lake Walter F. George for his spring cruise.

A word of caution: Don't leave

your garage door up for a minute longer than it takes you to come and

go, unless you're willing to leave it open for several weeks. Mr. and

Ms. Wren will find a spot behind a paint can and lay their eggs before

you know it, and if you close the door on them unawares, you can doom

the entire family.

And it's not too early. We

usually see the first fledging by the end of March, which means the process

began about six weeks earlier. Keep your cat in the house too, as you

should always. A U.S. Fish & Wildlife release says that the number

of birds killed by cat predation is in the hundreds of millions annually.

The rationale that cats killing

birds or destroying nestlings is "part of nature's plan" is

absolutely erroneous. Cats were domesticated by the ancient Egyptians

and introduced to North America in the 1800s to control rats. They are

not natural predators and have never been in the natural food chain in

the Western hemisphere.

It's gratifying to learn that

something I've published has struck a responsive chord in my readers.

Many of you have told me you appreciated the letter Greg Bligh wrote to

his grandmother, telling her how much her old dining room table means

to him. He wrote to thank us, and said that reading it "reminded

me that I needed to put in for vacation in June. For three decades, my

great-grandmother's (my grandmother's mother) entire family tree meets

at the country home of one of my mother's cousins near Lancaster, Pa.

during the last weekend in June. It's a circus of 80-plus relatives and

amazingly, everyone gets along.

"My life has become so

hectic that this is the only time I ever get to see my grandmother; yet

I cannot wait to see her face, a face that is permanently etched in my

mind, hear her lyrical style of talking, her girlish laugh, and just spend

quality time with a woman who never had money but never lacked class,

faith, or friends.

"Life in Peachtree City

and Atlanta can sometimes make a person's edges jagged. Re-reading my

letter smoothed my edges a little, and made me rethink the things I value."

Sandy Thomas also wrote and

said Greg's letter brought tears to her eyes because her son Eric feels

exactly the same way about his grandparents' old kitchen table and chairs.

"Once I mentioned to him

that he could pass the table and chairs on to one of his sisters when

he and JoVonne wanted to replace it with something better. He got real

emotional and said that he had so many memories of grandma and grandpa,

and eating and playing games at that table, that he wanted to always keep

it. What better reward can a parent have than that!"

Not every column provokes such

positive reactions. Betsy Dodds moved