Full of Surprises

It certainly was a day full of surprises, some of them even pleasant ones. With the exception of the still howling winds making the windchill in the -20's, it was a good day all in all. I managed to get about two hours in my studio this afternoon (surprise!), got to work on two tags, hopefully I can post photos tomorrow as they are in various stages of drying. My son just apologized to me for the tantrum he threw when he got off the school bus. I always am surprised when it happens because I think I can count on both hands the number of times he has thrown one. Yeah, he's almost perfect at six. What floors me even more is that between 3:20 and 7:20 he must have given it enough thought to realize he was out of line. He can be oh-so-mature sometimes. Here he is negotiating a papadum at supper:


I also caught Mr. Cardinal again on the feeder. This shot was taken just after 7:00 p.m. and on the one hand I'm delighted I'm taking outdoor (well, through the window anyway) photos at that time of day, but on the other hand the photos weren't as crisp as the ones I got of him earlier in the day last week. He did give me enough time to clip on my zoom lens tonight. He looks a little like groucho marx with the seed sticking out of the side of his mouth:


The woman I work with in the library on Thursday mornings told me her tulips were up about 2 inches now. So I had to go and inspect my own garden to see what the recent rain had uncovered. The most I found was a bit of stubbly mint branches and a little iris leaf. It's been a winter of extreme weather, lots of snow often followed by rain then a deep freeze which has left massive amounts of ice everywhere. Not a pretty site as it gets quite dirty over time. And although my backyard doesn't have any traffic per se, it has it's share of yellow snow/ice. All of you in warmer climes can shiver and be grateful you are eating local produce, scurvy would have set in here if we had to rely on what I can grow on my land. Here are my findings:


Kind of sad, isn't it.