Tis the Day After Christmas and All Through the Yard...

Hubby bought me a great new Christmas present - an Olympus digital camera. This one is a lot fancier than the old point and click one I had previously. I need to learn how to use it. The manual is worthless. It says things like: here's how you change the aperture speed... I'm sitting here going "what the heck is an aperture and why would it want to speed?". Not overly helpful when a manual assumes you know what all the features do. It also makes short movies, which is fairly cool. Thus far I have made hours of footage of my sleeping kitties (kidding... well kind of).

I couldn't resist sharing a few extra treats with the birds for Christmas. The little juncos and sparrows in particular really loved the leftover popcorn I popped for them. I also tossed a little stale bread and some orange slices out for them to peck at.

I marvel at those little juncos. They are so gosh darn cute. Even my elderly mother who was recently visiting thought they were cute, and she's not especially a nature person. They don't walk across the patio, they hop-hop-hop to get to their food. Legend has it that these little "snowbirds", as they are also known, appear in the fall just before snow. They summer farther north in Canada, leaving my zone five garden for cooler climates in the spring. I'm glad I get them, even if it is only for a few months of the year. How can you not love this face?