xt7jh98zct60_44 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jh98zct60/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jh98zct60/data/2015ms086.dao.xml Bevins, Martha 0.05 Cubic Feet 55 items archival material 2015ms086 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Martha Bevins letters to Tom McCarthy Radio broadcasting. Agriculture -- Kentucky. Birds Women air pilots. 1958 May 29 text 1958 May 29 2016 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jh98zct60/data/2015ms086/Box_ms_42/Folder_1/Item_44/1958_5_29_Bevins_Hard_country_work_p1.pdf 1958 May 29 1958 1958 May 29 section false xt7jh98zct60_44 xt7jh98zct60 , ,
Morning View Kentudky
29 May 1958
Sorry, Mr. McCarthy,
to have been so long in writing, but the frantic scramble to
overtake this late and fleeting spring has left little time for
letters. Furthermore, if this typing seems a bit wilder than
usual, it is due to the fact that my hands are tired. life
just now is a long parade of handles -— handles of power mower
and cultiVator, of rake and hoe and spade and trowel and grasswhip
and Sew. Even the steering wheel of the tractor becomes a wearisome
thing immtime. Though the rest of me manages fairly well, my hands
are daily a bit more tired.
As, long ago in New England, blooming of the Shad bush signalled
the running of the alewives, So, today, in the tree patch, blooming
of the great oaks tells me to expect our loveliest visiting birds.
Drawn to the tenuous, tasselled blooms by tiny insects which
frequent fliem, come the hungry migrants, varying from a bulky
red—breasted grosbeak, reSplendent in black and white and adorned
by his great red badge, through the glowing orioles and tanagers,
to the gem-like Warblers and brilliant little redstart.
Fortunately, when oak blooms are most alluring, the leaves are
as yet small and sparse and of indefinite coloring, thereby neither
obscuring nor clashing with the feathery Spectacle.
By watching several convenient trees, I was able, in a short period
of time, to enjoy most of my flashing visitors. A magnificent
grosbeak, his appetite momentarily eppeased, Sat quietly, gently
practicing his fluid song. above him baltimore orioles were a
swirling cloud of black and gold, the soberly cled females moving
about almost unnoticed. Scercely had the orioles passed when a
neighboring tree Was suddenly ablaze with What must hs'e been at
least 25 male scarlet tanagers, their black wings glistening as though
lacquered. '
I have always wondered about the reasoning behind the naming of
tanagers -— the scarlet one having black wings while the summer
one is altogether red. I was reminded of this curiosity again as
several summer tanegers visited the grosbeak's tree, ticking like
industriOus time bombs as they worked.
Warblers flitted from bloom to bloom and tree to tree with such
rapidity and in such multitudes that it was almost impossible to

 I
recognize their infinite Variety. Myrtle and magnolia and blackburnien
Warblers sparkled in contrast to their less glowing cousins such
as pine or Kentucky, only to be eclipsed in turn by the butterfly
beauty of fluttering redstarts.

Incredibly tiny and thoroughly charming golden-crowned kinglets held
my delighted gaze at the bird bath until they had finished drinking
and playing in the water and had fIOWn gaily aWay.
when I again looked upWard, barn swallows swept with matchless
precision among the branches, capturing such tiny insects as were in
flight about the catkins. *he barn swallow, despite his plebeian
name and residence, is a most lovely bird with his soft coloring,
his sleekness, and swiftly beautiful flight.
High atop a nearby dead tree, the eudubon woodpecker was breath-
takingly brilliant as the sun touched his red, white, and blue into
gleaming splendor.
The oak trees no longer wear their tassels, and most of the glowing
visitors have flown to more northern skys, and I can only wait until
next spring stages a repetition of this feathered show -- one of the
finest on earth.

Best wishes to you all.
You have no idea how satisfying it is to listen to a leisurely,
complete newscast such as yours. The present fad of 5 minutes of news,
wherein a few headlines are hurridly gasped out between commercials,
is thoroughly infuriating and sends me hastily dialing elsewhere.
am quite content with the Dixieland you play. Rock & Roll alWays
sounds to me as though a house were under construction in the background