Saturday, January 7, 2017

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007 at Butterfly World in Florida. You can see Mattie feeding the lorikeets, with my dad in the background watching. The irony is when we visited Butterfly World last week, Peter fed the lorikeets, in the same exhibit house. However, lorikeets can live twenty to thirty years. So in essence the lorikeets we fed with Mattie in 2007, are the same ones still there today. Who would have guessed that the birds would out live Mattie?! 






Quote of the day: I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again. ~ Lewis Carroll

We had our first snowfall of the winter today. Watching Indie and Sunny dealing with this was a riot! Indie wanted access to a window all day. She was either in our living room, or up on Mattie's bed. She loves watching the birds! This is a photo of our living room window! I always call it my window with a view. As you can see we bring many of our delicate plants indoors for the winter. It is a special kind of greenery to see on bleak days. 

This is Indie sitting on top of Mattie's pillows! She absolutely loves this perch. Because she can directly look into our commons space and watch hundreds of birds at our feeders!

The snow coming down! My view from my deck, which is now in Mattie's room. 

This is Sunny waiting patiently to go out! He was being helpful and holding Peter's winter coat while we were both getting bundled to go outside!

We took a 2 mile walk with Sunny in very cold temperatures, around 20 degrees! Peter and I were frozen but Sunny was just great. Not even cold to the touch! 

Meanwhile this was the view of Mattie's memorial garden. It is located in the commons space of our unit. In this space I placed large garden hooks and bird feeders. I got these hooks in 2014 for my friend Mary who was dying. I wanted her to be able to watch the birds from her bed. After Mary died, I transported these hooks into Mattie's garden space. I think Mattie and Mary would approve. In any case, since Mattie was a baby, we have been feeding the sparrows. I started this to keep Mattie entertained in the cold winter months. As watching birds flitter around is fascinating and engaging. However, I am quite sure that we have some of the same sparrows visiting us now 15 years later! They love the fact that I moved the feeders from our deck into this little garden space. The trees give them protection from our city hawks, and seeing the birds gives me and now Indie great joy. It is the only life we see outside in the winter. Yesterday I bought a forty pound bag of bird food, but by next week, I will have to buy more. You would be amazed how much these small birds consume in a day when it is cold!!!