First things first -- fill the bark butter paste feeders. I did and it took about three minutes before the first downy woodpecker discovered they were full. Since then the mockingbird had found it, the starlings have found it, several finches have found it, and a red=headed woodpecker has even come by for inspection. I also need to fill some sunflower seed feeders but that can wait a bit. There is still enough out there for the cardinals and they are busy eating from them.

My walk outside this morning led me to discover that the daffodils are coming up in all of the flowerbeds. That is a real promise of spring. Of course, I've seen a lot of times that the daffodils had to poke through the snow so I'm not toasting the arrival of spring any time soon. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. I'm never sure if the groundhog is supposed to see its shadow or not supposed to see its shadow. I think if it sees its shadow it goes back in for another six weeks of winter which just co-incidentally also coincides with the end of meteorological winter. Amazing how all of that worked out isn't it?

It's a forty five degree partly cloudy morning. The sun has not actually "popped through" the clouds yet this morning and most likely won't today. We had a few rain drops last evening. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm until the afternoon when the severe weather hits us and then drop back to more February like weather in the thirties. Lots of folks seem to have colds and sniffles and it is no wonder with the rollover coaste weather etc.

The squirrels have arrived and the chasing and frolicking, and tail flipping has begun. They are energetic little boogers but they are going to be disappointed this morning. Most of the feeders they like are empty so they have to go through great gyrations to hang upside down and balance on precarious branches to steal from other feeders. If people had the work ethic of a squirrel --- there would be no unemployment in this country. Think about it; there's no amount of work they won't go through to survive and feed themselves; they take food and bury it for later, i.e. a savings account, they work together in communities and protect their territory and they protect their young. Yep, --- people and society could learn a lot by thinking more like a squirrel.

Today is going to be a writing day. This evening I have to go for my annual Licensed Minister review. It is a once a year thing where we go present ourselves to the Committee on Ministry and tell what we have done for the past year. The committee then decides if we are "fit" to continue on as ministers and if so, they license us for another year. The ordained clergy never have to do this unless they have committed an ethics violation of some kind. They are basically like tenured professors. We're are just "hired gospel guns" so to speak and serve at the leisure of the Committee on Ministry. It would be interesting to see what would happen if a church decided they wanted a certain person for thier pastor and the COM didn't renew their license. For instance, I have been the pastor at my two churches for the past 11 years and the two churches are happy with me. I wonder what would happen if the committee decided not to renew my license? I suspect we will never know.

Mr. Cardinal is sitting on the birdbath all bright and beautiful and reminding me that I have goofed off long enough this morning and it is time to get busy. The sun is now bright in the sky which is a pleasant surprise, but I must head downstairs to my office and get busy. I hope your day is bright and pleasant and filled with the blessings of God. My daffodils popping through were my extra blessing from God this morning. Go out there and see what God has in store for you. Peace.

There is an old song, (probably early 50's) that sings; "There's a rob, rob, robin that's bob, bob, bobbing along." I couldn't help but think of that song this morning as I watched a Robin just hopping all over the yard this morning searching for its breakfast. He hops around for a bit, stops and cocks his head and listens, then goes back to hopping around again. Every once in a while it will come up on the bird bath and get a drink. I don't know if it is getting anything to eat or not; but it's getting its exercise and enough to drink.

I missed you yesterday. As I told you on Wednesday, I had a funeral to do yesterday morning so I never got around to sitting out here in the sunporch until very late last night. Then I just pulled up a Gaither music album video on UTube and listened to that until almost 0130 this morning. This morning I have an Andre' Reiu album playing playing well known movie themes. It is a great album for relaxing. After the funeral, I went to the churches. Ms. Kate had asked me to drop her off at the churches while I went and conducted the funeral since she didn't know the man who had passed. So, while I was at the funeral, Ms. Kate printed and folded all of the bulletins for both churches. From there we went to lunch; then came home and just did "stuff". Last night I did a little writing, and sent a couple of emails checking up on parishioners and one to my sister. Then I was glued to the television through the news. Jimmy Fallon was a repeat so that's why I turned it off and came out to the sunporch. That's my day. Today we need to go to a couple of stores and pick up some stuff. But, we need to do it fairly early this morning because it is Friday and the stores get crazy on the weekends.

This morning I'm visited by a pair of titmouse, a bunch of junkos, the cardinal clan, a couple of downy woodpeckers and a red-headed woodpecker, a mocking bird, and of course the Robin. So, it is a pleasant morning. The sun is shining brightly this morning and the temperature will go up to around 45. That's pleasant to me but Ms. Kate will be cold when we go out.

