Sunday.....

 

 

 

We are having a very light snow and will stay at 30 degrees F. for most of the day. It is winter and it seems to drag on already.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday's Gray Day.....

 Evidence of the last snow fall on the bird bath. Drizzle and rain may diminish this but it won't be so warm.

The male house finch is busy grabbing seeds. He seems to be a lighter colored bird  that what I usually see out there. 

The female house finch was busy earlier shuffling seed out to the tray out onto the deck. I guess I should not pile it up so much. 

 The mourning dove returned again this morning helping itself to the seed. The dove probably will show up everyday if I can keep the tray filled for it. I do think I had another dove visit yesterday which was smaller than this one.

Our las storm filled in all the past tracks but we now have many new paths throughout the back yard.  The squirrel has a distinct path and the rabbit does too. Out front I see the gas man walked through the deep snow to read the meter.  The electric and water meters are read by vehicles driving by with their magic wands.

 My two cockatiels look forward to me opening the curtains to the sliding glass doors each morning.  They love looking out and seeing it all. They have certain calls and one of them is a warning call to tell birds out there to get out of their territory. My wife use to take care of them daily while I was still working and she is still their favorite person.  When she does go downstairs and talks to them they start singing and make special noises that they never make to me. They don't ever sing to me but I don['t think they hate me. They just seem to be bonded to her as she took care of them since they were young birds. 

We are not getting the predicted storm.  We are having mist and warm temperatures. It can change and we will have to wait and see. Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Fun Things.....

 I got my chores done this morning so it was time to take a break and blog. I even made a cup of coffee to make it all work. 

Yesterday the mourning decided to hang around and eat.  It did a lot of resting too. It seemed to like the deck area that was out of the wind.

It was like a photo shoot as it just kept posing for me. I have more phtoos than I can share. The cardinal I saw this morning did not hang around long enough for me to turn on my camera.. 

It was time to shift and change photos of the grand kids yesterday. They came in the mail and I was glad to get them all set up. The ones that I had were smaller frammes so I had to pull out some younger photos in bigger frames and insert these. They are growing up so fast. 

I did get some shots of the Wolf Moon last night. It wasn't so cold and I could get a whole picture of it. It was low in the sky off our back deck so I could just walk out and snap the shot. 

The shot I took the night before was only a partial shot as I was too cold to hold the camera steady.  I have been wearing a heart monitor for 25 days now and I am taking it off today. I have a good heart from the echo card. test but they wanted to be sure.  I am actually quitting early with the wearing of it as I am tired of it stuck to my chest.  I have decided to take it off before lunch and will bag it all up for mailing back to the company.  The thing was connected to the internet and they would collect data from it periodically night and day.  I think I will be less uptight about things with that thing gone. 

Thank you for checking in today. 

Thursday's Things....

 You have to crook your neck to get to the certain seed in the suet. The guy continues to visit at least once a day.

The sparrows are my major visitors at the feeders. They do come and go all day finding good things to eat. 

The young man who cleared my walks and driveway for the second time covered my cords and deer. I have been plugging him it so sparkle among the snow but I will have to dig in the snow to find the plug in of the cord. The person clearing the snow looked thin and frail and I at first that it was a girl doing the job. The person was working hard but didn't seem so strong. They did a great job but I was surprised to see the thin face had facial hair on his chin. I am betting he was a high school boy that came to do the drive after school was out. 

We were down to minus two degrees last night. It was our coldest for this season. We have warmed up to 12 degrees F. now. I was able to facetime yesterday with my brother in California as he set with sun shining in his face.  He is a covid survivor. He is 78 years old and did not seek treatment. The person in which he rents a room to in his house is still laying in the hospital in a coma.  I was glad to talk with my brother and see his dogs running around all over his patio. All of his animals come in before sundown as coyotes are thick in California and do take small pets at night. Cats and dogs are not safe outside. 

We are headed to get groceries this noon hour and we might just get a quarter pounder with cheese to eat afterward.  Thank you for checking in today.

Cold and Very White.......

 

 

 It think the total was close to 13 inches. My crew came two days in a row to clear my drive and sidewalks. It snowed in full what the night crew had done. Yesterday it was a crew of one who worked hard to get it all cleared. 

I was outside through the down stairs door and took some photos. It was almost boring as everything is just white with lots of snow.  I did get reminded that my summer was shut down early when I became ill and the tools didn't get used or put away after August. I may just bring them into the shop rather that try to open up the outdoor shed doors with all the snow in front of them.

I had to trudge through deep snow to go in the backyard. I decided it was not worth it so I too a couple of shots and returned inside where it was warm.  We are having a cold day of 19 degrees F. for most of the day. Thanks for checking in today.

After the Whitening.....

 

 

 

 It has stopped snowing now. I know that it ti Iowa and we do get snowstorms. It just gets to be harder to adjust towthem as the amounts keep increasing. I understand snow will come again in a couple of days. My people who I pay to clear my driveway and sidewalk showed up last night. I am not sure what they are thinking as it is all filled in again by this morning.  I suppose I will get a double billing for it if they return again today. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday's Mentions.....

