IT WAS 3 - 2 FOR THE SQUIRRELS:(( BUT NOW IT'S 4 - 3 FOR ME:))....FOR NOW

Pheebs and I traveled around under cold and drearily dismal overcast skies this morning.  Once again my camera lay dormant by my side.  Well that was the bad news so here's the good news.  Skies cleared late morning and temporarily bathed us in sunshine for a few hours.  Oh how groovily marvelous it was to see sunshine again even though it didn't last.  Air remained cold enough for me to see my breath.

WILD TURKEY

The pesky Squirrels weren't long in taking over the lead in our ongoing Squirrel Wars.  Both the Red and Black Squirrels blew through my latest bird feeder defences and had themselves a feast.  This morning I struck back and made some changes to the feeder.  Took away the large upside down flower pot planter and moved the metal stovepipe higher up on the wood post to right under the feeder.  The Squirrels had attached springs to their hind legs and were bouncing from the ground right up past where the stovepipe had ended before.  So once again (at this point) I am ahead......well that is until I look out the window and see another %!!~**# Squirrel on the feeder again!!  I don't dislike Squirrels I just don't like their feeding habits at our bird feeding station.

In our bathroom I have 31 ninety minute cassette tapes and a boombox.  That's about 2,790 minutes of music or 46.5 hours give or take a few minutes.  There is always a cassette tape in the player and every time I go into the washroom I hit the play button.  When I have played both sides of the tape I place it back on the shelf and pick up the next tape in line.  Back and forth I go year after year from one end of the line to the other and back again.  Been listening to this same 31 tape line-up for over a dozen years now.  These are not pre-recorded tapes they are tapes I copied back in the mid 80's from CD's I had and CD's I took out at the Stratford Ontario Library. I had a good twin tape deck stereo system at the time so I made use of it.  Like I've said before, I like to have music everywhere I am. (even in the washroom)  Only exception is when I'm out walking.  In nature I prefer the sounds Mother Nature has to offer.  The majority of music on those tapes is ambient instrumental with artists like Pat Metheny, George Winston, Hagood Hardy, Mannheim Steamroller, Andreas Vollenweider, George Shearing, Stephane Grappelli, Big Bands, Celtic Harp, William Ackerman, Mark Isham, Alan Stivel, Michael Hedges, Lee Rittenour, Les Paul & Mary Ford, Larry Carlton, Tim Story, and Dan Gibson, just to mention a few.  

BOOMBOX ON THE LEFT WITH MY 31 CASSETTE TAPES ON THE RIGHT

Not much going on today just more outside puttery stuff.  Most of my photos are from a late afternoon stroll around our front yard after Pheebs and I returned from a photoless walk.

HOSTA SPIKES POKING UP THROUGH THE GROUND

NARCISSUS

AN UNFOLDED DAFFODIL

A TYPE OF SUMAC

FORSYTHIA BLOSSOMS

PERIWINKLE

ONE OF SEVERL WATER PLANTS FROM LAST YEAR IN OUR FROG POND....OUR THREE GOLDFISH LIKE TO HIDE UNDER THESE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Jim and Mary were both patients in a Mental Hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom & stayed there. Mary promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out. When the medical director became aware of Mary's heroic act he immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as he now considered her to be mentally stable. When he went to tell Mary the news he said: "Mary, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're being discharged because since you were able to jump in and save the life of another patient, I think you've regained your senses. The bad news is, Jim, the patient you saved, hung himself with his bathrobe belt in the bathroom. I am so sorry, but he's dead." Mary replied: "He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry." 
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Which soldiers smell of salt and pepper? Seasoned troopers! 
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