We’ve had 29 straight days of weather warmer than the norm. Thursday it was FIFTY degrees, and Friday it was in the forties.
Tonight it’s snowing. We expect to get three to six inches before it stops early Saturday morning.
There’s so much light from our city reflected off the snow that I can turn off the lights and find my way around the house without a problem. Each branch is covered with fluffy snow, and looks absolutely gorgeous, and they are predicting it won’t last more than a day.
We might as well enjoy it while we can. Anybody for a snowball fight??

Cop Car, I made the time to browse through the “Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America” just now, and I’m really confused.
We have large flocks of what we’ve always called black birds or starlings that visit us Spring and Fall, as they migrate. Occasionally they will like the food at the feeder so much that they stay for protracted periods of time.
I THINK that we have had European Starlings. I’m basing that on the fact that they have the oil-greenish tint to their feathers. The starlings have a yellow bill and are larger. The first summer red-wing blackbird is similar, but more drab. I’ll have to watch carefully when they return this year.
We have red-winged blackbirds, and from the pictures in the book, we must also have the Rusty blackbirds. They look similar to crows, but are half the size, very similar to the red-winged blackbird in size and behavior.
So, we probably don’t have any grackles. Have I set the record straight? I can’t remember which bird you objected to. *G*

I know, it’s been days since I posted.
Dear Husband has shared his wretched cold with Elegante Mother and me, and I think Son#2 may be coming down with it, too. A phrase from my childhood comes to mind……”I’m feeling meaner than a beaver”….about this cold. I’m sick of being sick, and desperately ready to feel better. I guess if I’m well enough to complain, I must be on my way to getting better. We can hope.
Arrangements for our son are still at the foremost of our minds. We’re gathering up lists of people to thank, and sharing pictures and mementos. Eventually, an executor will be assigned, and someone will have to close the condo and put it up for sale. I spent this morning surfing for guidance on how to write an appropriate thank you note following a funeral. I found bits and pieces of advice, but I’m open to suggestion. If you have a source that satisfies you on this subject, I hope you’ll share it with me.
My sis, over at Just My Opinion, has decided to learn from her daughters how to live a healthy life. I think she’s right. Be physically active, eat reasonably, and love life. Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?
The weather is STILL crazy. It was fifty degrees yesterday, and tonight we are supposed to have rain. What a roller coaster we’ve been on. My perennials can’t make up their mind what’s going on, and I think I may loose all the potted plants that I’ve been trying to winter over in the garage. Time will tell.
Soup for dinner, I think….. Maybe a pot of minestrone. We’re still in the comfort food stage of this cold. In some ways we’ve been good, and in others, bad. Last night we had broiled salmon and asparagus, with buttered egg noodles and garlic bread. *G* It could be worse. I was surprised to find that I was hungry for dinner, and happy that I wasn’t so hungry that I overdid.
When I haven’t been sleeping, I’ve been working at changing the office files over from 2005 to 2006. I should have been doing it the first week of January, but my mind was with Dear Husband in Florida. I was lucky that I managed to keep the office running those days. So, each day, I do a bit more, and by the time the CPA’s assistant comes next week, I should be ready for her.
I have an idea for a new business: Delivery of comfort food for those who are too ill to cook, but not so ill that they can’t eat. Pizza just doesn’t make it when you have a cold, but soups, or comfort foods should be a hit. Comfort Catering. What do you think??
Gotta go. More filing to do. I hope you’re all well!

A hawk has decided that our bird feeder is the perfect place to find his afternoon snacks.
It’s ticking me off. I haven’t made a count, but I know that we have fewer birds at the feeder this year than usual. We have an overabundance of cheery little sparrows, but fewer chickadees, juncos, cardinals, blue jays, and mourning doves.
It’s very possible that there are more feeding stations now that we have more neighbors. And it’s also possible that because of the drought, the birds have shifted to areas where more food is naturally available. But the darned hawk isn’t helping matters.
There wasn’t a bird in sight the other day, so I watched the trees for a moment, and found Mr. Hawk quietly blending in with the branches. I opened the window and shouted at him. I tried to shoo him off, and he ignored me.
Nothing irritates me more than ignorance. (Sorry…..that’s one of Elegante Mother’s puns that seemed to fit here. *G*)
And, one other thing to consider, it’s possible that we are feeding more of the ground based wildlife. It’s been warm enough for the raccoons to be out and about, and those little buggers know how to strip the feeders of seed. The birds kick a lot of seed to the ground while they feed, and the squirrels and deer are sure to be helping.
We need to eavesdrop on the gathering at night to see just who is enjoying the feed.

January is the month of organization. Out with the old, in with the new.
We’re a bit late removing our Christmas decorations. I started taking them down today. I’m going to need a step ladder to remove the wreaths around the carriage lights. It was easy to get them on, but it may be difficult to remove them. I plan to spend a few days in the basement repackaging the decorations and shelving them. I think this is the year that a number of things will finally be pitched out.
Yesterday, I prepared the binders for 2006 for our company. Tomorrow I’ll have to type the file folder labels, and Monday I’ll box up 2005 and start the filing for 2006.
I’ve also started sorting our personal papers. I won’t have everything I need to do taxes until February, but there’s no reason not to get a jump on gathering what is here in the house.
I suppose, in a way, that the loss of my stepson is affecting my need to be organized. When it’s my time, I hope to make things easy on whoever has to speed my journey.
Last night I started hand sewing the binding on the batik quilt. Closure. I think this is as much about closure as it is about organization.

We returned from Florida to discover that the seat controls on the driver’s side were not working. That meant that I had to drive home from the airport. It also meant that I had to drive to the wake and home in the rain that night. And, it meant that I had to drive in the funeral cort

Dear Husband is down with a cold. I’m not surprised. He’s shaken hands and been hugged and kissed by hundreds of people in the past couple of weeks, so he was bound to catch something. Our little granddaughter has a cold, so he might have even caught it from her.
They’ve recently announced that cough syrups are not efficacious, but antihistamines are. It’s a measure of how he feels that he was willing to take aspirin and an antihistamine last night as he went to bed. This man does not do drugs!
He was in bed for easily twelve hours last night, and is resting now, so you can tell he needs to recharge. When he’s ill, he just wants you to leave him alone. He doesn’t want his pillow fluffed, or to be drowned in cups of tea. Just Leave Me ALONE!!! is his motto.
Other than tempting him to eat occasionally, I think we’ll give him the quiet he needs. Soups and chili are on the menu for the next few days….just simple stuff. Even I could use some quiet time.
So, no visitors at our house for a bit. We’ll resurface when DH feels better.

I’m SO confused! What’s with the weather? In the past three weeks we have gone from dangerously cold, icy, snowy weather that is unusual for December in this area, to weeks of monotonous, leaden gray, to bright sunshine and fifty degrees. January usually has a warm spot toward the end of the month, but this is early, and is projected to be around for a while.
Mother Nature must be taking a vacation, because it seems that no one is minding the store.
A member of my herb group who lives in this area wrote to say that her thoughts had turned to planting because the weather was so warm. Of course, anything planted outside prior to the end of April is likely to be killed off in the final freeze. Generally, May 15th is our “safe” planting day for half hardy plants and annuals.

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I want you to know how much I’ve appreciated all your kind comments on the previous entries of this blog. One of the things I’ve discovered in the past few days is that the empathy your friends feel for you, helps you through tough times. Even when there is nothing concrete a friend can do, just knowing that friends are there seems to make it easier to accomplish what needs to be done.
So……Thank you. Thanks for being there for me.