I always consider a day to be successful if during the day I learn something knew. Yesterday was a successful day. I have two finch feeders hanging out there that are similar in design. Both are about two inches in diameter and maybe eight inches tall. They have a fine mesh body to allow the finches to eat the thistle seed through. However, one has a yellow metal top and bottom and the other has a copper base and bottom. The finches will empty the yellow one time and time again and leave the copper one unless I don't fill the yellow one. I've never known why, --- until yesterday. I learned that goldfinches are "flocking" birds and they associate the color yellow with other goldfinches, and are drawn to that color. Who knew???

I have a mockingbird out here this morning singing its heart out. I don't know how many songs it has in its repetore but it seems to be extensive. Mrs. Rabbit is here this morning too. The daffodils are tall enough to hide her somewhat so she goes back and forth into those. The squirrels are going from feeder to feeder because most of them are empty; that's one of my chores on my list today. I bought severak seed cylinders yesterday and put a large one out. The nuthatches and wrens especially like those. The cage I put them in allows wrens and other small birds to easily get through but starlings and other birds can't get through the mesh. It drives the squirrels crazy because the food is so close and yet out of reach. And as we know, there isn't much that is squirrel proof.

Neighbor Dan called me yesterday afternoon and said they were grilling steaks and wanted to know if they could fix us a plate. I of course said yes. I carried over a couple of beers for he and I to drink while he grilled. Then he sent me home with two large steaks, fried potatoes, and a salad that his wife, Minh, had made for us. They are great neighbors. No wonder my John Deere likes to visit their yard. Having permanent neighbors, especially neighbors that you like, was something that we didn't have for our three decades plus in the military. People were always moving in and out of the neighborhood. Ms. Kate and I moved about twenty times during our career. It is hard to develope any lasting friendships at that rate. So I cherish the friendship Dan and I have developed over the past fourteen years we have lived here. And speaking of Dan, he and I need to get the snow blade off of the Deere and the mower deck on.

I need to take Ms. Kate to the doctor's office today for her blood work done and I think I should go get a haircut. It might not be shaggy yet by civilian standards but it is touching my ears, so time for a trim.

Mr. Red, my big cardinal is out here for a drink and reminding me that it is time to wrap it up and give proper thanks where thanks are due. So, my prayers today are for Ms. Kate to continue to improve, --- and while God and I are on the subject of her, I'll give thanks that she is in my life. I don't know what or where I would be with out her. It's not a sentimental or romantic thought but the world would be an entirely different place had she and I not fallen in love and gotten married. None of our children or grandchildren would exist and none of the relatioships they have developed would exist. Try that for a thought sometime. Drop one significant person from your life, as if they had never been part of your life; --- and then try and calculate the changes in your world and the world of others. I think you will be amazed at the change in dynamics. Then, --- take time and thank God for bringing the two if you together.

Have a wonderful day! God loves you, and so do I.