Good morning everyone on this beautiful Monday! It’s 19F (-7C) this morning and cloudy, but we didn’t get that snow which had been forecast for us, it just kind of disappeared it seems. Which is fine with me. Today is supposed to be quite nice, with a high of 32F (0C). However, that does mean a slight bit of melting, and that means when it freezes again tonight there will be lots of ice around in the morning. Ice I don’t like, not at all. Oh well.

It was kind of quiet at the feeders yesterday, only a few evening grosbeaks showed up and they did not stay very long. There were even fewer blue jays around than normal. That is not good. But the smaller birds were just as active as normal. There were lots of chickadees around all day. As usual Chester was the last to leave late yesterday afternoon. But he didn’t stay as late as the day before. It is interesting to watch them late in the afternoon, there are so many of them around filling up before the long cold night comes. And then within one minute they are all gone.

Suddenly they all leave at the same time, heading off to their various roosting places for the night. They like to pick a nice sheltered spot where there is a thick grove of trees, usually spruce or balsam fir. Then they are nicely sheltered from the wind too. Nuthatches will do the same thing, often picking the same locations as the chickadees. They like to travel around together during the winter months.

Well, I’m finally back again. I know, you didn’t even know I was gone, but I was. I always go shopping early Monday morning, before the crowds show up at the stores. I don’t enjoy shopping very much and crowds make it worse. Plus, with less people, that means there is less chance that something will happen to me while shopping. Because things do happen to me. Even without crowds. Like today. I pick up a bag of crackers…there was a rather large hole in the bottom of this bag, so when I picked it up the crackers fell out and all over the floor. Sigh.

Hard to believe really. And that is not an isolated incident. Something happens to me nearly every time I go shopping. Like apples. Why do they stack apples up so high like they do? A lady ahead of me picked out 6 apples from the stack and left. Nothing happened. If she can do it, so can I. Wrong. I picked one apple and suddenly there is an avalanche! I have my arms out trying to catch them so they don’t fall on the floor, but, I was too late, several made it past me anyway and bounced their way along the aisle.

A woman who worked there saw the whole thing and came over laughing and helped put everything back for me. She removed the ones that bounced along the floor however. And I got my apples, she picked out 6 nice ones for me. She was very nice. But why stack them that way in the first place? Sigh. I missed my coffee this morning, maybe that’s the problem. Time to make some coffee, thanks for reminding me. I hope you all have a coffee Monday, I mean, wonderful Monday, and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.