#$%&* Squirrels

 

My assistant and I were admiring one fat and sassy squirrel sitting atop the patio trash can nibbling on a peanut when it occurred to me that I hadn't filled the peanuts since last weekend so where was it getting the nuts.  In the next second I found out.  The blasted tree rat had gnawed a huge hole in the side of the can lid, then chewed through the trash bag and into the bag of excess peanuts below the trash.  Arrrgh!  I slammed my feet into my boots and went out coatless to foil the marauder.  I put the trash into the can in the garage (that went to the curb this morning) and the bag of excess peanuts on top of the garage garbage can.  On our errands we stopped at Ace Hardware and chose a lovely big ALUMINUM garbage can for the patio.  I installed it when I got home, peanuts inside, and put the last of my big lid-holding-down rocks on top of it.  Let's see you get in there now, Mr. Squirrel.

 


 
There was the palest of pink on the very few clouds in this morning's early sky but I thought it was worth a look.


 


The local Mourning Dove contingent came for breakfast this morning.  My assistant is very good at spreading seeds on the snow for the ground feeding birds to enjoy.  He gets excited to see how many birdies come to eat them right away.  Although he exercised his sense of humor because he called them "duckies" and I corrected him, "no, they're doves" and made a cooing sound.  He said "doves" once and then said, "duckies, quack quack quack" with a sly little grin on his face.  The (smart-ass) Force is strong in this one.  I love it.

December 20--Gustav Klimt, Church in Unterach on the Attersee.  From the sea the village looked like children's blocks stacked one atop the other.  The land rose from the shore like an amphitheater and the angle made it hard to see the gaps where streets must be.  Lily thought it looked like an Impressionist painting.  Even the reflections on the water were broken up into small dashes of color like brush strokes.  As the boat neared the dock the town loomed up and blocked the wind trapping in the smell of fish and diesel.

This morning the furnace guy came to tune-up both furnaces, change the filters, that kind of stuff.  Both are working just fine.  Whew.  I don't have any sewing to show because I'm not and the knitting I've done is more rows on the Black & Blue Shrug and even 4 more rows doesn't make it look all that different so you're spared.  Time to heat up some soup for lunch.  Mm, hot soup on a cold day.  What could be better?
--Barbara