An overcast, 42° day greets me this morning. The sun has yet to burn through the high clouds but I suspect it will before too long because I see it reflecting off of the neighbors windows. Now that the trees are almost totally bare I see a lot more of the neighborhood than I do in the summer.

Yesterday was a good work day out in the yard. And, --- I'm a bit stiff from it this morning. There is, of course, more to do; there is always more to do. I could work out there every day and there would still be more to do. But it is obvious where I worked yesterday and that's all I ask for. What I don't have a good plan for is grass removal without digging up flowerbulbs or killing good plants while spraying weed killers. And --- we got a lot of both, flowers and grass in and amongst them. The other thing that constantly pops up in our flowerbeds is trees. Between the redbuds, the tulip poplars, the maples, and the sweet gum trees that surround this area, we constantly are digging and chopping tree sapplings and sprouts out of our flowerbeds. It might take years for a tree to grow and mature but in this yard; --- from seed to sappling is done at warp speed.

Anyway, I got a lot more leaves and sidewalks cleaned up yesterday and also used the John Deere to mulch up the leaves in my front yard and in neighbor Dan's yard. Now we look presentable for the weekend.

I refilled all the feeders yesterday afternoon an my menagerie of feathered friends seems to be enjoying it this morning. The Cardinal clan is all here as well as the Titmouse duo. The Finches are flitting back and forth and as predicted, a couple of Junkos are back again this morning. Yesterday afternoon I was sitting here on a coffee break and there was a large Hawk of some variety sitting on a limb preening and cleaning itself. It not only sat there the whole time I had my coffee, it stayed there for awhile as I went back into the yard. That was awesome. I need to check my book and determine which kind of Hawk it was. The Red Tailed Hawk is our most common, but we do have several varieties. When we lived on March Air Force Base, CA, back in the nineties, we had a Golden Eagle's nest in the top of a tree in in our yard. That was so cool. There were always small fish bones at the base of the tree from the Eagles swooping down to the local lakes and bringing home dinner.

God has presented us another wonderful day full of opportunities to achieve something in His name. That beautifully red Cardinal sitting just fifteen feet from me is my sign that God is alive and his world is well this morning. So, for that and for you, I give God praise this morning. Have a nice weekend.