Good morning everyone on this beautiful, sunny and somewhat mild morning as we close in on the end of the month of November.  Okay.  It’s not exactly sunny.  Most would call it cloudy.  But it is sunny above the clouds and I imagine it is quite brilliant and bright in that sun.  We just can’t see it at the moment.  But it’s still there.  Sometimes we need to look past the clouds in life and realize the sun is still shining brightly.  And yes, it is not exactly mild either.  Actually it is cold.  But not as cold as it could be therefore making it somewhat mild in comparison.  Just depends on how we look at things sometimes.  And even though it is cloudy and cold, a day can still be beautiful, especially when I am inside with a nice cup of hot COFFEE!  And, of course, wrapped in a warm blanket with Muffin curled up on my lap purring.  An absolutely beautiful morning.   Just depends on how we look at things.  Wheehee!  Speaking of phones.  They are a good way to make a day not quite so beautiful.  Such as lately.  I have been getting many, numerous, annoying phone calls from various telemarketers either trying to sell something or wanting info for some survey which is going to end up asking for money undoubtedly and then the latest one was a call supposedly from the CRA saying this was the second call and in reality it was the first call and it wasn’t even a real person calling it was some machine talking and I do not talk to machines when they call me so ‘Go AWAY’ and I hung up.  Sigh.  What a way to start the day.  Always happens when Christmas is getting close.  It is winter.  There is snow.  And ice.  And snow.  And cold.  And more ice.  And more snow.  And more phone calls.  Even while I write.  Sigh.  The rock doves are hungry this morning, all 60+ of them.  When I go out with the food there is a sudden flurry of wings and feathers all around me as they land on the feeders waiting for me to put the food out.  One of these days they will likely start landing on me.  They certainly seem to get quite excited.  And they will talk to me as well.  I know what you are thinking.  That’s not nice.  Sigh.  I have named a few that I can identify.  Like Ruffles, and Freckles, Albert and Snowball, and Stretch.  The other day they were piled three high on the feeder.  It was hard to believe.  One landed on top of another, which is not unusual, that feeder gets crowded, but then another landed on that one, and tried to bend over to get at the seeds.  Didn’t work too well and he fell off, landing on a couple of others where he stayed and managed to reach the seeds from there.  None of this bothered the ones on the bottom, they just kept on eating.  That’s the main thing with those birds.  Eat as fast as possible to get as much as possible.  Quite amazing to watch them really.  Speaking of shopping.  Stores are getting a bit busier.  Which makes shopping a bit more challenging.  At least for me.  I’m trying to reach something on the top shelf, which of course, I can’t reach so I use my cane which comes in quite handy at certain times like that, but while I am stretched someone comes around the corner of the aisle and rams my cart which in turn rams my side almost knocking me off my feet and the item I was after falls but manages to land in my cart.  So it worked out not too bad except my back is now more sore than before. And, the person who did this just kept on going like nothing happened.  Sigh.  Then going to the checkout, I was almost there in line and a lady came racing past me and got ahead of me. If I hadn’t stopped I would have hit her.  It was tempting.  Sigh.  Speaking of bird seed.  I got a cup ready to take out then put my boots on and grabbed the cup…only I missed slightly and knocked the cup over.  All over.  It is amazing how far those little round seeds can roll.  All over.  It took me a long time to get them all cleaned up.  I am sure there is still a lot under the bed.  I will have to use the vacuum for those.  Wasting all those seeds.  Sigh. People say the name of my site is wrong since I don’t talk about ‘country’ things.  Actually I do.  Just not all the time.  After all, I live in town, which is technically called a city, though it is a rather small city, so it’s more like a town that’s called a city but it reality it’s a town.  Or something.  So, because I live in town, I can’t always talk about the country.  Though I suppose I could talk about ‘country’ things more often.  Hmm, changes are coming, probably in the new year.  But the same will be here too.  Or something.  I think it might be time to stop.  Mainly because my arm is trying to stop.  Oh well.  It’s winter.  Try to enjoy your week anyway and God bless!

Steve.

