The birds and the trees

two minutes previous the sky was all red. Snooze you lose.

This weekend was spent putting up lights and Xmas decorations. One of the 3 trees

Josh's family including his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Hannah lets the other grandma hold her. Sigh

The main tree. Needed a ladder to put up some of the ornaments. Finally got the angel topper to work by replacing a bulb. Not easy to do as the whole thing needed to be taken apart. Hopefully it is good for another 10 years

I've been collecting ornaments for 40 years thus I have enough to cover 3 trees and then some. Unless the ornament completely breaks, I don't throw things away so stained ornaments from pine sap still make their way on the tree though in the back. I have toddler projects, really cheap ornaments when I couldn't afford better, thrift store specials, gifts from friends and a few expensive hand blown specials. I also have strings of various lights no thanks to Costco having a special on timed fairy lights that can be programed for different flashing patterns. These are all over the place in our house. Sometimes I have grandkids help me decorate the tree. One year, right after my dire diagnosis, I was afraid it would be my last Christmas. I was on chemo and could barely move much less decorate a tree so my friends came over and did it for me. That was so special. But decorating trees is my job though Steve hauled the tree out of the basement and helped get the angel on. Being Jewish, he did not grow up with Christmas trees.

A new bird to be found its way into our yard. It was so tiny and fluffy, I thought it was a pre-fledging though what bird would have babies now? Its main feature, besides being smaller than a wren, was a yellow stripe on its head. Turns out it is a gold crowned kinglet, a type of warbler. As it is a strict insect eater, it will not come to feeders. Back in the summer, I went for a meadow bird walk in a preserve just a few miles from here and saw all kinds of birds I never noticed before as they are not seed eaters such as several types of warblers and flycatchers. Out on my runs, I hear woodpeckers. They are making a different noise than they do in the spring. As now there are few leaves, I can see them. Still waiting to see pileated and red headed woodpeckers though I have seen them else where. The downies have returned to my feeder and once a female red bellied woodpecker came along with the nut hatches. I will get more when (I hope never) it snows. I also hear the red tailed hawk screeching these days. They occasionally find their way to my feeders along with the Cooper's and sharp shinned hawks. They are not there for the suet and seeds though. I am waiting for kestrels to come. The juncos also known as snowbirds, have returned. This is the south for them. I have a huge flock of goldfinch but as they have their ugly winter colors, I could barely tell them apart from sparrows except they fly better and eat thistle.

I could almost run in shorts the other day. I ran on dirt roads into new territory for me for more than 7 miles non-stop. I am gradually getting faster but I am so much slower than I used to be. I just have to tell myself I am lucky I can run especially when I think back to that Christmas 9 years ago when I thought I might be living my last.