On Staying Home, or Bird-Watching in the Pandemic
If you had told me prior to 2020 that I would be required to stay at home for fifty straight days, I would have thought that would be impossibly difficult. But to my surprise, when I was really shipwrecked, I found everything I needed—birds to watch, blossoms unfurling, cherries ripening, snails crawling, books to read-aloud, conversations with my fellow castaways, bread to bake. We never made it around to crowning a king or queen, but I’m sure we could have.
A Robin in Lockdown
No one could describe the European robin better than the woman who gave the world the personable robin within the pages of The Secret Garden. I recently discovered this little booklet Burnett wrote in answer to a letter asking if the robin in her novel was real. The short answer was yes! And during the uncertain days of April 2020, I had a robin, too.