Today, the sun is shining...

Well, it snowed Thursday night and into Friday morning here in Central Texas.  I got up early Friday morning to see how much snow we had actually gotten.  It wasn't much (about an inch to an inch and a half), but it was enough to close the area schools.  For Madi, the cancellation of school Friday also meant the cancellation of her choir's Valentine's dance later that evening.  She was a little bummed about the dance being cancelled but, since she has two other dances scheduled over the next week, she was okay with the cancellation.  She's attending a friends Birthday party/dinner/dance later tonight and next Friday is the Middle School Valentine's dance.  So, she's gonna have plenty of time to get her groove on! :)

The day before it snowed, I was talking to my best friend, Eric, on the phone.  We were talking about the weather and the birds I've been photographing in our front yard recently.  Eric was commenting on how beautiful it would be to see the Cardinal in the snow and I agreed.  So, when I got up on Friday morning, the first thing I did was look out the window to see if the Cardinal was there, in the snow.  He was! As soon as I opened the blinds, I saw him on the bird feeder...

 ~ Eric was right.  Beautiful!

Madi and I were lazy, we didn't really care (not at first anyway) to go outside and check out the snow.  We kind of admired it from inside the house; which is what I prefer - I live in Texas for a reason you know.

Madi took advantage of her free morning. 

~She didn't even bother with brushing her hair.

~She's trying to hide her face

~This is suppose to be her giving me a mean look.  HA!

Bella dislikes snow and cold weather ~ sort of like her Momma. 


She was biting on her "dolly" just before I took this picture.  I told her to "be nice to dolly" and so she started licking it instead.

Momma Cass ~ on the prowl.

. 

Tex ~ super annoyed that I'm taking another picture of him.Just before noon I decided to go outside and get a few quick pictures of the snow before it started to melt.  

~Just outside our front door.  See, not a lot of snow.

One of the bird feeders



~Snow covering a flower bed and our little squirrel rain gauge.

~Our Oregano.  Not sure if it's going to make it.

My nephew, Jason and Madi's friend, Erin came by later in the morning to play in the snow with Madi; so that got her out of the house for a little while. 

While Madi, the pets and I enjoyed our snow day, poor Jack was having to drive home from Dallas after a very stressful attempt at flying home the day before. He had gone on travel to Arkansas on Wednesday morning and was suppose to be home Thursday night. However, due to ice and snowy conditions on Thursday, he couldn't get out of Dallas (which is a long story, but he didn't find out that he wasn't getting out until after 1am Friday morning) so he had to spent the night.  The next morning (Friday) after learning that his 10:40 am flight was canceled (along with all the other flights that morning), he and his co-worker/friend rented a car and pushed their luck on the roads.   His Mom and I were worried to death, but thankfully, he made it home safely yesterday afternoon. 

Today, the sun is shining, temperatures are in the 50's and the snow has just about completely melted away. We're thankful for all these things but especially thankful to be back together, safe and enjoying this beautiful Saturday!  

A-well-a bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word

As promised in my last post, here are a few pictures of the House Finch (we think it's a House Finch anyway) that has been hanging out in our front yard enjoying the bird feeders.

Remember, all of these pictures have been taken through our window, so they are a little "filmy" looking.

The Cardinal's (male and female) are still hanging out, but a Mockingbird is constantly chasing them, as well as any other bird who dares to come around, off so that he/she can have sole possession of the Crape Myrtle tree. Darn Mockingbird, they are so mean!  I still haven't gotten over seeing that Mockingbird eat our new born butterfly back in May.

 I took this picture to show a little bit of the view (focusing on the bird feeder hangin' from our tree while also showing the inside [blinds]of the window) I have as I sit at our desk and look out of the window.

All my bird watching/bird picture taking has got me signing an old 60's song (I do love 60's music - so this happens a lot!)  by The Trashmen called "Surfin' Bird".  The title of this post is a lyric from said song.  For a laugh, I've attached a video clip of Peter from the TV show Family Guy singing "Surfin' Bird".  I thought it was pretty funny, even though I don't watch the show.  Enjoy, but I'll warn you, you'll have "Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow" stuck in your head all day. 

Well, I just noticed (a day after posting this) that the video did not attach or somehow disappeared from.  Anyway, I can't get the video to show up here (I'm sure there's a way ~ I just can't figure it out!) for some reason, but if you would like to see the video clip, click on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184&feature=player_embedded#t=0s

Through the window...

Jack put out bird feeders in our front yard on Saturday evening.  He carefully  arranged them so that we could see the birds through our office window when they came to feed.   I was thrilled and on Sunday morning,  I was up at 7:30am hoping to find some feathered friends hangin' out in our front yard.  I wasn't disappointed.  Within an hour of  "bird watching", I saw and photographed a male Cardinal, a female Cardinal, and a Yellow-Rumped Warbler.  I also got a quick glimpse of a house wren but, didn't get pictures of it.

I took tons of pictures, but since they were all taken through the window, they aren't as crisp and clear (just a tiny bit filmy looking - our window could use some cleaning obviously!) as they would be otherwise.  Even so, I'm happy with the pictures; they turned out pretty good. 

Male Cardinal on our Crape Myrtle tree.

~The female Cardinal.   You can see the male Cardinal in the background.

~enjoying his breakfast.

~And last, but not least, a cute little Yellow-Rumped Warbler. 

Yesterday, there were even more birds that stopped by to enjoy our feeders.  I saw a pair (maybe the same pair) of Cardinals, a Yellow Rumped Warbler, two or three wrens and one house finch.  As I write this post, I can look out the window and see a house Finch resting in the Crape Myrtle tree.  He is just setting there all puffed up (it's a really cold morning - only 25 degrees) and is as cute as can be with a red head and chest.  I've taken several pictures of him/her that I would like to share later in the week.

So, all thanks to Jack, I can now see a bit of nature without actual going out into the cold! :)  I know that sounds lazy, but I really do dread the cold.  For now, taking pictures through the window is just fine with me!  I'll be waiting for Spring in the warmth and comfort of my house.