Good morning to everyone on this holiday Monday and it is an absolutely gorgeous day out there with the sun shimmering off the newly sprouting emerald leaves and just a light breeze barely enough to ripple those leaves except the odd time and the birds singing such a beautiful chorus as I stand on my deck with COFFEE in hand enjoying this fabulous scene and then a loon flies past calling away in that laughing tone of his and Sir George peaking over the edge of the roof giving his little gluck gluck calls before jumping down to the feeder to get his breakfast and I am still amazed that this huge bird will actually come to the feeder at all since herring gulls are not exactly your typical feeder type birds but Sir George who is the largest of the group started it all and now there are four of them including his mate Lady Pearl and two friends Henry and Herman and yes although they are identical in looks I can still tell them apart as they all have different characteristics and Sir George is definitely the bravest of the bunch and it is just such a beautiful day who wants to be inside but nonetheless inside I am though I have spent a good deal of time outdoors today and Muffin sat at the door sniffing that warm spring air with all the various scents that only she could possibly pick out though she enjoys it even more at night and last night I was able to leave my window open all night which is the first time for me this year though I have left it open for part of the night a couple of times and Muffin certainly does enjoy that and she spends nearly the entire night at the window and I am sure she sees a lot going on out there now that the snow has gone and the warm weather is here to basically stay for the summer.  Whew.  Hard to say all that without taking a breath.  Good thing I didn’t.  Took a bag of frozen vegetables out for supper, opened it, and promptly dropped it on the floor.  And of course it landed open side down.  There was frozen veggies all over the kitchen floor.  And in Muffin’s food dish.  She wasn’t too happy about that.  Frozen veggies are not high on her list of favorite foods.  Though she didn’t mind playing with them.  Scattering them further across the floor.  Sigh.  Not a good start to my supper.  The sun is shining.  The day has warmed up so nicely.  Dad and I were finally back on higher ground and ready to stop for lunch.  We found a nice spot with some large flat rocks which made good chairs and even one for a table.  I set all the sandwiches and COFFEE on our ‘table’.  Dad told me to sit down while he got his COFFEE.  I offered to do it.  I think that ‘no’ could be heard a mile away.  Dad sat down with his food.  I got mine.  Amazingly there were no problems this time.  Dad always manages to spill his COFFEE or do something.  AAAAAA!!!!!, said dad.  There’s no sugar in this COFFEE, he said.  You told me not to put sugar in it because last time I made it too sweet, said I.  Did you bring some sugar?, he asked.  No, I thought you would do that, I said.  BONEHEAD, said dad.  That probably traveled a mile too.  COFFEE without sugar is terrible, he said.  Mine is okay, I said.  You probably put sugar in yours, he said. Naturally, who wants COFFEE without sugar, I added.  I think that was the loudest sigh I ever heard too.  Where is my doughnuts?, asked dad.  In your backpack, I said.  What?!, I have been putting insulators in there, he said.  You could have told me they were in my backpack, he added.  I figured you would see them, said I.  Dad was pulling all the insulators out of his backpack as fast as he could.  Like that would help now.  They are completely flattened, he remarked.  They’ll still taste the same, I said, as I started to eat mine.  You could share, said dad.  But you already have three, said I.  They taste worse than the sugarless COFFEE, he said, as he tossed them aside for the birds.  How about some of your COFFEE?, asked dad.  Okay, I said, and brought it over to pour in his cup. I have an idea, said I, lets mix the two and we will both have sweet COFFEE.  Might actually work, said dad.  Pour your thermos into mine, I said.  Which he did.  Then I will pour it back into yours, I said.  Dad held his thermos.  It was going good.  Until ‘CRACK’. Dad and I both jumped.  Then dad yelled.  You moved your thermos, I said.  So I ended up pouring his share of the COFFEE on his leg.  Hmm, time to stop I see, will finish next time, really.  Enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

Good morning on this rather cloudy and cooler late afternoon and it’s just beginning to rain a little but the forecast is for quite a bit of rain finally and we sure do need it as everything is so terribly dry and that is not a good thing when surrounded by forests and there has been forest fires already and not too far away from here which is not such a good thing either so this rain will be much welcomed by everyone.  And you thought this was going to be one of my long opening sentences.  Not this time.  Spring is probably my favorite time of the year, next to summer.  Right now everything is getting so nice and green.  Leaves are popping out everywhere.  Grass is growing.  Flowers are starting to bloom.  The trees and ground are alive with birds returning from their southern wintering grounds.  Some birds are nesting.  Some have young ones.  I have been trying to get photos of some of these birds, and other critters, while they are still here.  Many of these birds head further north for the summer so this is the best time for photos.  Autumn can be good also but the colors are not quite so dramatic as in the spring.  In order to get better pics I cheat a bit.  By using food to lure them in closer.  Works good.

As you can see by the photo of the Harris’ sparrow above.  There are a lot of those sparrows around right now.  Plus many other varieties of sparrows.  The photo at the top of today’s blog is one of my chipmunk pals.  I call him GPS.  He always knows when those peanuts come out, and he is there in less than 20 seconds.  Every time.  One day he came along and just sat on my knee for a while.  So we talked a bit.  He even came up on my shoulder and touched his little nose against my cheek.  He seemed to know I was having a low day.  Happens now and then.  Animals can sense these things.  He and Scamper, my other chipmunk pal, always bring a cheery smile.  What do you mean animals don’t smile?  HA!  Can’t convince me of that!  Sigh.  Birds are really singing at the moment.  Guess that little bit of rain stopped.  Started on my fall cleaning this week.  Yes, I know it’s spring.  What do you think I have been talking about?  Anyway.  My fall cleaning kind of had to be put off for a bit.  So decided to do it during the winter.  That didn’t work out too well.  So now I am doing it in the spring.  Which means my spring cleaning will have to wait for summer.  Or something.  Everything is a mess in here.  Sigh.  I don’t do things fast anymore.  I probably shouldn’t do things at all.  But what fun is that?  I don’t think I had enough COFFEE today.  Muffin seems to be bored today.  Sleeping most of the day.  Of course she does stay up most of the night now.  Lots of things going on outside at night this time of year.  Too bad she can’t tell me what.  She did alert me to a flying squirrel the other night.  That was nice.  It was on my bird feeder.  Which is also a squirrel feeder.  Speaking of feeders.  Wanted to have some eggs and toast the other day.  No problem.  Got the eggs out.  Took one out of the carton.  It immediately jumped out of my hand and onto the floor.  HA!  Right between my feet!  It actually missed my feet for a change.  Not bad.  Except.  In the excitement I didn’t watch as I turned to get some paper towels.  Splunch.  That was hard to believe.  Really.  But I love changing socks.  No.  I am not going to give up wearing socks.  I like socks.  Socks are comfortable.  Socks are warm.  I like socks.  Sigh.  Went to clean the frying pan afterwards.  Forgot there was still a bit of margarine in there.  Dumped it out.  Yep.  Time to change socks again.  Hard to imagine how it could miss the floor.  Sigh.  I still like socks.  Oops.  I was supposed to continue the insulatoring story.  Sigh.  Oh well.  There’s next week.  Or not.  Sometimes I forget.  I think.  Though it’s sometimes hard to tell if I forget because I forgot and if I forgot then how can I really tell if I did forget?  I mean, if I really did forget, how would I know?  Because I would have forgotten that I forgot if I did forget that I had forgotten.  I think. Sigh.  Think I better stop.  Enjoy the remainder of your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin and critters.