Hello, #25!

You can tell spring is here because new birds are slowly starting to show up in our garden.  The Purple Finches (male featured here) are common visitors in the fall and usually in the spring.  Some winters they hang around, but usually not.  The males look similar to our more common House Finches but are more of a raspberry color and have a chunkier build.  When I first started paying attention to birds in the yard, I was forever sending photos of House Finches to a friend of mine, asking if they were Purple finches - he'd always say "you'll recognize the purple finch when you see it."  He was right.  Anyway, thought this would be a good blip for today since I've no idea how long they'll be around before they take off for Canada, their summer breeding grounds.  I'll put a female in Extra, for comparison.

It's been raining all day, so I started scanning copies of a bunch of documents we must submit with MIL's Medicaid application.  When my eyes were about to roll back in my head, I took a break and went to visit her.  We laughed and laughed, and she had everyone else laughing too.

Had a visit with another family while I was there too - one that we've come to know since MIL has been there.  Their mother is at the end, sadly, and they are all just waiting now.  Blessedly, she's in a coma and isn't in any pain.  She recently turned 99 and she has, by all accounts, had a wonderful, rich life.  Still, it's hard, isn't it?

Back to scanning now.  Then, hopefully I can get some more editing done on my AZ pics.  

 And thank you so much for sending Scooby to the front page - he's chuffed (and so am I!)  Of course, he's now making demands for more peanuts as is befitting his rock-star status (his words, not mine...)


xo
Debbi