Sunday-2:30pm

Tons of pictures!  

Been so long since I posted that some of my plants were still green after the first dusting of snow.

We've had several dustings since, but not much more than what you see here has stuck around. 

The birds knock a lot of the seed out of the feeder, which is fine.  They're kind of feeding the grouse for me most days. 

I deliberately left the dead plants. 

They were frosty but still a tiny bit alive a couple weeks ago.

This is what I see almost all day long now--bird party! 

Funny--a couple weeks ago they mowed one last time. 

He was bundled up with parka, hat, and gloves. 

That's the last we've seen of the mowers. 

Hasn't been enough snow for them to shovel or plow yet, though. 

Just bird party...

...after bird party... 

...after bird party--LOL! 

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 Annie loves it, as you can see.

This is why I left the dead plants in the planters.  The sparrows spend a lot of time in the planters now and use them as perches.

Even the girls occasionally park themselves in a planter now and again. 

Sadly, I have only been counting six grouse lately.  One of them must have been caught by the hawk or something else.  :( 

I have not been blogging lately or doing much more than what I have to every day.  Been in a long fibro flare that doesn't seem to go away.  I suppose this could be my new normal--never know.  A little extra chair time is appreciated by Annie, though.  :) 

Nowadays Annie comes running most of the time when she hears my footrest going up!  Never would have predicted that a few months ago, eh?  :)  A few weeks ago I started giving her a pet when I give her the canned food treat.  At first she cringed and ducked.  Now she sometimes waits for that pet before she starts to chow down.  And Annie used to wait until I had left the pantry and sat down before she'd enter--then she began coming in with me and hugging the wall--now she's almost underfoot on the way in.  :)

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We've had just enough snow to coat the ground a couple times, but it's almost all gone again. 

I love fresh snowfalls.  As long as it is this cold (we've even been in the single digits already) we should have some more of that beautiful white stuff!  :)
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Speaking of--it was so cold for Halloween that they couldn't take Liam around.  Never got above freezing for a high that day.  I wasn't feeling that well, so I stayed home--but Leah sent me some pictures.

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Ian was Thomas The Train.

 Liam was a skeleton.

Their front steps... 

...had their skeleton sitting on them (might have to enlarge to see)... 

...and the cool pumpkin light... 

...that changes colors.  (I love that thing!) 

The weekend before Halloween was ValleyCon.  Dagan and Leah's group always does a Stargate suite.  I love the way they fix the door so you have to enter through the Stargate portal. 

The bar and tables and benches. (That's what was stored in my garage.) 

Looks pretty cool! 

This year the guest star was Christopher Judge who played Teal'c on Stargate SG-1 so they made up an appreciation plaque to give him. 

He was my favorite character on the show. 

I know McFamily got a picture with him but I don't have a copy.  If I get one I will pop it in the blog so you can see it. 

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I have an assortment of shots from Leah.

Big brother Ian helping Liam sit up. 

Sleeping Liam. 

Ian and Liam together in Liam's play mat. 

This picture cracks me up.  They look so alike. 

Another day--Liam fell asleep on the play mat--surrounded by so many fun things. 

I am always glad to have visits and Gramma time with the boys!  Forgot to take pictures all day, but grabbed a video of Liam before he went to bed, too.  He had been smiling like crazy--before I got the camera out, of course.  He makes lots of little noises just like Ian did.

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With daylight savings time plus my sleep being hard to come by some nights I have actually been up for sunrise a few times.  Highly unusual--LOL!

For about a week I didn't even really work on letters.  

Mostly been watching the hungry birds...

...and some great TV shows.  ;)

In the mornings while I am at the kitchen table doing journaling and catching up online Annie was wanting me to go to my chair--silly girl.  So I decided to start rolling over a chair by me with a cat bed on it in the mornings--like I did for Karma all those years so she could feel closer to me while I was at the table.
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Annie, of course, at first took it as a rejection.  That I was trying to block her from a few drive-by pets.  She'd race around the apartment having a cat hissy fit--LOL!  But eventually she caught on.  And now she sometimes comes up and sits next to me in the chair where I can easily reach over to pet her and give her some attention.

And she can see the birds better, I think, too--LOL!  Every so often she bullets off the chair to the patio door.

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Let's see--I did order some new ink for dip pen calligraphy and got rid of the old thicker india ink from the early 90s.

I had pre-ordered another Brush Letting book a month or two ago and it finally came.  That's all I need now.

This one groups together letters of the alphabet by the similar strokes.

Has a lot of step-by-step instructions.

Shows the basics of the bouncy lettering everyone is using these days.

How to embellish them a little.

A very simple alphabet...lower case...

...and upper case.  And a lot of practice worksheets at the end of the book.

And I started the daily brush lettering drills again on November 6th.  Serena and I are doing them together--halfway around the world apart--LOL!  (She's in Australia.)

I'm using the tracing paper this time.
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As for the pointed nib dip pen calligraphy (which I am going to wait a while to work on learning until I have learned the large and small brush pens half-ways decently)--I did order a few nibs to play with.

But that may be a while yet before I start on the dip  pen calligraphy.
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Dagan turned 43 years old on the 2nd of November!!  (Those of you around four decades ago will be just as amazed and delighted as I am.)
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Well, I may be more tired and sore, but am very contented and have nothing to complain about.  (Not that I couldn't, of course--LOL!)  I guess that's it for today.  Mostly pictures and not much chatting.  But at least I posted--LOL!  Been meaning to every day for over a week!  Hopefully will be back sooner next time.  But if not, don't worry about me.  Annie and I are just fine and dandy.  :) :)
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"Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find."
Ann Patchett