High winds n this Wednesday morning and they are bringing in a storm that is pushed by a cold front.  There is nothing better to cause a headache than a low pressure front carrying a storm along with it. The chimes are ringing in the wind and it is a pleasant sound. 

I saw a first this morning. There was a cardinal in the birdbath taking a bath this morning. I've seen many robins and starlings and blackbirds do that but never a cardinal. I've seen sparrow taking both water and dust baths but was surprised to see a cardinal splashing the water around this morning. I had to fill my bark butter feeders again this morning. I'm going through a 2lb container of this stuff about every ten days at $12.00 a container. But --- it keeps my birds coming back. The nut hatches were literally landing on the one I had just filled as I was hanging up a second one. My presence didn't bother them a bit. 

Wednesday of course means an afternoon and evening at the churches for Sunday and then staying around for choir practice. I don't know what we will work on for choir now that the cantata is over. I would love for them to sing a couple more times before the summer schedule starts. We generally don't have choir during the summer. I try to get individuals to sing or play an instrument as a solo during the summer. We have a young girl who does interpretive dance and I had her do her recital dance one time. I don't know if she is still doing that or not. Parents seem to want their kids doing everything these days. I know she is doing basketball and soccer these days so maybe she's not doing dance. We have several musicians in the congregation at St. Lucas but one would think they never heard of music when I ask them to do a solo. I have done solos several times but I always feel like I'm being a show off or being "braggy" if I do it myself.  I just don't understand --- God gives people beautiful talents but they want tpo hide it and not use it. But then, I have played music and sang solos in front of people forever. Sometimes I do really well, sometimes I could have done a lot better. But if you want runs on the scoreboard --- somebody has to pick up a bat. 

The sky is getting darker rather than lighter which I reckons means the rain is moving this way. It is supposed to be over by this evening which is fine by me and it isn't supposed to be more than a half an inch. I've set here through both cups of coffee and now I need to head to my "real" computer and get some writing done. I pray your day is fully blessed and full of goodness for your mind, body, and soul. Peace. 

The blooming trees and flowers tell me it is spring. The temperature being 32 this morning and a skim of ice on the bird bath say it is not. What's up with all of that?? But, yesterday turned out to be a very nice day. I spent about five or maybe six hours outside working in the yard. I started out in a sweatshirt but quickly changed to a tee-shirt. I finished up cleaning away my branch/twig pile from the winter and got the area raked clear of the leaves from last fall. Then I started giving the fire bushes a "haircut". Every year or year and a half I go trim off all of the lower new shoots and branches so they remain manageable. If I don't do that they get so thick that no light gets through them at all. Ms. Kate came out and helped me and we got most of three of them done. We still have three to do and one of them is going to take a while. They grow so that it hard to even get the pruner in there to trim them. And, I got my back yard mowed as well as my front yard and neighbor Dan's yard. He and Minh get back from California tomorrow night. They have been gone for five weeks.

The feeders are all full this morning since I filled up everything yesterday. The first run of birds was nothing but blackbirds and starlings. But -- they are now moved on and the woodpeckers, cardinals, mockingbirds, doves, finches and robins are all now here. What a joy to sit here and observe them. The Robin didn't even mind the skim of ice that was on the bird bath --- it jumped in for its bath anyway. We've been watching the goldfinches and I think they are a brighter yellow this year than they have been in the past couple of years. I don't know what would make that true, but I think it is. Perhaps it is just that the sun cresting the roof of the house seems to shine especially bright on them in the morning. The same could be said for the red of the cardinals. God does create some beautiful creature though and His lighting effects are often pretty spectacular.

I finished up my worship services for the two weeks that I'm going to be on vacation and got them sent to our guest pastor for a sermon title and any scripture changes. Today, I need to put together a couple more services and write a sermon for Pentecost Sunday. Being caught up for me means several weeks ahead. A person never knows when an emergency might come up and rob you of time to get things done, hence, I work ahead when ever possible. It will sure seems strange to not have to do that kind of stuff when I eventually retire.

