Gasp!

No sewing today!  Today was the day I got back to the unfinished hallway painting project.  With many fingers and toes crossed I may actually get the whole job done this weekend.  Wouldn't that be nice!

I'm being supremely lazy this evening and not bothering to reorder my photos.  And does it matter to anyone else but OCD me?  Nope!  So these pictures are from the last three days or so.  The feeders are still busy and I'm still watching them.  I read with interest about this winter's "superflight."  I found that article a little confusing so a bit more browsing and I thought this article explained it pretty well.  Either way, that's why we have masses of pine siskins at the feeders this year.  All day.  Every day.

This cardinal seems to be saying, "is there anything left for me?"

I finally went out yesterday and bought some more suet cakes.  The woodpeckers, warblers and nuthatches were back in a flash!

Spring is springing.  I read an article yesterday that says "meteorological spring" starts today in our area.   The trees certainly think so.

I seldom get a chance to snap a photo of a chickadee, they come and go so fast.

I've been putting out a few dried mealworms with the seed which the bluebirds appreciate.  Unfortunately the mockingbirds appreciate them too and today they decided to hog guard the feeders all day.  Sigh.

Wednesday morning Maisy and I went for a walk.  On our way home I spotted the great blue heron behaving oddly.  (click on the photos for a closer look)  Yes indeed, it has a fish.  Not surprising, since that's what it comes here for.  :-)

Turns out this was a large fish.  I took Maisy inside and retrieved the camera.

Apparently a very large fish.  The heron kept trying to figure out how to swallow it.  It climbed out of the pond....

and back in.  Dunked the fish over and over and tried again.

Carried it to another spot and went through the process several more times.

While this was going on a red-shouldered hawk was screaming overhead.  I whipped up the camera and snapped away not knowing what I would get.  And look!  The image stabilization in this camera is pretty awesome.  Full zoom and no tripod.  Cool!

 Meanwhile the poor heron kept on struggling.  Striding slowly in and out, back and forth.

It flew across the pond and tried another spot.  I don't know the final outcome.  I decided not to spend the whole morning standing there.  Hmmmmm.  I think I need a nice garden bench at the bottom of the yard.  :-)

The Tramp met up with a Craigslist seller yesterday morning outside his office, and came home with a Ryobi chop saw.  He's thrilled because it's a battery one.  Not my sort of thrill, but he supports my machine habit so I support his.  ;-)

I've been working on Monogram Mondays by Jenny at Elefantz.  It's a small sampler so I figured I could keep up.  Uh huh.  So being four weeks behind, yesterday evening I put on the TV and got on with it.  After one false start with brown thread for the lettering, I picked it out and did the flowers and leaves first to see what color would "speak" to me.

I'm not really over the moon with my choice but I'm going to stick with the gold.  Nothing else in my boxes of threads seemed to be right either.

Today was a Feederwatch day and I spent a sunny hour with the dogs in the living room in front of the big window.  They were panting in the sun but I guess enjoying it too much to move.  Me, I was procrastinating.  Who wants to get on their knees and paint woodwork on such a beautiful day?

I moved Ngaire's bed into the living room to give me painting room in the hallway and Maisy quickly took it over.

Not even the click of the camera made her twitch.  (How does she lay like that?)

Now if only I could sleep so well......