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Andrea Dietrich
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Andrea Dietrich grew up in Iowa and now resides in Utah with a spouse and two cats. She has two grown children and six grandchildren. Having graduated BYU with a Spanish major/ESL minor, she has spent most of her adult life teaching. It wasn't until 2000 that she began writing in earnest and discovering her "niche" as a writer of lyrical poetry. The internet opened up a new world for her, and she has spent two decades now participating in poetry clubs, acting as a judge of poetry contests for various magazines, for the website Shadow Poetry, and for Poetry Soup. 

Ms. Dietrich has won numerous awards, as well as the title Poet of the Year 2008, from the Yahoo group, Poetry For Thought. In addition, she has won prizes from the magazines Lucidity, Bell's Letters, Art with Words, Poets at Work and SP Quill, the magazine for which she wrote grammar and poetry articles as well as movie reviews and for which she acted as poetry editor for the head editor Marie Summers for six years. Many of her poems appeared in Shadows Ink, a yearly published series of chapbooks of award winning poetry as well as in numerous other anthologies. Her short stories appeared in many issues of SP Quill and much of her poetry was published in eight chapbooks (no longer sold online). 

Since coming to Poetry Soup, Ms. Dietrich has been both contest sponsor and winner of numerous contests. In 2010, her poem "Cinder Girl" was first place winner of Soup's International contest (these contests are no longer held).  A song was created from her lyrics "Honeymoon Serenade" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDWxc4cpHDc) and two movies have been made featuring the poetry of Andrea Dietrich: "A Tale of Fire and Ice" (a 4 min. Z-Film Fest Project, 2014) and the full length movie "Six Days of Sistine" in which 20 poems of Ms. Dietrichs serve as the thoughts of two characters played by Jamie Campbell Bower and Elarica Johnson (directed by Richard J. Perry, 2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7710360/

Outdoor Neighbors!/ My Newest Ones!

Blog Posted by Andrea Dietrich: 7/26/2012 9:47:00 PM
About a month or two ago I noticed them. Two cute little birds peering down at me from the nest they had constructed above our garage door. Later that week, they would fly suddenly from the nest as I exited my car in my driveway. A few times they came swooping down toward me so close I thought they might torpedo me! Then they would fly up to my husband's old work trailer and just perch there on opposite sides from each other, looking all about and then taking off again into the air. At first I had thought they were two babies learning to fly (because of the close call I had with their swooping toward me) but very soon I noticed another little pair of eyes inside that nest. It belonged to a third birdie, so obviously the swoopers must have been the parents of the baby.

My husband, fortunately, has postponed putting the light bulbs needed inside our outdoor garage lights so that I can keep my little bird friends happy. Meanwhile, they have built a second nest right by the first one! It's from this second nest that I can see the new baby. Is it possible the two from the first nest were babies just two months ago? I am totally ignorant about the lives of birds, but I guess anything is possible.

I noticed these were the same type of birds I had seen also several years ago, when I was very curious to know the bird's name. Finally I was able to see them close up and I was able to figure out their name from giving a description at Google: dark wings that seem to be luminescent blue, a beige/gold underbelly and forked tail. A bit of orange color I think at their head. They are BARN SWALLOWS.Who has seen this type of bird? If so, can you tell me anything about them? I just love seeing them when I drive up to my house or go outside. But I am seeing less and less of them recently. I wonder when they will leave for good. . . Do they migrate south?

Anyway, those are MY particular outdoor neighbors. What animal or bird is YOUR outdoor neighbor? And do you have any special little story about them?






