...Psst! Did you hear?

...she got her internet/cable back last night! Should have seen her carrying on and acting like a blithering crazy woman. Sheesh. You'll never see the inscrutable nuthatches doing any thing like that!

Yep, just for fun, I turned on the tv last night at aroudn 7 and - holy cow - it came one! I damned near fell over. Hubs and I immediately turned to a news channel to try to catch up a bit. Learned that the snow storm that gave us a few inches dropped over a foot of wet snow in other parts of NJ, knocking out power yet again for some poor families.

I spent much of today catching up on banking and emails, and working on the Memory Book that my SIL and i are making for our MIL. I had to scan a bunch of pictures and do some cropping and editing. A project that is bittersweet, and definitely a labor of love.

I went out in the yard for a bit to get some fresh air and de-clutter my mind and was delighted to see a red-breasted nuthatch at the feeders. They are not usually found in our area except during migration, but the Audubon says that they have shown up in larger than usual numbers this year - and this may be considered an "irruptive" year for them, as it is for both pine siskins and purple finches in our area. This shot is cropped slightly but otherwise SOOC. He's adorable, isn't he?

I am joining the Audubon group for one of the last walks of the year tomorrow morning. Not sure what we will see, but it will be good to get out and walk the trails again.

Thank you so very much for sending my snowy titmouse to the top row of Spotlight today - I'm not sure I've ever gotten that far before. I felt in very good company next to SeniorMoments who held down the pole position. Now that I've got internet back, I've started catching up on comments - and what fun to see what you've all been up to!

Happy Friday, Blippers.

Addendum: Having missed all the early news from NJ post Sandy, I was shocked today to see some of the images. This website's before/after just leave you feeling stunned.