The Things of the Day are Sunshine, Blue Skies and No Snow.

Chris, Terri, Kaz, Max, Zach and Nini were with us this weekend. Lego was popular (Kaz and Max), working to get the last bit of yogurt out of the container was a challenge (Zach), and just being pretty was easy (Nini). All (except Terri and Jim) had a nice walk. The weather was in a changing mood -- 60 degrees Sunday, 34 degrees Monday morning.

Now we're hitting the road -- actually the air -- we're flying to California Thursday and will return on March 9. Much love to all.

There is no thing of the day. Sorry! Couldn't come up with one. Next time?

The digging out has begun. We've been out in the car twice -- yesterday to shop and today to the Post Office. Roads are fine but there is a lot of snow piled around. Tomorrow we're going to KC to John Price's mother's funeral. We want to be there for Cyndy's kids.

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory. I dug the path on the deck so we could get to the bird feeders. I'll probably slowly push more of the deck snow over the side. On the picture looking up Council Trail, a car is buried on the left -- you can't see it -- you'll just have to believe me.

I don't know why I keep putting up pictures of the Canada Goose. They are certainly a nuisance, but their numbers make them fascinating.

The Snow of the Day was the Blizzard of 2011. We will be talking about it for years. Kansas City reported 21 inches for Warrensburg. I ventured out yesterday morning to get the paper and haven't been out since and probably won't go out today. As of now the street hasn't been plowed.

Besides the snow, our ongoing show has been the birds. There were a lot of Cardinals, Juncos, White-throated Sparrows and Goldfinch joined by Tufted Titmice, Blue Jays, Nuthatches, Chickadees and Red Bellied and Downy Woodpeckers.

This morning we woke to sunshine, much beautiful snow and 10 degrees -- we'll read the paper on line.

We hope all of you came through O.K. Chicago took a big hit and also St. Louis. I think Jackson and Sewanee were on the fringes. John and Terri, you were left out.

The Flower of the Day is the table arrangement for our party last night. We celebrated Clarice's birthday and Clarice's and Roger's 30th wedding anniversary. It was a most enjoyable evening ending with singing old evangelical hymns around the piano.

The other story for us is the weather and the birds. We have had a fair amount of snow so far and more is expected tonight and tomorrow. If you were to count the birds in the picture on our deck it would come to about 36 or 37 including ten male Cardinals. We enjoy watching them. It's like an ongoing show. Actually, it's our reality show. The other birds are the Canada Geese on Lion's Lake near us, who honk as they go overhead to their morning and evening feeding in the fields outside of town. They are fun to watch, but frankly we could do with a few less.

The last picture is our group excluding Robert Schwartz and Judy McClure who are out of town, but including Peter Bailey who joined us old folks for the first time. He held up rather well.

There is no Flower of the Day on this blog; however, there is a "thing" of the day that Sandra and I spotted this morning on our way to her cataract surgery. Reliable sources say that it was sculpted by several very wise college girls. Enjoy!

Birds are wonderful, especially in the snow, and especially the Cardinals in the snow. In addition to the Cardinals, we also have Chickadees, Nuthatch, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Titmice, Blue Jays, Juncos and Sparrows of some variety. And we also have squirrels, and the birds and the squirrels seem to get along fairly well.

I know that snow is not much of a novelty at this time. Most of you have had your share and I hope that no one has had any major difficulties, but I felt compelled to blog so that I could not only share some of the birds with you, but especially the "thing".

The Flower of the Day is the Balsam Ragwort. It's a pretty flower that is with us on the island through much of the early summer, and while it does seem a bit silly to show a summer flower at this time of the year, with the cold and snow that is currently with us, it's a nice way to recall past days that were warmer and more colorful.

We have been a bit torn up lately. A dishwasher leak damaged some of the flooring, so insurance decreed that the floor from the front door to the large back kitchen door would be removed and replaced. It was four days of noise and inconvience, but we survived and we now have a beautiful new floor.

The last thing to mention is that even though we are still early in December, some of Santa's helpers were on a scouting mission in our neighbor and may be in yours. Watch for them, be good, and make sure they know where you live.

All Hallows' Eve, October 31, 2010

The Flower of the Day is the Canada Hawkweed. It appears in August and stays until late September. I don't know if it is a legal or illegal immigrant, but then we don't worry about Canadians all that much.

Important at this time of the year are fall leaves and fall colors. I never get my fill of them. I hope you enjoy the pictures that are included.

Also important at this time of the year as we move from summer to winter is Halloween. Halloween has an interesting history. It originally was a Celtic feast and its original name may have been Samain. The Celts were a very superstitious people and they saw the time of seasonal change as being very dangerous times of the year. And none was seen as being quite as dangerous as the passage from fall to winter, because for the Celtic people, this was the time of the year when all of the forces of evil and death were released from the underworld to celebrate the final death of nature, and the coming of the dead and the gloomy season of winter. The Church in its wisdom tried to divert the people from their association with demons by establishing All Souls' and All Saints' Days, but it was not very successful, because there is still a lot of Samaintide with us today. And this evening the ghouls and the walking dead, the spooks and the demons, the ghosts, the haunts, the hobgoblins, the evil spirits and the "little people" who drove the ancient Celts to a last frenzy of fear before the dark days of winter set in were seen on our streets and at our front doors. Fortunately for us they were quite benign. They only demanded treats