It's A Mite Chilly Out There...

25 degrees, to be exact. That's a big improvement over this morning's temps - 14 degrees. It's supposed to be 8 degrees tonight, and it's going to get really windy later, just to add to the fun. I nearly froze my fingers off earlier, while filling up all my bird feeders. We have a million birds out there when it's cold like this. Here's my Saturday Sky - brilliant blue, bright sunshine. You could never tell from that picture that we're all freezing our whatevers off.

We had a mini-drama earlier this week at the feeder. It was late in the afternoon and I was working on the computer in the family room, when I heard something slam into the sliding glass doors in the dining room. It was a big bang, so i could tell it was something big (duh!). I looked out, and saw a hawk circling around, about six feet off the ground. There were feathers everywhere on the ground. Closer inspection revealed they were mostly dove feathers, with a trail of them from the nearby feeder to the door. He must have nailed one of the doves that hang around under the feeder, and slammed right into the door after grabbing his prey. The hawk was now sitting in a nearby tree, prey-less. I looked around and didn't see anything, so I didn't know what happened to the unfortunate bird he grabbed.

A few hours later, I see my cats clustered around the sliding glass door, staring out very intently. Flipped on the light, and looked out, and finally spotted a very scared dove hanging out in the leaves still under the patio chair. Made a quick call to the local bird guy, who advised me to put the bird in a box in a warm place for the night. Hokay. Grab an old kitten carrier, put newspapers in it, and head outside. When Chris reaches for the bird, it flies off. Happy ending, I guess. I did see the same dove the next day - it was easy to tell - was missing a fair amount of feathers, which I am assured is what doves do. Hawks are amazing, and I love watching them. I just hate when they grab smaller birds from my feeders. I don't like the feeling I'm providing a sort of diner for them.

Still stalled, project-wise. I did finish the gift socks, which will go to the recipient next week, and have started another sock. No, not another pair, but the second sock of one of my Socktoberfest socks. If I can't figure out what I want to do for a big project, I can at least relieve my second-sock syndrome backup. And speaking of socks, I got this earlier this week - Socks that Rock in Rhodonite. Our uniform pants are currently pink, and I hear we are switching to purple, so either way, I'm covered with this yarn. I've been wearing my hand-knit socks to work, and I must admit, they're very comfortable. I work twelve hour shifts, so my feet are really killing me at the end of that 12 hours. I still have two more skeins coming from Blue Moon - apparently there was a glitch in my order.

Some pictures from the snow earlier this week. One of my solar path lights with a cap of snow. The day we got
that snow, they were predicting flurried - we wound up with 3 1/2 inches of snow. On the other hand, all hell was supposed to break loose yesterday morning, and all we got was some flurries in the morning, and heavy rain later in the day.

Murdoch has figured out the warmest place in the house is by the heat vent in our foyer. He parks himself there nearly all day, every day. The vent points downward, and it's amazing just how hot this furball gets while snoring away there. He gets up to eat and use the litter box, and then flops down and goes back to sleep.