Progress!

Another month is gone and yet again I don’t have much to tell about and the few things I have to tell, are so boring as to be totally uninteresting.

I am still packing and preparing… the house.  The painters have come and gone. It took a whole week, but the walls and trim look great.  My “Creative Space” shrouded in plastic…

The carpet cleaners are here today… and next week we should have a sign up in the front. There will be a professional photographer for the sales brochure and the MLS listing (and Realtor.com). I have packed up all most all of the none essential stuff. I have a bit more to go… but quite frankly I am running out of enthusiasm and energy….  because if I haven’t been packing I have been doing some spring cleaning… you know cabinets, shelves, fixtures…. and more! We have also moved most of those packed boxes to storage!

The weather here can’t decide if we are going into spring or reverting back to winter and we have had 3 weeks of very cold and snow… Not as bad or as long as last winter, but it sure feels like it!!! I have been entertained by the birds though. Every winter I put out suet blocks… to help them through the cold spells and in the spring and summer I generally put out seed bells. I have these just outside the kitchen windows…. This winter I have had as steady feeders 3 Titmouse, or is that titmice, or titmeeses?

and 3 Chickadees,

I didn’t know that the Titmouse and Chickadee were in the same family, and sound the same.

a house Wren, don’t they appear to have a stern expression?

along with the resident sparrows, juncos and of course the ever present but unwelcomed European Starlings. Both the Titmouse and Chickadees have become so used to me that they don’t even fly off if I am moving around in the kitchen.

I am not an avid bird watcher just a hobbyist, but I have added some new birds to my list of sightings. This winter an Eastern Towhee

and mate, (I think it is the mate, she has a slightly less bright coloring)… visit on a pretty regular basis. A couple of fat little round sparrows

that are very different than the regular house or European sparrows, which I have  not yet identified. They are quite round and have a small little streak of yellow above the eye and more clear/stark marking. I also saw that the house finches were back yesterday along with my first nuthatch.

 

What a cute little guy, and has a very apparent personality. Also he is not afraid to scare off the starlings. I have also had a pair of Downey Woodpeckers feeding as well. This is the female, the male has a red patch on the back of his head.

Just before the  and cold weather I saw robins, but I think they were pushing Spring a bit faster than Mother Nature wanted her to arrive! But I think we may have turned the corner, because this week I have heard Cardinals calling. The female has been to the feeder, and this morning the male stopped by too.

On the creative front not too much happening… It has been rather difficult to spend much time stitching… but I have 2 items on a deadline that I will have to find time for…. one is a Round Robin… and the other is friendship blocks….

More Later….  Beth