When I woke up on Tuesday morning, this warm, orange light was flooding the living room. In this photo it doesn't look quite like a flood, but I liked this photo best. The winter sunrise seemed so cold and yet so inviting. It made me smile.
The complete package above.
Sprinkle the seeds on the magical growing material.
Add the extra magical growing material and then water the seeds.
Throw it into an open bag (note to self: buy ClingWrap) and then wait three days.
That's it. It was exciting. I can't wait for it to grow. It needs at least one hour of sunshine a day. And then I give the cats some grass.
Christmas was very nice and it was 40 degrees in Ohio, which was like a fabulous surprise. I got all sorts of fabulous presents and had a great time with family.
It started with a plan. I made a fire in the fireplace. Later on I went out to the backyard to fetch some more firewood because this project took far longer than I anticipated. I wanted to listen to a radio program from 1937 called The Cinnamon Bear. Here's what Wikipedia says: The story focused on Judy and Jimmy Barton who go to the enchanted world of Maybeland to recover their missing Silver Star that belongs on their Christmas tree. Helping on the search is the Cinnamon Bear, a stuffed bear with shoe-button eyes and a green scarf. They meet other memorable characters during their quest, including the Crazy Quilt Dragon (who repeatedly tries to take the star for himself) , the Wintergreen Witch, Fe Fo the Giant and Santa Claus.
Paddy is a bear with an Irish accent and way of speaking. He says "Bless my stuffings" a lot and he takes the kids to find the lost silver star that should go on the top of their Christmas tree. They meet pirates who feed them candy, including superior fudge. The meet cowboys with a dry cleaning machine and are almost executed by the Inkaboos, which are blotting papers who are angry with the trio for standing on a boundary line in their shoes.
I was surrounded by assistants the entire day. If you look carefully at the inch of ribbon above my thumb, you will see the cat spit. Oh yes, the fine feline festivities. Everyone was enraptured with the ribbons.
It's a gift for a friend. Look and see the tooth marks in the ribbon. Yes, you know you've gotten a gift from the kitties! I took this photo right away. It has been molested even more and looks it. But it won the battle.
All the gifts will win the battle because now that they're wrapped, they're locked in the guest bedroom. And of course now that I have them wrapped, I know what I'm missing. I don't have any time left to shop, Amazon is not whipping three gifts to me with any sort of speed and I have two gifts not only not bought, but they are both for teenagers. I haven't the slightest idea what to get. But that's it. I'm done for today and I can't believe it took all day long to wrap so few presents, but I took my time and ran to Walgreens for more paper. I sat by the fire and listened to an old radio show that used to be a habit of mine for years when I lived in Chicago and a radio station played the show in installments for the Saturdays before Christmas. It was a nice day. 
All the Christmas decorations? They're in that jumble in the back. I have not really been in the mood to take everything out of the closet and put some of it back. I have this beautiful, big tree that takes 
This happy fellow came out easily enough and sits in the living room.
Here's Frosty the Snowman. You know he dies, right? I mean he melts. So that's the same, isn't it? Those Christmas stories are sort of sad. But that's another post for another day. I probably won't post it, though. How depressing. No one needs that at any time of the year. So what to do about a tree? I went to Goodwill after work! And for $16, I got a tree with a really heavy base so the 
The house is decorated! Happy, Merry Christmas!
I thought I would leave by the back door, but I had to push snow out of the way and I thought it might make a mess. I let Roscoe inspect things. He was pretty interested and acted like he wanted out, which isn't really a big deal as he won't leave us. But I didn't want to have to step into the huge drift only inches away from the door.
Here is the line of evergreens that line the back of the backyard. In the foreground are the freeze-dried peony bushes. The trees are laden with snow and there are drifts into the bottom of each tree. I hope it is snug within, down there close to the ground.
Here is the ginormous tree on the south side of the property. Without reference, you can't really tell that the bottom branches are almost buried in snow. A lot of critter babies are born under this tree. The road and curb are in this photo.
I caught this angle to show you the way the snow has filled in under the tree. What are the birds doing today? I don't hear a thing. Don't they need a lot of calories every day? What's the scoop? I know someone in our Nature Notes audience knows the answer to this question. 