Time for me to read my morning devotional from Max Lucado and stop and have a chat with the Blessed God who makes all things possible including the showers of blessings that fill my life. I just remain amazed at what a good life I have been allowed to live and how fortunate I am. We don't have "money" but we have everything we need and the world hardly seems big enough to contain the amount of love I feel myself surrounded by. I have no doubt it all starts with God's grace. I pray you can feel that way too. Peace.

I saw a meme on Facebook this morning that I thought was quite appropriate. It was a child wth a scowl on his face and the words were; "Winter, you had six weeks to show up and you were late! Now move on!" That's a bit how I feel about the weather this week. We are still having freeze warnings at night and the 60's during the day. This morning it was 43  and is going to 63. But --- the sky is cloud covered, and it is sprinkling rain. However, typing and griping about it all is just an exercise for my fingers; so, I'll just hush and eat my piece of peach pie for my breakfast.

And a very happy Monday to you! As I look out the porch this morning I see that the Bradford Pear and other early blooming trees are about 90% done and the wind has taken the blossoms away. However, The Redbuds, and Flowering Crabapples are now blooming beautifully, and the Dogwood trees are just now starting to put their blooms on. The daffodils are "past it" and are drooping and looking tired. But the Tulips are looking good and the peonies are now up abut a foot and the early Azelia's are getting a few blooms on them. I might gripe about the weather etc., but God has indeed given us a beautiful spring this year. So, I send a heaven-bound Instagram full of my apologies.

Ms. Kate still isn't feeling well. She says it is her diverticulitis that is keeping her down. Bless her heart, there isn't much one can do about it except watch your diet and suffer with it. I had that for several years and can attest to what she is going through. It will flat double you over in pain.

The robins are a hoppin' and boppin' his morning around the yard and in the bird bath. I bought a new container /feeder the other day for mealworms to put out for the birds. It is a small glass jar that is maybe two inches wide and a half an inch deep. The wren loves it. It keeps the container empty as it darts back and forth grabbing a worm. These meal worms are dried and they stink. They are also expensive. They weigh practically nothing for a container of them. But cardinals like them and so do my wrens. I guess I need to fill up my little container again as well as the bark butter feeders. These guys sure do have me trained.

Yesterday was a busy day but I got some good work done. The best part for me was that I finally got my slate of candidates filled for the up coming election of the Evansvile Tri-State Association of the United Church of Christ. Now I can relax about that. When I accepted the position as the Vice President as a fill-in back in December, filling that slate was my only real job that I had to do and there were seven positions that needed to be filled. So, I'm patting myself on the back because one of the jobs that had to be filled was mine! Now I have a couple more worship services and a sermon yet to write before Ms. Kate and I are ready to leave on vacation. But, it is all coming together.

Time to wrap this up and get on with having a Monday and doing something productive. Never forget that God is good, all the time, and the Holy Spirit is your constant companion. Have a blessed day.

It is a bright 43 degrees out there this morning and is going up to 61 today with sunshine all day. It is hard to know what clothes to plan on day by day right now. It's Tee-shirts one day and sweatshirts the next. The weather guy said there will be a freeze warning for parts of the tri-state area for tonight. What gives???

The feeders are full of visitors this morning. I filled everything up yesterday afternoon. I especially wanted to make sure my bark butter feeders were full because the Pilated woodpecker likes that and generally comes in on Saturday morning. I really want to keep it interested in coming here. So far this morning I've neither seen nor heard from it. I do have at least a half dozen cardinals, three, maybe four robins, several goldfinches, and a couple of other woodpeckers here. And of course, the dang starlings are here. They come in and spend more time fighting each other than they actually do eating.

I have told you before that my yard is surrounded by nine large trees. Two huge tulip poplars are in my back yard and everything else is just on the other side of the fence on the south, west, and north sides of me. Also, my south fence is lined with six large fire bushes, a huge Rose of Sharon, and a Crepe Myrtle. Each day, it seems that all of these trees and bushes are leafing out more and more. That helps to account for all of the birds and squirrels, that I have. Everything feels safe because there is plenty of shelter and cover. It also accounts for the fact that within a month, My back yard will see very little sunshine because of all the shade. The detriment is that it quasi-limits what we can plant for flowers back here. On the other hand --- it sure cuts down on my air conditioning usage.

