Flowers and Birds

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It has been cool but pleasant the past couple of days. Later in the week the weather warms back up into the 70s.

This morning my hands were cold from taking the laundry out of the washer and putting it into the dryer. I came in the house to warm my hands by the heater. It is a propane heater that looks like a fireplace. The pilot was out. I tried to relight it, but I could only get a spark ever once in a while. Frank... bless his heart... he tried to get it started too. No luck. The igniter has probably gone bad. We'll wait to fix it. We don't run the heater a lot. It is not run at all at night and most days it is off by noon time. I brought in Frank's heater that he has for his dark room and his dad brought over a small propane heater. They should keep us warm enough until we can replace the igniter. Last time Frank had surgery we had a broken water pipe. We had to call the plumber to run new pipe. This is something that Frank would ordinarily fix himself.

I thought I would share a few pictures. I'm still shaky and the wind was blowing, so a bit of a blur and noise (grain) in the pictures.... click on them to enlarge and they may look a little bit better. If you hold down the ctrl button on your keyboard when you click the picture will open in a new tab and you won't have to reload this page.

Our Red Bud tree isn't blooming, but one is blooming in the wooded area up the street. I'm afraid our tree is dying.




The Cherry Laurel Trees are blooming too. The Robins and Cedar Waxwings love the berries of these trees. The berries were in the shade, so no picture of them, but they are black in color and about the size of a grape. Small bees... maybe honey bees... were flying around the blooms, but they were higher up and out of camera range.






The Azaleas are beginning to bloom... and this is with temps in the upper twenties early in the morning. We have two shrubs of azaleas in the yard. The other one has paler blooms. They aren't quite open yet.




The American Robins are hiding in the shadows today. I did spot one high up in this tree. Of course he is giving me a butt shot.




This little Tufted Titmouse was pecking away at a sunflower seed. He flew to several limbs in the dogwood tree trying to avoid me. The dogwood trees are beginning to bud.



I'm hoping to get more practice in with my camera.... it has been way too long.

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Frank is getting stronger. He is having to sleep in his recliner. He thinks there might be a problem sleeping in our bed with the J(ackson) P(ratt) drain tube. I tend to wake up earlier than him. I sometimes turn the tv on in the bedroom until he awakens.

I have to be careful and not make Frank laugh too hard.. that hurts him. I got hooked on a movie the other morning FIGHTING TEMPTATION. It starred Cuba Gooding Jr. It was funny movie. It had some good music and of course a love story. I told Frank I could continue watching it in the bedroom if it was too painful for him. He said no that he needed to laugh. It was good to laugh.

Frank's doctor appointment was changed from tomorrow afternoon at one to tomorrow morning at ten. That news perked him up... a little closer to finding out what our next steps are.

I caught up with reading blogs and then fell quickly behind again... I promise I will pay a visit soon.

Again, your prayers are so appreciated. They have uplifted me.

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How you think about a problem is more important than the problem itself. So always think positively. -- Norman Vincent Peale