 A photo that I bought from a fellow blogger quite a few years back. I don't remember her name and she has stopped blogging.  The woman had lived on the west coast.  She and her husband moved to the east coast and she fell in love with all the things she could photograph. Eventually she sold her framed photos at art shows and got too busy to blog. 

I share our art gallery every once in a while. It is on our lower level where there is plenty of wall space to display the paintings. We actually have two walls with ceiling mounted spotlights enhance the works.

 A painting that I did a long time ago of the tee pee that stood on the edge of Lake Superior.  The scene is out the window of a casino owned by the Indian tribe of the area.  The Birch Bark Cafe faced the water and we would buy breakfast there in the years we visited the North Shore in Minnesota. I remember that they had the best French Toast.

My wife's painting of a cardinal hands among the different art works on the wall.  My wife paints great landscapes but she is also great at painting animals.

The melting away of snow from the tree will be filled in today. We are suppose to get up to a foot of snow this afternoon through tomorrow. 

We actually lost snow in the sunshine the last few days even though it was never above freezing. We are getting lots of wind now.  We will wait and see what happens to us.  We have all the groceries we need for a few days so we will just hunker down. Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday's Shots.....

 He visits the suet again. He is a more frequent visitor than the female. I did see him flit over to the see feeder as I have some thistle seed mixed in with the other kinds of feed.

On the net there are different identities of the sparrow.  I don't remember them but this brown one is one of my favorites. He head colors seem to be a lighter brown like some of the accent stripes in the feathers. 

I haven't seen the male  cardinal for awhile but I will repost the photo I caught yesterday of a female cardinal outside my window.  I had posted it on my Photo a Day blog.

I have not seen her much this winter season. She didn't stick around for very long as she looked for stray seeds on the deck. I like seeing the sports of red on her wings and the various colors on the wing. 

We did not get much snow last night but more is being promised in a couple of days or sooner.

No political comments today as the list of people who have been abused by the new president and his behind the scene gang has increased.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday at Starbucks.....

Teddy is the middle child in the family.  He doesn't get much press because he has such a cute little sister. Teddy is a bundle of energy with such a great personality.  He loves life and smiles all of the time. Ask him to sing a song and he will belt it out without a hesitation. His dad sent this photo of their family snowman project. He will be five in April.
 

 I need to figure out how to get to the bird feeder without falling on the ice.  I suppose I will have to take the snow route.  Things melted a couple of days for only a few hours but we will not melt again for quite a while. We may have snow on the deck again as we have two overlapping fronts coming through today and tomorrow. 

Friday evening's sky was looking like this.There may be a sun hiding in there behind some clouds. 

We went early to our grocery store and pharmacy to beat any bad weather that is suppose to be coming. We were too early for me to pick up my meds so we shopped for a few things first. We took it to the car and then I returned to sit and wait for the pharmacy to open.  I got a Starbucks coffee to drink while I waited. It was very good.  

It is expensive to be a diabetic and I see that our newly, illegally elected president has put a pause on the order to cause the companies to stop price gouging on insulin. Ten percent of the country is diabetic and that means everyone will pay higher prices for 100 days or more. I hope he revisits that thoughtless decision. I paid  today $500 dollars for a med that helps me for a month along with the insulin that I take.   I can hardly wait to see what the insulin will cost. Thank you Mr. Biden for being there for everyone but the American people. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Finds.......

 There had been a squabble between the house finch and a bunch of sparrows. Feathers flew for a short time but male stands guard while the female house finch picks at the seeds. 

 

The male downy is back more often than the female. He gave me a profile pose that is almost focused. They are jittery and always pecking away at the suet causing their photos to be blurry.

 

My memory was foggy on what this bird was and then I looked it up.  I remembered is was the female house finch when I researched it  but it does have the coloring of some sparrows. The stripes on the chest gives it away as a finch.

The male cardinal keeps stopping by at fleeting moments and then takes it seed to the trees in order to eat it.  I have not seen a female cardinal for a long time. 

It is a big commitment of time to get a tank properly cleaned. I don't have the energy for now so I just exchanged some water today and cleaned up the filter. Tropical scenes of fish in the water makes the winter to be more pleasant. 

It is too cold for me to be outside for photography. I continually am working on the idea of feeling better but my stamina is still not so great. We splurged last night and bought quarter pounder burgers for supper.  It would be good for me if I just took away the bread but I just ate it all. We are still exploring foods that I can eat and that is a limited list.  Protein is great to bring my numbers down so we do eat that a lot.  Sugar free jello is my snack for sugar as carrots have too much sugar in them for me to snack on them. The carrots were increasing my numbers.  Enough on that subject for today. 

Three days in and I am not impressed with our new. I can't believe how we were overtaken by the Wizard of Oz, you must obey.  The curtains will fall away and the reality of it all will be exposed when the troops all go home.. 

On a happy note, we have a new giraffe calf at our Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines.