Here’s a great place to sound off with your opinions of the past month’s writerjackweb.com  columns.  You can vent your thoughts on the subjects I’ve featured.  More than 25,000 readers download the web site and a good number let me know how they feel.  That’s important for several reasons; (1) I need to know that people are reading the columns and (2) it permits the kind of exchange that’s healthy.  Whether you agree or disagree, civil discourse is still most important in this society.

And I’m always open to suggestions for future subjects and columns.  Don’t forget to let me know if you have a favorite bandleader from the “big band era” so that I can provide a feature. Write me at jbehrens@roadrunner.com.

Patty’s Porch

Pat from Maine: Seeing Patty’s Porch picture was like being drawn back in time.  It took me to a place where I could just smell the yard and the air.  I felt ‘at home’ and all the memories of those happy days surrounded me.  Thank you! As you know, we also feed the birds and have a heated bird bath like you.  We also hung out our Indian corn from our autumn decorations on the door and the blue jays loved it.  When we had it on the house, we could hear them pecking away at it every day.  If you wanted to keep the decoration up during the fall days, we had to wrap it in plastic wrap.  We’ll be looking forward to the spring when the gold finches will come back to the feeders.  Right now, we have lots of chickadees and blue jays.  I’ll be watching for more hints on attracting more birds.  I have a new hummingbird feeder and I am looking forward to putting that up in the spring, too.

Marge from Maryland: I think you have come up with a really nice idea.  This will keep Patty’s work ongoing where lots of people can share it.  I have developed a love of Bluebirds and we have been fortunate to have two years of nesting Bluebirds.  Recently our bird house attracted chickadees, purple house finches and wrens.  Every year we get some little bird and it is such fun watching them build their nests.  We have a tiny nest in our front tree that is anchored close to the top of our young maple tree.  We have had 50 mile an hour winds and snow and lots of rain and that little nest has hung on! I think it might belong to a humming bird.  We also had a nest of some tiny bird in our flower boxes on the front porch.  This area is full of birds and we all enjoy them.  My next door neighbor, I call her Mother Nature, has many bird feeders and she is out there in the snow and rain to be sure that the birds are well fed.  I remember Patty’s garden.  Always beautiful and colorful. She had a real knack with flowers.

Joyce from South Carolina: I love the description of Patty’s Porch.  It is truly great to be able to just sit and watch the animals and weather from a nice warm home.  That was a wonderful gift you gave her.

Dave from West Virginia: IIt’s going to be interesting to see what sort of feedback you get.  I like the idea.  It’s a fitting memorial to her interests.  Based on the little I’ve done, I think birding is somewhat like doing genealogy: the more you do the more you get sucked into a fascinating pastime and the more you want to do.  I feed the birds on the deck of our house with bread crumbs.  I hoped to attract Cardinals and song birds but a nearby nest of aggressive Blue Jays kept taking all the crumbs.  I did learn that Robins are ground feeders.  They’re apparently more interested in the protein they get from bugs than they are the carbs they get from crumbs.  We also do some birding at the farm.  We’ve seen a lot of Orioles, Yellow finches and Purple Martins not to mention an occasional Red Tailed Hawk, crows and sparrows.

Peggy from Florida: I love Patty’s porch.  What a wonderful tribute to a truly remarkable woman.  I think she had that special aura that very few people have which only God could create.  You see it in her love for nature, her garden and her birds.  Every time I hear our birds singing in our back yard I will think of her.

Kathy from New York: Just visited Patty’s Porch.  What a lovely tribute to a lovely woman.  I am not good with plants or birds but maybe I will be one day.  I will keep reading. . . if you keep writing.

Al and Anne from Pennsylvania: A wonderful idea in starting Patty’s Porch.  The article is interesting and well written.  I am very much like Patty in that I love working in the yard too.  If I had my way, I would have no grass lawn only grass paths winding in and around my flower beds. I loved the first column.

Charley from Connecticut: I found you by accident and I was impressed with your comments on growing the Hairy Vetch.  I think Central New York and upper Connecticut have the same weather, although you probably get more snow than we do.  In any event, I’ve been trying to grow the plant and it seems to be hit or miss.  I think my ground cover is okay although it’s rather rocky. Any suggestions will be welcomed.