The ground has dried out much but I think I can get out there and mow today. I have a lot of weeds to pull out of the flowerbeds already. We pulled some out yesterday but the beds are too muddy to be walking around in. That also means that we can't work up any ground yet for doing any planting. Early lettuce and radishes should already be in the ground and coming up. But, all we have is our asparagus. Potatoes should have been planted o/a St. Patrick's day but it was cold rainy and nasty so that didn't happen. Ms. Kate even had some that had gone to sprout in the bag that we were going to use. They went to rot and compost instead.

God has given us a beautiful but cool day and we need to put it to some good use, so I think I'll drop off now.  I better check and see if Ms. Kate has anything on my schedule that I don't know about yet. I hope your day is filled with good things. Tomorrow is Sunday, the day we typically reserve for giving praise to God. But hey, ----- you don't need to wait. Go ahead, give God glory today.

The rain has washed away all of the clouds this morning and brought in a big ol' ball of sunshine. It is a beautiful cool morning out there. We have a breeze going this morning that keeps the chimes ringing and the feeders swaying. It looks as if I need to fill all of the feeders again this morning. The starling trio are here and they are going after the suet feeders and what is left of the bark butter. The goldfinches are on the thistle feeder. I don't have to fill the thistle feeders very often. The small birds kind of eat that as a last resort for what ever reason. I don't mind it because it is pretty expensive stuff. But I don't want it to sit there and mold either.

I don't have a lot of my plate today, just some odd jobs to be done; cut the asparagus, maybe mow the front yard if it isn't soggy, maybe break up some of the rest of the limb & twig pile. I for sure need to go get a haircut because Ms. Kate said I'm getting shaggy. I hadn't noticed it yet. I can generally tell when I need one because it starts to tickle the tops of my ears.

The black and white cat is back patrolling the perimeter of my yard. I'm intrigued because it is being very stealthy out there and watching the ground, and is paying zero attention to the birds that are all around out there. If I didn't know better, (and I don't) I would think it is looking for moles or voles. If that is the case, it is welcome in my yard. I know there is a mole run out there in the area where it seems to be stalking and it is working back and forth on both sides of the fence. Then it comes back out toward my yard barn. It maybe stays under there. It looks very well groomed so maybe I'm just the playground for when who ever owns it lets it out for the day. Oh well, as long as it leaves my birds alone, I don't care. If I see it take a bird out --- it will be BB gun justice time.

Ms, Kate and I got the bulletins run yesterday and then did some run-around shopping. I am looking for a specific kind of three-ring binder and have not been able to find it. A company named Mead used to make them but I am at a loss as to where to find one. Office Depot doesn't carry them, neither does Staples, Walmart, Target or anywhere else I have checked. I even went on line last night and couldn't find one. It is just a simple three-ring binder for holding 5 1/2  by 8 " paper. And they are only 1/2 inches thick. I found some that are "close" but not exact and it is driving me nuts now. I'm going to stop at Dollar General today and see if they have them.  It is just probably one of those products that they don't make anymore. I even went to Best Buy yesterday and asked the clerk there and his smart-assed reply was, "Sir, we don't deal in paper here."

Well, it is time to get busy and go have my hair cut. That will give the yard and ground time to dry out the yard a bit and I can do some stuff out there. Maybe I can talk Ms. Kate into going with me and we'll grab us some breakfast. I'll admit it is hard t leave my chair because I have seven bright red cardinals out there on the feeders and the bird bath and they are a joy to watch. Have yourself a most blessed day!

Rain, thunderstorms, and 52 degrees at the moment. It has rained most of the night and morning so far although we are in a bit of a lull right now. But there is more to come throughout the day. The daffodils are drooping their heads so their little cups don't fill up, and the rain is knocking a lot of blossoms off of the trees too. Ms. Margaret's Flowering Crabapple tree is really blooming now. I can't get over how much that tree has grown since we moved here fifteen years ago. But, I'm also glad she has the tree and I can just look at it and don't have to clean up after it. It has at least doubled in size. Outside of Ms. Kate's offfice window e have a volunteer Redbud tree that is also blooming beautifully. It came up four years ago or so and since it wasn't in a location to bother anything I just let it grow. It has turned into a really nice tree.