Ah, here it is, a beautiful sunny day, and I am sitting overlooking a calm, small lake reflecting the deep blue of the sky.  There is a robin singing in the distance, a loon is calling across the lake, a small fish jumps making tiny ripples only slightly distorting the mirrored image of the pines in the lake, a squirrel is rustling through the dry leaves in search of pine cones that he recently cut down from a tall pine, one of those cones just narrowly missed my head, a small sandpiper has landed on the shore and is running about looking for insects.  Such a wonderful scene, and it is very real, though not today unfortunately.  Today it is cloudy, cool, damp, a bit of freezing rain mixed with flurries.  It is still winter.  And will be for several more months.  Sigh.  We actually lost a bit of snow yesterday when we had some slightly above freezing temps, but there is still a lot on the ground.  On the plus side, the deer are coming around regularly again.  There is mama, Junior, and Major.  Junior and Major have grown.  But all are still nice and friendly and will come up to me when I call them.  I am going to try and get a pic of me and Major together, but it is kind of tricky.  Sigh.  They all get a bit nervous when I bring out the camera, even though it is tiny.  Not sure why it bothers them.  Oh well, one of these days.  Very icy these days, treacherous walking around.  At least for someone like me.  My balance isn’t very good anymore.  So walking on ice is not the easiest thing to do.  Found that out again yesterday.  Hurt my back, hip, elbow and my eye. My eye because my face landed on my hand.  Sigh.  Most people are looking forward to Christmas.  I’m looking forward to spring.  Sigh.  It’s been one of those weeks, which actually started a week and a half ago.  Sometimes weeks can be quite long.  Sometimes weeks can really stretch into weeks.  Sigh.  I think CABIN FEVER  is going to hit early this winter.  I can already feel it a bit and winter has just begun.  Fun.  Speaking of people.  I’m going to have to start recording what I say.  Because I seem to always get the opposite answer to questions I ask.  So I want to make sure I am actually asking what I ask so I will know I am asking what I ask correctly so I can make sure I ask what I want to ask so I know if I am getting the right answer to what I ask otherwise I will have to stop asking what I ask so I will know what I didn’t ask and then I will know if the answer is correct for what I actually asked and didn’t ask.  Sigh.  If all that made sense then you are in worse shape than me.  Sometimes I think my brain is so mixed up that it will never be the same again.  Of course, maybe it has always been this way and I never knew it until now.  Can’t be.  Otherwise how would I know that it’s the way it is if it has always been the way it is and that it hasn’t changed the way it is so that the way it is, is the way it was which makes it the way it is.  Or isn’t.  Whichever.  Sigh.  I guarantee that I am mixed up now.  Oh well, sometimes that makes things easier.  I think.  Though not often.  Gives me headaches.  Sigh.  Have been trying to do my fall cleaning.  Yes, I know it is winter, but winter came early so I didn’t get my fall cleaning done.  So now I must do my fall cleaning in the winter which really is still fall anyway.  At least according to the calendar.  But who cares what it says on the calendar.  Just look out the window.  There is snow on the ground.  It is cold.  It is winter.  However, I am doing my fall cleaning.  Quit trying to get me off topic.  Muffin does not enjoy winter either.  She really does not enjoy winter.  She wants the door open.  But it’s too cold.  It’s all frosted so she can’t see out that window anyway.  So she has to look out the living room window.  She doesn’t like that as much.  Except maybe at night.  That’s when the raccoons come around.  And they climb onto the bird feeder.  Which is right outside the window.  At least one is anyway.  Then Muffin gets all fluffed out, big tail, hisses, spits, growls and claws at the window.  That scares the raccoons away.  Even though they are much bigger than Muffin.  It could be the fact that she jumps at the window that scares them.  Whatever, it works, and they leave.  But they still come back every night.  And the same thing happens.  Speaking of birds, the rock doves are looking for lunch.  Be right back.  It is quite neat to see all those heads peeking over the edge of the roof as soon as I go out with the food. The feeders are now full to overflowing with doves.  They will even sit on top of one another when there is no room left to actually sit on the feeder, then they just stretch their head down to get at the food.  And the bird on the bottom doesn’t seem to mind at all.  One day there was 20 on the feeder plus 8 on the backs of others.  There are actually more than 60 rock doves that come for food each day.  There are 2 other places that they go also, that I know of anyway.  Good thing, it would take a lot of food for that many doves, they are quite big.  Some of them are getting quite friendly and will eat from my hand.  Unfortunately it is too cold to stand out there too long, otherwise I am sure that many more would be trying it as well.  See?  You got me off topic again.  Now it will have to wait until next week.  Sigh.  I hope you all enjoy your week, God bless!

Steve. And Muffin. And deer. And doves. And other critters.