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Dear bigg red,

I live in rural-urban Louisiana, just far enough from the bigger town, in a town carved out from the woods.

I have wild birds to feed, and watch, little gecko lizards with their ballooning scarlet throats standing guard on my porch rails, bug-eating bats hiding out in niches of the under-roof near my door, carpenter bees that escort me as I go from and to my apartment door, dragonflies, both huge and darning needles, flitting about.

I watched folks move in and out, always freaked by the bats, thinking that they would be bit. They mindlessly swat at the bees (bad idea). they complain when, in nesting times, the birds swoop at them, meanwhile leave me alone.

I put out seed for the birds, as they would find it themselves, not in feeders. When i lived in New Orleans, where a five inch long dragonfly was not uncommon, I would coax one onto a finger, and walk along, looking at it, studying it, while it rested there. Amazing creatures, all.