Ahh. A kindred spirit. Another odd one in the neighborhood who shuns being shut up during the summer. I love awakening with cardinals, chickadees and robins and being lulled to sleep by katydids. 5

This email fostered an Internet exchange, which led to wine, cheese and conversation in my garden room with Conrad and his wife, Patty. They reciprocated with a homemade pesto pasta dinner on their screened porch. After two lively conversations about fresh air, native plants, air conditioning, and biodiversity, we have lightheartedly created the "Open Window Initiative" for Broad Ripple. Conrad invited me to be guest columnist for The Gazette. "Write whatever you'd like," he said, perhaps assuming I would choose a topic related to our discussions.

The Open Window Initiative encourages you to cut your electric bills and reduce greenhouse gases by turning off the AC and opening your home to the outdoors. I understand your hesitation. Who likes nonstop barking dogs, rumbling motorcycles, sirens, fireworks, boom boxes and partygoers whose revelry spills into front yards and streets? I hear all of the above, but not too often.

In fact, I've enlarged the windows in my 1938 home of 42 years on Kingsley Drive. I want to both see and hear what's happening outside. With rare exceptions my drapes are pulled aside, the blinds up and the windows open. If you're not already an aficionado of fresh air, throw open those windows. Welcome the sights and sounds of nature into your homes.

On a typical fall day a lot happens in my front yard perennial garden where a rabbit raised her young this summer. Goldfinches pluck seeds from the flower heads of black-eyed Susans and fragrant bee balm. Robins chirp softly as they stretch to snatch an eggplant-colored pokeweed berry. At the same time I hear captor and prey in the side yard where, in its beak, a victorious cardinal carries a cicada, frantically buzzing one last time.

Through the Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society I've learned that the plants I choose for my garden foster the biodiversity I seek and now my garden is a certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat. To qualify I provide what all species of wildlife need - food, water, cover and places to raise young. I've nurtured the volunteer bur-oak and ancient beech trees in my yard and planted spicebush, beautyberry, serviceberry, chokecherry, coral berry, dogwood, bottlebrush buckeye, and American hazelnut for their fruit and nuts. This array of shrubs and trees provide nesting nooks and materials for birds. My common milkweed foliage produces milky sap and is a vital food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars.

Until mid-summer 1988, I lived without central air conditioning. Floor fans coupled with an attic fan at night provided relief. I admit that I was miserable at times but felt virtuous for sweating it out with the billions in the world who have no escape from crushing heat. But that stifling summer my parents offered to purchase central air conditioning for their newly single daughter. I accepted.

Even so, I only submit to air conditioning's lure on those ten or so truly killer days each summer. Otherwise my windows are open from spring into fall when I learn by listening. I hear a sweet plinck and spot the migrating thrushes that find a respite in my yard each May. I hear the first faint insect-like chatter of hummingbirds and see one flit through my yard.

Aren't we fortunate that we have sufficient green space for humans and wildlife to live together? A friend from Osaka, Japan, studied and lived in Pittsburgh. Kaeko recalls with amazement the wildlife that lived in her yard there and specifically mentioned rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and birds. How different our urban worldis from Kaeko's, where rarely a living thing other than a human or plant is seen.

I invite you to make the most of your yard to help create wildlife corridors throughout Broad Ripple. Reduce the size of your lawns, as the Cortellinis and I have done, and expand habitats for birds, insects and mammals. Join me in making urban connections - naturally.