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Date: 7/29/2012 12:02:00 PM
You have a good heart Andrea; its good to hear of your featherd friends existence there yours Joe..)
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Date: 7/28/2012 3:22:00 PM
Thanks for the rest of you who came here later. I loved all your comments.
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Date: 7/27/2012 1:43:00 PM
Living where we do, there is rangeland and rolling hills behind our house, and this year we have seen more wildlife than ever! A family of 5 deer roam the neighborhood, will occasionally hop the fence and nibble on someone's garden. We have a lot of coyotes back in the woods, and yesterday saw a fox running along our fence line. Our dog alerts us often when he sees something going on, ...unfortunately he had his 2nd encounter with a rattlesnake, and was bitten on the nose two weeks ago (which also happend 2 years ago)...each time meant a emergency rush to the vet hospital...anti-venom and bless our sweet dog, he is worth a fortune in vet bills!
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Date: 7/27/2012 11:06:00 AM
i had a couple of stray cats, a mother-child team that simply stayed near the porch without permission,lol.. so, i befriended them i till disappeared.. miss them!..:(..great blog, andie..huggs!
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Date: 7/27/2012 7:55:00 AM
Hmmmm, I've got here some nasty toads and spiders and a cockroach on poor David's toe! But I am happy to hear about Cyndi's lovely finch, PD's mysterious squirrels and Linda's chipmunks. I wish I had a chipmunk to spy on! Once I saw some big quail running on my back yard and even deer have visited my lawn!
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Date: 7/27/2012 5:46:00 AM
we now have a family of chipmonks who have taken residence on our lawn Andrea.. they are so fast..u hardly see them run.. they r living among my flowers..oh..digging holes in between.. and we have a wild rabbit who loves sitting under my Japanese mini tree.. he is so cute..thius is at home.. at the beach.. we have those seagulls all the time swooping in.. so no food outside.. great blog to uplift folks ..luv..
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Date: 7/27/2012 3:06:00 AM
Andrea they are House Martins here, they are of the Swallow family and Ruben is right they fly south and eat flies, unlike Swallows who mate and eat while in flight. Cyndi I just pick them old spiders up and put them outside..far outside, as all spiders have a homing instinct, so they will come back...but I hate cockeroaches, have just told Gwen, when I was young I put my school shoe on and something was in my shoe, yep pulled my foot out and the BIGGEST roach I have ever seen was clinging to my toe, unfortunately my instinct was to hit it very hard with my shoe, I broke two toes....mind you that meant no school...
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Date: 7/26/2012 11:13:00 PM
Ruben, you should see the way i react when it comes to frogs or snakes... and bunnies... pd
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Date: 7/26/2012 11:12:00 PM
eat frogs..... yikerssssssssssssss.....
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Date: 7/26/2012 11:10:00 PM
One more thing Andrea.. I miss you... I hate not having time for the soup any more... I don't know what life is doing to me!!!!!!!!!!! All I know,, next month should get better... I'm not even running my restaurant no more...I took a vacation from my job as well.. Which was stupid of me.. Now my customers went else where.. and I'm to lazy to get up and face my responsibilities.. I really wish there was 7 of me. One for every day of the week.... LOL..i bet Nathan would love that... anyways~~ Can't wait for the coming month... xox~ pd
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Date: 7/26/2012 11:05:00 PM
Andrea, nice story.. I have squirrels that are spying on me..((in my back yard)) I think last year I came up with my own *Free Falling crazy idea* :-) A Squirrels Uncertainty Principle <---LOL I actually have my own concepts of these little critters quantum leaping through portals we can't see... ((being silly)) Well I have not done no fundamental experiments. I only play with the thought. Many times when I'm outside my house,, I have witness these little critters playing "NOW YOU SEE ME! NOW YOU DON'T" .. I like to analyze my own thoughts.. Well i better not speak no more... they are watching me.. I'm never gonna get the accuracy, nor example, that will lead to this uncertainty squirrel principle.. Besides I'm no good at mathematics. I'm just a Heisenberg fan.... xox~ xox~ pd
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Date: 7/26/2012 10:31:00 PM
Andrea Andrea Andrea!!! LEE RAMAGE! I just read a poem by her POSTED TODAY! She's done come home, the girl's done come home!!!! Lee and Constance the same week. I'm grinning ear to ear! WAHOO! Party time! xoxo
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Date: 7/26/2012 10:22:00 PM
Andrea: I'm a bird lover and my hubby bought me a bird watching book, one particular to our area. My girl already "reads" it with me. :-) We have a few who visit us on the eighth floor! Lovely finches with ruby bellies and they have the most incredible songs... I understand your attachment very very well. Hugs, cyndi
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Date: 7/26/2012 10:19:00 PM
RUBEN, you're killin' me here! Truth? I've EATEN frogs. Me <--frenchie. Tried to catch tadpoles with my girl. Okay. But, I can't poke fun at you. I'm TERRIFIED of spiders. One bit me on my face as a toddler. I have a Looooong memory. I go ape when those hairy things are around. I think it is called arachnophobia. On the other hand, LOVE birds. Used to talk to the cardinals when we had our house. Hubby would just roll his eyes. I'd say, "that bird talks sweeter than you do." Hmmm... wonder how you get rid of frogs? Vinegar??? Hmmm??? Did you google it yet? Cyndi
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