I'm happy to report that my visit to my doctor the other day was worth the trip. He ended up giving me a cortisone shot in my hip and the pain has gone away. I'm very thankful because I was at a point of really moving slow and having quite a bit of pain. As you know, when you pinch a nerve like that, it causes you to actually bring other pain to yourself because you walk differently trying not to hurt. So I was getting sore muscles elsewhere too. But I'm doing well now. My doctor is really a great doctor and Ms. Kate and I think the world of him. We've been seeing him now for fifteen years. I am blessed that I don't have very many reasons to go see him beyond annual physical and the occasional thing like this pinched nerve or a breathing problem with my asthma. Ms. Kate has to see him routinely due to her many health issues. But we think the world of him. After 32 years of seeing "Dr. Whoever" with the military system, it is a real blessing to have a single doctor, and one that we trust totally.

Sunday is the last day of January and the first month of 2016 will be in the history book. Time just keeps moving on. Ms. Kate and I have several big plans for this year and of course the church calendar is full for the year. I admit that sometimes I ask myself when will I have time to get it all done and I get a little overwhelmed and think that maybe I should just totally retire and relax and enjoy life for ourselves. And Ms. Kate and I have talked about it several times. But, as much as I totally enjoy sitting out here in the sunporch --- it's not something that I could do all day long. And the truth is that I am enjoying life. God just continues to bless me and restore me and fill me. I tell myself one day that I'm going to just stop. Then I jump up and agree to take on yet another challenge like accepting a position with our local church association. So, my prayers this morning are prayers of gratitude to God for health, and the ability to continue to be of use and service where and when I'm needed. I'm so very, very grateful for Ms. Kate who is extremely patient and understanding of who and whatever I am. I've known a lot of spouses that would have kicked me to the curb years ago instead of being dragged around all over the world and then coming home to live and becoming immersed in yet another totally new career for me.

My album is done playing and my coffee cup is empty for the second time. I must get busy. Have a most blessed weekend. Take time to worship the Lord and be grateful for the blessings God has bestowed upon you. Peace.

The sky is a tad bit brighter this morning; not a lot, but some. But --- where are my birds? I've had four or five cardinals flying in and out but staying mostly up in the trees. I've also had one or two red-headed a woodpeckers come in and get a few bites and leave. That is about it. None of the small birds are here and the feeders hang full and waiting.except for the three that have a squirrel chomping away at them. Perhaps there is a hawk in the area that I haven't seen.

Today is to be a busy day. I have to go to the doctor at noon today so he can maybe do something about the pain in my hip and back. I suspect he will give me a muscle relaxer shot. I just hope I don't end up looking like Tim Conway in that crazy "Dentist" sketch that he did. I laugh my head off every time I see that thing. Tim Conway has to be one of the funniest guys on the planet. At any rate, I have a funeral home visitation to do today, and a meeting to attend this evening. If I have the time, I'll also get to the church and run the bulletins and newsletter. If not, that will be on tomorrow's list.

I've been watching the latest U Tube sensation, Andre' Rieu and his orchestra. Obviously he has been around for quite awhile but I had not seen him until someone posted one of his videos on Facebook. His music is dynamic and the crowds he draws are stunning. I think he might be Dutch but I'm not sure. I recommend you pull up UTube and try to find him. I just downloaded one of his albums this morning from ITunes for my IPad etc. and am listening to it as I write. It is very soothing music.

I'm sitting here looking at my yard and I really need to get out there with a rake this spring. There is a lot of winter crapola out there; twigs, small branches, left over leaves, seed pods from the poplar trees. A week of dry weather and sixty degree days would put me in the mood to work off a little winter fat and give me some exercise, and make the yard ready for green grass and flowers to pop through the ground. I'm "spring-ready".

Two weeks from today will be Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season. I have my Ash Wednesday service almost completed. I just need to tweak it a bit. We generally have a good turnout for Ash Wednesday service. But Lent and Easter is coming early this year and there is always the possibility of snow this early.

It is time to remove myself from the seat this recliner and get busy. I need to shower and get ready for my day. The problem is that I am very comfortable and he music is so great to listen to; and the birds are all finally coming in for a late breakfast. But, one must do what one must do. I pray your day will be filled with blessings and I also pray you will take the time to not only be grateful for them but also share them with someone. Pass a little love around. It will make you feel good! Peace.