We didn't get to the churches yesterday. It was a nice day and we didn't feel like driving up to Ft. Branch. Instead, I got some good writing done. So this morning we'll head on up to the churches and take care of business and then Ms. Kate has several places she wants to go for some shopping. Hopefully we can get it all in and done before the storms hit this afternoon.

This morning I have mostly doves, cardinals, and a woodpecker for my guests now that the rain has stopped for a bit. I like having my doves around here. They just kind of waddle peacefully around the yard  or they sit up in the tree doing their cooing. They are very in-intrusive birds except during mating season. Then the males come in and they puff themselves all up and they chase the females all over the yard literally right on their tail. When they find a female they are interested in, they run after them with every move. I'd think it would drive the females nuts. But --- I guess when the season is right --- ya' gotta' do what ya' gotta' do.

I went to my churrch's local Tri-State Association  cabinet meeting last night. Back before Christmas I had agreed to fill a vacancy as the Vice President of the Association until mid May when re-elections were heard. The biggest problem I have is that the Vice President is the one who has to head up the nomination committe. I found takers for five of my seven upcoming open positions, but trying to find someone to take a secretary or Vice- President position is proving hard to do. I will not good for re-election for a three year term because bureaucracy is among my top ten most disliked things in the world. But, I was given a list of "possibles" last night to contact. We'll see what happens. All Jesus had to do was walk up to twelve different guys and say "Follow me" and they left their day jobs and went off with him. I have 35 ordained clergy to chose from and can't get a one to say "yes" to being VP. And we have about 2500 members of the Evansville Tri-State Association and I can't find one to say yes to being secretary.

The rain appears to be holding off so I better get out of my chair in and to my jeans and get busy.  I hope you have a most blessed day full of God's goodness and grace.

Mid week again already. Where does the time go? It is a cloudy 57 degree morning and the clouds are going to get thicker as the day goes on and the temperature reaches 70. That of course means we are under a slight risk for severe thunderstorms. It is springtime in the Ohio Valley.

This morning we have another battle of the sharp beaked birds. The woodpeckers and the starling and the bluejay are all trying for the same feeders and and they are each very area protective. So there has been a lot of pecking at one another and fussing at one another going on out there. Meanwhile on the ground, the wrens and the junkos are darting here and there and everywhere . The robins are here and are taking their baths this morning in my freshly filled birdbaths. And, the cardinal is sitting on the edge of the bird bath looking at the Robin as if to say; "Aww man, I was going to drink out of there!"
There is enough of a breeze this morning to keep the Corinthian chimes playing. It can easily lull a person off to a hypnotic sleep.

Yesterday was a busy day with some work getting done and fun being had. I got a lot of my limb and twig pile broken up and put into my trash can. The trash man comes early in the morning so I will clean up the rest of it into next week's can. Then I will have a bunch of raking to do in the whole area.  Ms. Kate and I also went and got a pedicure at the local nail place. As I told someone yesterday, I don't bend over like I used to and taking proper care of my feet is important. So, I pay to have a pedicure. I also got another sermon finished last night so it was a very productive day. Today of course being Wednesday means that we should go to the church and run our bulletins. However, tomorrow is going be kind of a nasty weather day and a good day to be inside too so maybe we will wait. Although, if I don't go run bulletins today, I'll just be down in the basement in my office anyway. So I guess it is six one way and half a dozen the other.

Ms. Kate and I think that maybe we can start sitting a few of our planters back outside. I have one whole corner of the sunporch taken up with these things. It is going to be April in a couple of days and warm weather will be more and more prevalent. It will be nice to open up that space out here in the sunporch again. But, we've kept several of these plants going for years now because we bring them in and out according to season.. I think I'll move some out today though and let God water them tonight.

I need to go out Andy fill the bark butter feeders again so I guess I'll sign off. I hope your day is full of blessings and good thoughts. Take a few moments and look around at the world God created just for you. Then, give thanks for those blessings that are right there in front of you.