Snippets of Life

Our strange "El Nino" weather pattern has lent a sense of confusion to the plants. Eli is exploring the spring bulbs which are already coming up. Of course, they can fend for themselves--and they'll need to--since we are expecting a blast of arctic air this coming week. Meanwhile, the cherry blossoms in Washington DC (the "other" Washington...) are in bloom. What a world we live in!

Since Halloween and Thanksgiving are long gone but our pumpkins and squash remained looking pretty, we put them out under the bird feeders to enjoy. They lasted a long time and are only now starting to decay. The really fun thing is to see the Stellar Jays enjoying the pumpkin seeds. I wish I could have gotten a photo of one of those beautiful blue birds sitting in the middle of the pumkin, but my camera wasn't fast emough.

With all our cold and windy weather, I felt sorry for the little birds that spend time in our garden, so we bought a few of these little roosting shelters. I don't know if any of the birds actually use them, but they look charming and I like to think that on cold days the little birds can snuggle down inside and keep out of the weather.

Speaking of snuggling, I couldn't resist this shot of Maggie and Eli snoozing on the couch in front of the fire. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together..." Well, maybe the dog and the cat!