Birds...musiic..grooming.....

The other day, I was sitting, enjoying one of my favourite pastimes, bird watching. The sky was blue and the sun was shining, making the trees and shrubs cast their shadows on the white snow. The tree just outside my den window was alive with redpolls, goldfinches, chickadees and snowbirds (juncos), and earlier there had been blue jays. A lone nuthatch and a downy woodpecker also came by. The redpolls are beautiful little birds, especially the males with their red patches above their beaks, and the splash of red on their chests. This is the first year that I have noticed the redpolls here, but I am happy to have them. I have yet to get a decent picture of them.

We are expecting another snow event here in the valley. Tomorrow is supposed to be quite blustery with a large snow fall. That is what is forecast, but as usual, one needs to wait and see if it will happen. It was very cold this morning, around -20. It has warmed up some. I did a few errands this morning, as the roads are pretty good right now.
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A family in our community is hosting a student from overseas, a very nice, and talented young man. He takes music in his home land of Austria, and plays piano. Since there isn't a piano in his host home, and he needs to practice, he will be coming to the church on choir practice evening to go over his music. I didn't realize the treat I was in for.  Beautiful. I usually go over early to get ready for choir, so as I got books out and put up hymn numbers, checked the library for returned books, (another job), he played. Finally I just sat down, shut my eyes and listened. He played jazz, and he played classical. Such a talent. He is going to come every Thursday evening before choir to practice. Nice!
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I got tired of my kitchen sink tap leaking like a sieve, and finally I called a plumber to come a fix it.
In the fall, I had bought a new tap, with the intensions of putting it in then, but the 'captain' said that I should wait until after apples. But......why, said I. Just wait.  It is well after apples, and then having to contend with the argument that what I had purchased was cheap, and would leak within days of being put it, I finally just called the plumber and got it done. I really try not to 'set the captain off', but I get weary of waiting for things to be done. I apparently am not smart enough to buy the right taps, or make decisions about anything else in this house. It is very hard to assert myself, after years of not doing that.
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I was almost finished my shopping this morning, when the light came on showing that the tire pressure was low. The first thing I thought of was, sadly, calling home to see what the captain wanted me to do. I tried to call him, but he doesn't answer the phone. Then, I thought, what would I do if I was all alone, and I drove to a garage to ask for help. Do you know that there are garages that only sell gas and groceries, and can't help with tires? I went to one. I ended up going to Canadian Tire, as it was close, and they took me right in, checked my tires, topped them up, and with a 'have a nice day', sent me on my merry way. Everything fixed, warning light off, and a smile on my face.
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Most pictures of Sadie, that I post on here, show her as looking more like a black and white slipper, than a dog. I decided that she needed a good hair cut, and her nails clipped. I spread out her blanket and got the scissors and comb, and settled her on the blanket. She is not really partial to being groomed. She likes to be combed, but when it comes to cutting she is not impressed. Her hair was so long, that when she went out in fresh snow, she brought little snowballs into the house, as they had attached themselves to her hair. To be honest, I am not a groomer, but I just set about cutting, and trimming....and now instead of a slipper, she looks like a badly groomed Japanese spaniel. But, she doesn't care, as long as the grooming is over, and that's good enough for me.

Till next time.......