I've been working from home today, which is a great option, but I am sort of over it after having worked from home for three years once upon a time. We didn't get mail or garbage pick up today. I've been home all day with not much going on except for cat drama, which goes from barfing in the early morning, which I apparently slept through, to thumping each other on the head unprovoked to sleeping through lunch to smacking ice cubes out of the water dish and chasing that around the kitchen until it becomes lodged behind the leg of a large kitchen thingy so another cat can lick it. I would like to say I had no idea this sort of thing goes on, but I do. I've been privy to it in the past. It has been a slow day in the cat world, though. I feel for them and so when I saw an ad today for a Chia pet that grows cat grass, I exclaimed, "I love it! I want it! I'm a consumer!" 
I think it worked. So do I look like a criminal? Like a certain cannibal criminal even? Do let me know how ridiculous I look so I can be prepared for Saturday.
Oh one more thing. On February 28, I will be doing the American Lung Association Climb for Air up the tallest building in Iowa, which is 41 stories, 85 flights of stairs, 1,100 steps. I can't wait! I'm excited about it as it is something I've never done before and it will keep me sufficiently freaked out all winter about getting into shape for it. (I've had two delicious homemade peppermint cookies so far today...) Feel free to cheer me on beginning NOW and at random.
Or harass me about the cookies.
I took this photo right after work. We already had snow on the ground and it snowed last night. It has been snowing all day and the weather-head on television said it could snow for another 12 hours. We easily have 9 inches in Des Moines. This storm may give us a total of 14, which means we would have close to 20. Last time this happened, we got rotten grass. I can't remember what that's called. It happened in 2003. We got snow after snow after snow with no times in between to melt and your lawn comes up in unattractive clumps. Consider yourself warned!!Another fine example of what not to include on your resume (random capitalization and creative grammar included):
Being a Scorpio for 33 years ( my age ) very good at judging people and understand if a resource can be productive the way the Project want or not.
Keep in mind my little point and shoot is way out of its ken with a close up like this. I was sitting at my desk working and I noticed movement as a blue jay landed on the tree. He was followed immediately by a woodpecker. I took quite a few photos, all of them hampered by my camera's limitations, but I am very glad I had the camera with me. I should keep it at work with me all winter as I get vultures and hawks and deer visiting me all winter long.
The woodpecker moved around a lot and that made it difficult to get a shot at all. This was the best of the bunch. He moved up and down and around and around the entire time.
This fat, jolly fellow sat quietly as I got my camera and got a couple decent shots. I'm much obliged.
I was especially pleased with the pose here. I slipped him 50 cents for his work on this shot.
Visit Michelle at the very greenNature Notes Thursday Meme for a list of the best bloggers in the natural world. Check out Thursday's post with the woodpecker and then Friday's post for the bloggers.
Last Thursday she said she just wanted us to write about how we think green and she gave us all a lovely award. My first:
So here I am, days late, to tell you what I do that's green. I have read some of the posts and I assure you, I am seriously lacking.
1. I drive a hybrid car that uses electricity and saves gas.
2. I now enjoy recycling because our city gave us this huge bin that is the same size as the trash can and every other week they pick it up. Our trash can is never full anymore, I don't have to sort anything, just wash out the icky stuff.
3. I don't drive as much as I did, but I do try not to skimp when I do things for the kids. They live downtown and I live in the suburbs, but they're worth it.
4. I run the dryer consecutively to keep it warm instead of letting it cool off. Same with the oven.
5. I grow a vegetable a year. Last summer was leeks. I think, if I can figure out how, I may go with kale this coming year.
6. I don't fertilize or do anything but weed the garden. I just let it grow. This may contribute to my lack of success, but I also like that my leeks and rhubarb are unaffected by chemicals.
7. I take my own bags to the store - grocery store, Target, KMart, you name it. I do not always remember, but mostly I do and I despise those stupid plastic bags. You almost have to wonder if the cashiers get paid by the plastic bag. (HEY!) Maybe Howard will explain this to me.
8. I don't buy chicken unless I get it from a farm. I suppose if I have to, like making a special dish for a friend, I will, but 99% of the time, I do not want a molested, abused, stuffed-in-a-cage corporate chicken on my plate. I buy organic, but not religiously. I buy the milk without hormones and sub-therapeutic antibiotics, but really prefer the outrageously expensive non-homogenized, low heat pasteurized milk. Like, for Christmas, just get me a gift card from HyVee so I can buy some milk at $3.99 a half gallon, I ask you.
That's about all I can come up with right now, but I honestly think there's more than this. Thanks for asking, Michelle!
Ya'll might want to join up with Nature Notes. Obviously (as you see by my inclusion) you do not have to be a birding blog or photography blog, etc.
