Valentines: Take 3

He loved birds - sometimes there would be herons on our lawn.

A friend of mine sent me a poem and a link to the blog where it appeared. There was an article on the blog about the terms for groups of birds (collective nouns) with illustrations by Brian Wildsmith, a British painter and illustrator. I was immediately taken by the illustrations and the terms, knowing that Randy would have loved it, and I wished that he were here so I could show it to him and we could talk about it.

Wildsmith is dead and most of his titles out of print, but I did track down a copy of Animal Gallery which illustrates group terms for a variety of birds and animals. I ordered it, knowing that if Randy were still alive I would have given it to him for Valentine’s Day and he would have been surprised and happy. And it made me sad.