The hawk that came for breakfast and other news

Hello eveyone. It is a lovely Sunday afternoon here. Sun has been out intermittently and temps are in the high 50's. After a few days of cold with lows in the low 20's, it seems nice to have it a bit warmer. Guess we can be grateful we aren't getting the type of weather that the west and midwestern parts of the U.S. have been getting. I understand that in Bruce's neck of the woods they got quite an ice storm. I haven't heard from him in a few days but guess no news is good news. Jody was planning to move out with him this week so I expect he has been busy getting her settled in.

This morning when Jack and I were sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast Jack noticed a hawk sitting on one of the fence posts in the back field. I went out with my camera to see if I could get a couple of photos. Here is the result.....



We think it may be a red tailed hawk as they are apparently quite common in the this area.

And while we are on the subject of photos, Heidi had mentioned in her blog about her penchant for "killing" plants. Not to brag, but have to show here how beautiful one of my african violets is at the moment. I have five of them on my kitchen window ledge and they seem to like the diffused light. Since we have a wide porch, they don't get direct sun.



I celebrated my sixtieth birthday (yup, the big 6-0) recently. Incredible how quickly the years pass. But then, despite the years passing I am at least still around to enjoy life, and for that I am extremely grateful. In celebration I treated myself to a new van, which really was long overdue. I have 133,000 miles on my 2000 Mercury Villager and although I haven't been having problems with it, I could see the handwriting on the wall. I finally was able to find a 2007 Nissan Quest with just 500 miles on it and managed to get a GREAT deal. Jack and I took it to Naples, FL last week and it rides and drives beautifully. Lets hope it will prove to be as reliable as my Mercury has been. The trip to Naples was planned so that we could attend a mini class reunion of sorts. One of Jack's classmates, who currently lives in NH, has a vacation home on Ft. Myers Beach. For the past several years he has had a gathering of many of the classmates during his month-long vacation. We went last year and had a great time, as was the case this year. Here is a photo of the "old farts" (grin) who attended. All of the spouses of the classmates were busy manning the cameras. Jack is the one near the center in the bright blue shirt. The guy in the light blue shirt on the right lost everything during Hurricane Katrina and he and his wife are just now beginning to rebuild their home. Guess the rest of us really need to count our blessings.



Till next time.....