I always say that we decide what our day is going to be like as we step out of bed and start the morning. My morning started with shooting hip and back pains and then I come out to the sunporch and everything just looks blah and dull. The snow has all gone and there is no color to be seen. The world matches the color of that squirrel hanging off of my feeder. And then, when I'm just deciding the day is going to be a good day to just frump; --- here comes my wandering rabbit hopping across the yard. I haven't seen Ms. Rabbit in a couple of months. I'm not sure but I think it might have been carrying a sign that said, "Get over yourself". At any rate, it improved my mood greatly. So, I just say "Thanks for the rabbit, God! You're always there when I need you."

Between the warmer temperatures and the rain showers last night, our snow is pretty well all gone. I don't think we have any bad weather predicted for a few days. I hope not since I have a funeral to do on Thursday morning. For the family's sake, I hope it will be a bright sunny morning.

I filled all of the feeders yesterday afternoon. I emptied all of the shelled corn out of the feeders because nothing was eating it. I poured it all out on the ground out by the poplar tree. This morning first thing there was a large gaggle of blackbirds out there making short work of the corn. Perhaps it was just too hard to get out of the feeders that I had had it in. What ever the situation was, I won't buy that again. The blackbirds left as soon as they cleaned it up. I also have some stale bread and cookies it there on the ground. But, nothing has come for that yet either. In fact, except for that initial gaggle of blackbirds, I've hardly had any company at all this morning. But then, the only thing that is predictable about my birds is their unpredictability. A large woodpecker, a mocking bird, and a little wren have been my only guests with the exception of one squirrel.

My Tylenol has kicked in and my hip and back pain is less by now. I'll take a warm shower and put some Activeon balm on it and that have me moving good enough to be going up and down the stairs etc. I need to go to Walgreens and pick some Tiger Balm patches. They work really well. But for what they cost --- they should work really well. I think I need to go to the church today and run my bulletins. My day is already crowded for tomorrow. But, I also have a lot of writing to do so it becomes a toss up of when to do what. One of these days I'm just going to retire and eliminate all my suspenses and deadlines I have to meet. Of course, -- the fact that I create all of these timelines myself, kind of gives me no one to blame. I think I suck as my own boss! LOL

My cardinals have begun to show up and that adds just the color to the yard that I was waiting on. There will be no sunshine today so the brilliance I generally see on them won't be there. But they sit out here on a limb or the bird bath and remind me that no matter where we are, there is always beauty to be found because God is in charge of the mix. I hope you find reasons to smile today. I hope you are seeing the world through the love and grace that God has given you. God is good; -- all the time. Peace!

It is absolutely nuts outside my sun porch this morning. I'm sitting here in the middle of multiple flocks of birds. There is a flock of about fifteen starlings, and another forty or so black birds, another 8-10 robins and a half dozen cardinals; and they are all fussing and fighting over feeders that are empty such as the bark butter feeders. I walked out side and looked at my roof and their was another dozen or so robins up there hopping around too. They are in and out of the birdbath and taking baths and splashing water everywhere. There is a squirrel hanging on to a seedcake feeder dodging angry starlings and the place is a chaotic whir of wings and beaks and noise this morning. And, it isn't just here. As I look across the yards through the barren trees, almost every yard has the same kind of thing going on. It is a scene right out of "The Birds". Even more interesting is the fact that all of a sudden they all take off at once and fly up into the trees. Then they sit there for a few minutes and slowly start flying back down to the ground. It's fun to watch. It's obviously a migration of some sort and I'll have to refill every feeder by this afternoon.

Yesterday was a successful day at the churches. During my early service, (St. Paul's) we did a wedding vows renewal ceremony for a couple celebrating their fifteenth anniversary. They had gotten married at a courthouse originally and had asked me if I would do the ceremony because they really wanted a "church wedding". It was beautiful. The "bride" cried and that made the husband tear up and that made the congregation tear up too. It was magic. After my late service, (St. Lucas) we had a lunch at the church and then the second of our congregational meetings. We got several things accomplished and agreed upon in what I consider a record amount of time. This meeting had been postponed due to a snow storm earlier in the month.

This week promises to be a busy week with end of the month reports due, extra meetings with our local Tri-State Association of the church and a funeral on Thursday with visitation on Wednesday. I'll have to miss choir practice this week due to the visitation and association meeting. In between there I'll have the bulletins to run and the monthly newsletter. It all just takes time. Unfortunately I have a sciatic nerve thing going on in my back and I'm moving a lot slower this week. I didn't need that to happen.

