My son managed to capture this portrait of the indigo bunting that's been flitting around our feeder for the past several days. After a winter of little gray chickadees and nuthatches, the window view is a feast of color . . . rose-breasted grosbeaks, goldfinches, purple finches, and now this glorious shy visitor.

My son is also a feast of color, bustling around the house in his funny loud pants and his Goodwill hats with comic punchlines and his silly ironic t-shirts, drinking coffee, playing with his camera equipment, teasing the cat, hugging the dog, fixing his bike, eating all of the snacks, charming his parents. He has been home from college for a week and in less than a week will be flying off again, this time to Paris for a film class. He is an almost-twenty-year-old in all of his plumage, and every glimpse of him gives me joy and a pang of loneliness.