Maria from Tennessee: I’m so taken by what you’ve done for your late wife that I cried. You’re right, dedicating a column to her is far more important than a memorial and I will be reading you as often as I can. I’m sure your wife would be pleased with your tribute to her and I hope others show you how much they enjoy your help.  You’re the kind of a husband every married woman would love to have! Keep up learning about plants and birds and offering us your wife’s experiences and knowledge.  Thank you!

Lloyd from West Virginia: It’s a good column and I look forward to others.  I’m interested in birds and while I thought your section of the country would have Blue Jays, Cardinals and certainly Woodpeckers I thought you would mention Robins and a few others.  I guess it depends upon exactly where you live in the state and how you attract each specie.  Keep up the good work!

Ed from New Jersey: I was particularly struck by your section “Patty’s Porch.” Not only is that a wonderful tribute, but I really enjoy the name.  It’s creative and provides all kinds of subjects.  As a child, my grandparents would spend their summers in a small house on a piece of property. . . on  a hillside in Ridgefield, CT.  Most of the property was woodland and by today’s standards the house was quite small, but at the time it seemed to be grand.  The original shack was converted into the small eat-in kitchen, but what I remember most was the bird feeder that stood atop a single pole  immediately outside the kitchen table.

Mornings would be spent enjoying what often seemed to be endless spreads of food, including wonderfully salted lox, toasted bagels, cream of cheese, smoked whitefish, and fresh tomatoes, onions, etc.  I can vividly remember indulging in these culinary feats often speaking in whispers as some folks were still sleeping  and delighting in watching the birds that would arrive to feed only feet from where we were sitting. Most of the time we would watch the Blue Jays and Robins, but the real excitement was when a Cardinal would join us and even better would be the occasional visit by a Redwing Blackwing, Baltimore Oriole, or the brilliance of a Scarlet Tanenger.  Occasionally, we would also spot an old Woodchuck that had taken up residence under the toolshed which stood down a grassy slope from the kitchen window.  Those were simpler times.

Sue from Florida: I have visited Patty’s Porch several times and. . . I like the photo of the porch!! Think of her often for I have a yellow finch visiting me daily at the same time every year and he is now back again!  Also have Cardinals, Blue Jays, Robins when they migrate, egrets, scrub jays. Red-shouldered Hawk, an owl even came one day, Sandhill Cranes (Only bird I have not painted yet with their bright red heads), Woodpeckers, doves, Hummingbirds, etc. I have five powderpuff trees off my porch and the birds love the bright red blossoms year round. Don’t even have to feed them.  Have painted lots of wildlife including eagles, cranes, spoonbills, etc, for I occasionally go with a friend of mine to a Florida state wildlife refuge to check on the Eagle nests and do some photography.

Tom from Idaho: What a wonderful tribute!  I found you by accident and I enjoy what you’re doing.  I think it’s most interesting that you are willing to learn from your readers!.  Most writers are far too busy telling readers something. . . you’re unique!

Time Out: A Sad State of Affairs

Dave from West Virginia: Just one of the ills that has beset this country in the last quarter of a century.  I attribute many of our ills to the personal freedoms we have and that those of us who have something to sell, i.e., fatty food, have exploited desires for those freedoms.  We have lost any sense of moral or physical discipline as the Army found out.  Yet to ask people to assume responsibility for their own lives and well beings the libbers to their defense and their right to do whatever they wish.  In my view, our lack of fiscal discipline is a long way towards bringing down the country.  It seems to me that the country is held together by chewing gum and paper clips!

Paul from New York: Take a look at the generations (start with the baby boomers if you want) that have taken or been given responsibility for themselves by parents who didn’t want to be parents or instill discipline and you have the real answer.  The Army is merely one institution in this nation that has found young people out of control but in charge of their “rights.”  Sadly, the freedom we preach daily as a constitutional right has a backlash when given without earning it to those who abuse themselves and others. We’re paying for years of irresponsibility.  It’s a sad commentary on a society whose presidents go around the world shouting about the importance of freedoms without talking about the excesses that such freedoms bring.  Human nature will always be the same.

Life...And Beyond: Putting Your Faith to the Test

Sally from Georgia: I saw Ruth Graham and I was impressed with her message and humbleness.  She is a role model for those who have experienced life’s pain and found ways to overcome celebrity status and the acceptance of the family. Her book, In Every Pew Sits a Broken Heart, is an interesting read for those who need to understand that you make mistakes and still make a difference in this world.