January 20 Cardinal

This is the first time I've seen a bird eat the lilacs.

A few minutes later he moved farther away and there were 3 other birds in the tree.

Today as I went to shut doors around the house, to keep our dog out of them when we're not home, I saw this Cardinal sitting in the lilac tree right outside the window. I love cardinals and have such a hard time getting photos of them, they are so camera shy. I was ready to walk out the door but I set my school bags down and pulled out my phone and took a few shots. Considering they are from a distance and through a window I'm ok with the quality.

Yesterday I think I saw an eagle on my way to work. But it was on a road where there was no was place to pull over and watch. I will keep my eye open for another sighting. 

January 17-Macro Monday-Vegetables

Well, I'll be a little out of order. This was yesterday's shots for Macro Monday-Vegetables. I stopped by the grocery store on Sunday and picked up a few things just to photograph. Here's a link to the whole folder.
Here are the two shots I submitted-there were many submissions for garlic, peppers and mushrooms so I used a shot of a tomatillo and eggplant.

January 18-Snowy Day!

Winter arrived today with about 10 inches of snow! Here are a few pics from my phone of this beautiful day!

Gerite is not loving winter like she used to, poor baby.

Looks like about 9.5 inches and it was still coming down!

I don't take selfies very often but couldn't resist today. :)

The birds will be happy that the feeders are full.

Awesome present from my husband a couple years ago. I love my Tubbs.

January 16-315 Brewery

Today we headed out to an antique show in Syracuse, followed by lunch and then a stop at 315 Brewery in Warners. I love the beer there and it was great to see it busy although too busy for my taste. A few quick pictures from my phone while trying to stay out of the way of other people.

January 15-Old Shirts

Way back in the days of teaching first grade I had a 100 Book Club. If my students read 100 books (advanced readers could count each chapter as a book) they could draw a t-shirt design about reading. My husband would be the judge and then clean the design up good enough so he could screen print it for me. Parents would pay for the cheapest shirts I could find, I would help my husband with the screen printing, and students would receive their shirts the last week of school. I usually had about 99% participation rate. If students were close I'd fudge it so they got a shirt but there was usually one student that rarely read. I felt bad but that student didn't get the shirt. Anyway, my copy of the shirts have been sitting in a closet. I decided to hang them on the back of the chairs in in my classroom. I'm not sure how this will work but we'll give it a try. Now I'm contemplating letting my students design a shirt, I have some pretty artistic 3rd-5th graders, having my husband select a winner once again and printing shirts just to communicate a positive message about reading with no competition. I guess I better check with my husband first to see if he's interested in helping out again. :)

In hindsight I wish I had had the student with the winning design sign my shirt. These kids have all graduated from high school my now.

January 13-Snow Day

Well, it was another hyped up storm-10-18 inches of snow forecasted and we ended up with 4 at the most. I know those lake effect storms are hard to predict... I think all the schools in the area were closed. So, while my husband was out snow blowing I used my 50 year old cookbook, yes I'm dating myself, and made some unhealthy but easy and tasty cinnamon rolls. Our aging and sick dog is getting very picky about what she'll eat and she likes these so she's had several. I posted this picture on Facebook and was surprised at how many other people have this cookbook too. It was a good day to be home, I was able to FaceTime with an insurance adjuster and get our tree claim taken care of very efficiently. 

Here's one more shot of the tree from a different angle.

January 12-Storm Damage

We made it through the terrible wind storm on Sunday night and Monday without damage. Today when we woke up we looked out the window and were greeted with the sight below. I think this is the third tree that has landed on our property but the first one to cause real damage. The neighbor's insurance won't cover it since it's an act of nature. There's only one tree left, I wish they'd take it down because it's the largest and could land on our cars.

The birds and squirrels are not going to be happy losing a favorite perch plus for the moment some of the feeders are a little hard to reach.