Dad

Today is celebrated as Father's Day, and as ever, it is barely observed in our family. Every day is Father's Day and we don't need to be reminded to make him feel special. There is a lot of competition regarding who is the best father in the world, and it's generally agreed that the winner is he whose children voted for him. But I can vouch that my Dad is way up there with the best of them.
He has been an excellent provider for all the needs of his family, from role model, fount of knowledge, devoted husband, disciplinarian (a flick on the ear was all that was needed to keep us in line) and adventurer to being our steadfast rock in times of adversity. Those have been few and for this we are deeply grateful to him.
Our lives have always been filled with holidays to exciting places, encouragement to be interested in the world we live in and live peacefully and non-destructively with nature. His great love is birds and he is a twitcher of note, with any road trip punctuated by frequent screeching to a halt to observe a buzzard on a telephone pole or a far off raptor circling overhead.
He keeps a record of the weather conditions, rainfall measurement and birds seen every day and this fills diaries going back 40 years or more. He has over 10000 slides, each one documented under date and description. He is the original data gatherer. Now it needs to be put into the computer to produce pie charts and bar charts and all kinds of fingertip information so that his methodical record keeping won't be in vain.
At 88 he is still going strong, keeping his mind active and his interest in everything greater than anyone else I know. It keeps him young and hopefully he will be with us for many more years to enrich our lives and continue to set an example that never wavers.