What Are YOU Looking At?

We didn't want to admit it yesterday, but today we have succumbed to the cold that we had hoped Anne and Harold took home with them. Oh well, what do old friends do if not share?

It has been sunny and reasonably warm today which means it is unreasonably chilly inside the house. John would be pleased to show the new app on his phone which shows exactly how much energy our solar panels are generating, but looking at a graph on the phone doesn't seem to make either of us any warmer.Turning up the thermostat doesn't seem to help much either, but I'm sure people coming in from outside probably find it stifling.....We used to give my mother socks and sweaters, lap robes and jumpers when she came to visit in the winter because she was always cold. I think I am turning into my mother....

I sat in the sun on the front porch for awhile and watched two hummingbirds zooming around the grevilleas,  and the fountain but they were too busy chasing each other around for me to get  a good shot of them. Eventually I came back inside and took this picture of an acorn woodpecker at the bird feeder. The acorns are scarce right now galore come spring we will be emptying them out of the downspouts and picking them out of the siding. The only way this fellow could manage the bird feeder was to hang from the lowest perch and curl his body underneath the tube. They have made so many holes in the telephone pole at the bottom of our lawn that John calls it 'the woodpecker condominium.' 

I noticed while I was taking pictures of the birds that the oak trees have clusters of tight new leaf buds on them even while brown spent leaves still cling to their branches. We have alternated between sunny days, freezing nights and rain. The plants are all totally confused so perhaps the birds are too.

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