But --- the sun is shining brightly and the temperature is just warm enough to melt some of the snow; so, I give God praise for a sunshiny day. And remember the birds from paragraph one ------ they are all gone. There isn't a bird in sight anywhere. God sure created a strange and wonderful world. Have a wonderful day.

How wonderful to look out and see not only a beautiful snow-scape, but also a bright blue sun filled sky. It's cold and it's breezy, but it's still beautiful. Despite the fact it is 27 degrees, I'm watching the snow melt and drip off of the feeders. There is still plenty of food out there for the birds and squirrels so I don't have to tromp out through the snow to fill anything up today. Unfortunately, what I do need to do is get out to the Wildbirds and Things store and pick up more bark butter. I used the last I had last evening. Between the starlings, woodpeckers, mockingbirds, a squirrel, and blue jays yesterday; they cleaned every bark butter feeder out. I don't mind going but I know the subdivision is going to be a bear to get out of. The only place the street will have been cleared is in front of my house. I imagine though that the main roads will be fairly clear by now. We got five inches of snow with this storm. But, I got the driveways all cleared and finished clearing the street where Darrel left off with his little John Deere. He did a pretty good job. It is the first time he has done that much.

I had quite a few birds earlier but right now I don't seem to have any; and I just saw why that is. The hawk is back and is sitting in the poplar tree waiting for its breakfast to fly in. As soon as it flies off, the rest will come back in. In fact as I wrote that a beautiful Cardinal flew in to sit in the gazebo feeder that I have filled with safflower seed.

I've had a great morning talking to all three of my girls via Facebook Messenger.  I love the fact that we can do that and I love even more the fact that they want to do that. We spent an hour sharing our week and talking family news and events. I don't think there is a day in the week that I don't talk to one or more of the girls. It is so much better than talking on the phone because we can come and go into the conversation and don't have to sit there and hold the phone. A lot of the time it is just a note or two back and forth but other days we will have a couple of us going, mainly during the evening.

So, I have been in this chair long enough this morning and now must get moving. I lift up all of those folks that are still in the path of this storm that has now moved to the east coast of the country. They are looking at a possibility of up to two feet of snow today. I pray they will be safe. I also pray you will have a great weekend. Take time for worship and being grateful for your blessings. See ya' Monday. Peace.

Things to do to just kill time: watch paint dry, watch rain fall, watch snow accumulate. Today it is the latter of the group. I haven't gone out and opened the garage door yet to see what has accumulated, and I can't really tell from the sunporch because I never cleaned off anything out here in the back. It would appear though that we still have a while before it quits, at least from looking at the radar. But --- we are on the "lucky side" of the storm. Just fifty miles below us, they are going to get hammered with a foot of the white stuff and then as it moves east, it will intensify to as much as two feet by the time it hits DC; not that it will slow down any good work that our nations leaders are doing. We won't be able to tell the difference as to whether they are at work or not.

I do know that I will have a lot of feeders to fill tomorrow. I've had no lack of company in the back yard this morning. Every feeder has at least one bird and or a squirrel on it. Even the Red-Winged black birds came in today. I haven't seen them for awhile. I'm glad that I bought feed the other day. I'm surprised though that they aren't eating the cracked corn. I thought for sure they would. I'm glad I didn't pay much for it. It could be that it isn't easy to get out of the feeder I have it in. But --- Ms. Kate said she didn't think they would eat it. I always thought the cardinals would go right to it. When the snow is done and melted some, I'll pour it out on the ground. The squirrels will eat it for sure.

I just went out and opened the garage and was surprised to see that my neighbor Darrel is out there on the street with his John Deere and blade too. He has most of the hill (street) cleared off. His JD is smaller than mine but it seems to be doing alright. It looks like we might have two inches down by now. But --- it is still snowing and I hope that doesn't just make it more icy with the fresh snow. I'm going to wait until it quits before I go out.

So, that is about it for today. I'm just enjoying sitting on my rump, watch my birds and squirrels. I had a squirrel thaat found out it liked the bark-butter paste. It had my smallest feder held between its front paws and was gobbling to beat the band. All was well until a starling decided it wanted to eat and it pecked the squirrel right on the butt and ran it off. I say "well done starling!"

You folks have a safe and blessed day. Peace.