Happy Tuesday morning. It is a bright crisp morning. My weather channel app says it is mostly cloudy and fifty-five degrees. I guess it is mostly cloudy although the sun isn't being totally filtered out. So that makes it especially nice when a cardinal "lands in the spotlight" on the birdbath. I do love my cardinals. The pair of titmouse have returned, most likely for the winter. I suspect they must mate for life as I always see a pair when I see one. It is the same for the nut hatch who are also beginning to be regular visitors again.

The robins are back, well a couple of them anyway. There is one on the larger bird bath at the moment taking a bath and keeping a cardinal at bay. I also have a bright red-headed woodpecker fussing because the feeder it wants to eat from is empty. I guess the other three feeders that I fill just for them aren't good enough. I noticed yesterday afternoon that several of the feeders are empty but haven't taken the time to fill them yet. I'll do that within the hour. We wouldn't want disappointed guests at the buffet.

Ms. Kate and I have a busy afternoon planned. We are meeting a couple for lunch and then we'll go to the church and run the bulletins and the newsletter for the coming Sunday. We don't have choir practice tomorrow night so we won't have to go back up to Ft. Branch tomorrow. It is just as well because tomorrrow I have to take the Caddy in for servicing and that always takes awhile whether one has an appointment or not.

I cleaned up the tomato garden yesterday. I pulled up the plants and took out the cages and raked the area to clean up all of the tomatoes that had dropped. I'd prefer not to have a bunch of volunteer tomatoes coming up next year. I also have to get to these flowerbeds and cut them all back and rake them them. Then I need to go get a bucket load of horse poop compost and spread on all of the flower beds and the garden before winter. I also need to go by Rural King and see if they have any of the old wooden tomato stakes that I can use to tie up my Black Raspberry plants. I really don't like the way I have them now. My mother-in-law always kept hers trimmed so nice and tied up and they produced such wonderful fruit. Mine are just all tangled up and growing wild and hard to get to because of the way I have them. As a result, They produce small berries and we seldom do anything with them. So the choice is to either try and correct the situation or --- pull the darned things up. My Red Raspberry plants are in about as bad of shape.

So, it is time to work, work, work ---- but for the moment I think I will just finish this cup of coffee and admire that beautiful cardinal sitting there and give God thanks for yet another wonderful day of being alive to enjoy His creation. Have a blessed day.