the long winter

In the winter, the deer cross our yard in the evening. Usually there is no more than five but the other night 15 or so. I see from the hoof marks in the snow they have close to our house

I've killed more orchids than usual this year probably by overwatering Steve gave me this for Valentine's Day

And this balloon You can see my craziness in the background I put fairy lights over the screen

Winter drags on. Last night we were hit with another 5 inches of snow though the schools are closed anyway today. At least for the previous three days there was an almost clear path for me to run outside as long as I didn't mind 20 degree temps . I've been struggling to keep in a good mood. The smallest slights however unintentional put me near tears. The other day Steve finds me staring into space wondering what was wrong. I had been just disinvited from a Happy Hour. He wondered if we went out, maybe I would be happy so we did and it was nice.

We seem to have less birds these days. No titmice, no nuthatches, only a few pair of cardinals, no hairy woodpeckers, where are they? We do have squirrels traveling great distances to raid the suet cake and the 'squirrel-proof' feeder. Yep they always find a work around for that. Yesterday one was sitting on a tree branch separated only a few inches from me by glass. Suddenly it lunged but went smack into the window. Was it trying to attack me or maybe it looked like their might be food where I was.

And the news, I try to avoid listening. The country is being run by a tyrant with the emotions of a toddler. Just hope all the check and balances still work but he is only a symptom, not the disease itself.

Some nice times: a friend came over to share some wine. Good talks. And Allie and Josh came over the next day. Previous to coming here, they spent an hour in the park near us. As it was 20 degree and icy, they were the only ones there. That Allie is tough. I've been trying to tackle not fun jobs that I have no time for in the summer. Organized my closet, still learning Dutch..yes I know that everybody speaks English there.

We got a recall letter the other day for our almost 13 year old car. Apparently if the airbag ever deploys, it will spray with great force metal shrapnel in our faces. As this is dangerous, we were urged not to drive it and immediately have the dealer fix it. And when will that be?  The requisite part won't be in for at least 4 weeks. When have I ever had an airbag go off? Never but the day I received that, a woman from blogsphere that I meet up with was  t-boned at 60 mph which set off all her bags. She survived with relatively minor injuries despite the car doing cartwheels. So accidents can happen.