A PRODUCTIVE DAY

Today was a holiday for most of U.S. and Canada.  In the U.S. it was President's Day, the current form of what we celebrated in February when I was growing up: Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday.  Though, as I remember it, we did not have a day off from school for either one, and I think it's now a Federal holiday, so most people, including teachers and students, have a day off.

When we lived in Salem, Oregon, we took the kids to a mountainous area one time on President's Day and went "tubing" down a slope.  It was fun, but was a little too warm that day, and we all got soaking wet from the melting snow.  We warmed up by going to the Organ Grinder Pizza place in Portland for supper.  That was a memorable day!

Here in Alberta it was "Family Day."  We didn't take the day off because we had already enjoyed a very relaxed Saturday and Sunday.  Plus, the weather was beautiful--a good opportunity to get some work done!

Today, as so often happens after a night of sleep cut short--my day started a 3 a.m.--I had an unusually productive day.  I don't know how that works, but it often turns out that way!  I spent some hours in the kitchen:

I finally got around to making a pot of "Best Cheesy Broccoli Soup"--a recipe that I've had for some time, don't even remember where it came from.  You can see we've lowered the level somewhat.  It was delicious!

After lunch I just had to take advantage of the fabulous weather: blue skies, strong sunshine and no wind combined to make it a perfect time to do a quick window wash.  This house is built into a berm, and the windows that would be too high to reach are very easily taken care of because there's a balcony surrounding that side of the second floor.  In the back, the second floor is ground level.  

If you look carefully at that photo you can just see the imprint at the top of the window of a bird's wing.  What you can't see, because of the sun shining through is that there is an imprint of the whole body and other wing beneath that.

Birds must be very dusty!  There were several imprints of bird impacts on the living room windows.  I'll have to ask S. if she found any dead birds on the balcony while we were away.  It's always such a pity when that happens!  I feel so sorry for the birds.  Quite often they can just careen off the window and be gone, but sometimes they lay stunned on the balcony for several minutes before shaking themselves off and leaving. Occasionally it's the end of that bird's life. 

SORRY, BIRDS!