Good morning everyone and Happy Friday! Another week has come and gone, and we are fast arriving at the end of this year. Only about 6 weeks to go. Amazing really. I missed posting my morning coffee post yesterday, really I should be calling it my midday coffee post as it seems to get later all the time. Things happen. But I am going to try and get things back to morning again. I prefer it that way.

It is a chilly, or rather, a cold morning here today. It is the first morning when it really did feel cold, even though it is certainly not as cold as it gets in the winter. Getting that first breath of cold air into the lungs is a good way to suddenly wake up, if a person is having trouble that way. Trouble waking up, I mean. Which was not my problem. It was only 5F (-15C) first thing this morning. It has since warmed up to 9F (-13C). Heat wave.

It was nice and clear, the moon was shining brightly and now it is mostly cloudy, though the sun is trying to shine somewhat through those clouds. We got another inch of snow yesterday and could get another inch tonight. Nothing serious by any means, just what I call ‘nuisance snow’. It has to be continually swept away so it does not build up and become a slippery problem.

I am not sure what happened to all my evening grosbeaks that were here for a couple of days. Perhaps they were just passing through heading somewhere else. There were none here yesterday and none so far today. Seems like it will be an odd winter for birds this year. I did have a small flock of redpolls here for 3 days as well, but they have disappeared also. That is definitely an odd thing. Usually once redpolls find the feeder, they stay. Oh well.

It will be interesting to see how things develop as we get more into winter. I have old windows in this apartment, and they tend to frost over when it gets cold, making it hard to see. It is getting that way already. But so far, I can still see what is going on outside. Which is nice. It would be terrible to feed the birds and not be able to see them. Muffin agrees with that. Although she prefers watching the chipmunks and squirrels, birds are the next best thing. And chipmunks are long gone now.

Squirrels are just not regular visitors anymore, something else that is odd for this winter. Each winter has its differences. Hopefully next week I can try for a walk to the river. I may not make it the first time out though. It has been a long time since walking all the way. I am out of shape a bit. Getting back in shape will not be easy, and perhaps impossible. But I will try. Even going part way will be nice. It is always so quiet and beautiful back there along that trail. Well, thank you all for stopping by, have a fantastic Friday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2022 Steve McLeod.