Winter will not give up! It is thirty degrees at the moment and the ground is snow covered and the streets are a bit dicey  as to whether that is a wet street or it is black ice. Schools are closed for a snow day once again. The good news is that probably 95% of this will be gone by this afternoon. It was just a quick swipe through that left everything looking magnificent and like a perfect winter picture. I got out last evening just before it quit and cleaned my driveway and the street including the hill so folks could get up and down the street. If we waited on a county truck to come through the subdivision area we would be sitting there until July and it would probably be lost any way.

We had a busy weekend and I have a busy week ahead of me. Pastor Art is on vacation so I'm doing duty. It isn't a big deal; I had it all and more for twelve and a half years at my last parish. After I finished at the church yesterday morning, we went to lunch and then out to a local retirement center and I did a worship service for them. We got home from that just in time before our snow storm hit.

Saturday I decided that I would get off my rump and go till the garden and get it ready for planting. I have one of those small Honda tillers that only weigh about twenty five pounds but it does a great job, especially where the ground has been previously used for a garden or at least has been worked up in the past. So, I got it tilled and I put down some Preen weed killer to use as a pre-emergent. I have to admit though, I don't understand how I can use that weed preventor and then turn around in a couple of weeks and plant some lettuce and radish seeds and they will grow. But, the instructions said it works. At the worst, I'll waste a couple of bucks on a package of seed or two. At the best, I won't get a garden full of weeds. So, when the snow quits coming and the ground gets a little warmer, I do  little gardening. I'm looking forward to it.

While I was sitting in the sun porch  yesterday watching the snow and the birds, a huge hawk came flying in. It almost snagged it a bird when it came in and may have in fact done so. It was the largest one I have seen back there. I wasn't totally sure it wasn't a small eagle. It wasn't a bald eagle if it was an eagle; but it was huge. It swooped in and up to a low branch in the maple tree in Ms. Margaret's yard where it sat for at least forty five minutes. The longer it sat there the more relaxed the rest of the birds became and eventually I had a yard full again. However, there wasn't a squirrel to be seen. When it just suddenly took off, it swooped through and snagged a small bird on the way out. It was an amazing scene to watch unfold. I was glad it didn't get one of my cardinals or a bluebird. At one point yesterday I had as many as eighteen cardinals out there at my feeders. Of course today they are mostly empty. I guess I will fill them up this afternoon if the yard dries out sufficiently.

My biggest task this week is to prepare for my Bible study for Wednesday evening after the Lenten meal. I've been working on it and I think I have it quasi-together but I'm not as comfortable with it a I want to be. So, I need to get busy and work on that today. I'm doing it on the Crucifixion and the cross. I hope I can get a lot of stimulating conversation going. It makes the discussion sp much more interesting when folks speak up with their ideas.

That's it for today. I pray you will have a blessed week full of the love of God. Until next time, Peace!