HAPPY NEW YEAR

    Since it's New Year's Day the usual thing is to say something of significance. I have nothing significant to say but that hasn't stopped me before.

    I'm not going to deal with how fast the year has gone by.

    To me there are new year's and that seem to be an important time compared to others. One such New Year was 2000, the millennium. The hype started a few years before the date. The hype got higher and higher. People were actually very frightened that the world would fall apart. People were worried. I remember being concerned about what might happen. 2000 came and went . It passed as quietly as any other New year's day. I always think back to the millennium which was now 17 years ago.

    The New Years Days from my childhood will be forever imprinted in my brain. Our New Years Day was exactly like Christmas without the presents. We lived in the country and still used horses for travel. (We didn't go very far.) Mom and her cousin would alternate Christmas and New Years. The big meal was at noon and I mean big meal. We had turkey and all the trimmings. It was an all day event. Adults visited and kids played. We had a warm up meal in the evening. Before going home at midnight we had a cold plate. Did I forget all the Christmas goodies? Yes all those too. It was a great day of celebration and I will never forget the New Year's of my childhood.

   Now I'm not anybody for resolutions so I'll stay away from goals.

   What I did find the other day was a blog that nailed the old year and new year. Martha at Plowing through life has a knack of saying  very meaningful things that are precise and concise. Her post made much sense to me. I hope you'll go over and take a look at what she had to say.

    In the meantime have a great 2017.

I'VE BEEN AWAY

     I've taken a longer time between posts than I usually do. There are probably some who will say ,"I never missed you!". I won't give them such a chance. I had topics to post on. I had lots of time. 

    But one excuse laid me low and I haven't suffered such and excuse for 20 or more years. I picked up a miserable head cold. Ordinarily I don't get head colds and ordinarily I don't pick up bugs that are circulating. So I can describe  all the miserableness of a head cold. I had no energy. I stayed in bed most of the day and went to bed before 8 PM. I had aches and pains in every part of my body. Nothing tasted any good. I didn't have an appetite. This is a time when there's lots of good Christmas food around. I didn't have my afternoon coffee for 5 days. Coffee didn't appeal to me. Now I could go into the finer details of certain undesirable secretions but you don't need those details.

    Now I've been retired for 19 years and have not had a head cold like this one. I've had colds but I was able to carry on.

    So I was not able to force myself to write a post. It's probably just as well as I'm sure it would have been a pathetic post.

    So even if I feel miserable now, I know I'm very fortunate not to suffer head colds or any other issues that causes one to feel miserable. My thoughts are with those who have issues that attack and challenge them on a daily basis. 

    So here's to a wonderful 2017.

HO! HO! HO!

    A  while ago I told you that I was doing a 4 hour shift selling books and other things for the Nature Center bookstore in one of the larger malls. I like this shift and look forward to it every year.  I like watching people. I have a front row seat as people go back and forth in the mall. Then lots of people stop to browse and see if there's anything that would be  good gift. Some people just stop to visit. Many of them have something to ask about the natural world. Others have something they want to tell you.

    Now I like kids...little kids. Usually little kids go by my stall and don't even notice it. The other day I noticed the odd little kid gave  me a wave and smile.  I wondered about this. Then a mother was talking to me and the toddler was in the shopping cart. This little kid was really giving me the big smile. Then I heard her say "nanta". Oops ! I got it.

    These poor little kids were going by me and thinking that I was Santa Claus! Wow! I didn't think I looked that old!

     I guess the white beard did it for these little guys. I wonder what they would have done if I had my red fleece on?

    So this is my Christmas Eve story.

    Have a wonderful Christmas.

ICE CARVINGS

    One of our major garden centers has a many ice carvings for the Christmas Season. this year's theme was star Wars! Not very Christmasy,  but they didn't ask me for any advice. Businesses Put up ice sculptures to go along with the theme.

     Now we went to the Mormon church display of 300 creches. These creches come from members of the church. My camera batteries went dead after 2 photos so I was very popular. I did manage one photo with the micro Manager looking at some interesting displays

   
      Now for the Star Wars stuff. Most sculptures have the name of the character.

You can tell which is my favorite. I can tell that I should have taken photos showing more detail. I'll know better next time.

CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT

    I participated in our Christmas bird count on Sun. Dec. 18. I have participated in the bird count for close to 50 years. I've written about the Christmas bird count most years.

   I promised somebody that I would report the species I found. So I found blue jay, magpie, black capped chickadee, bohemian waxwing, raven, crow  house finch.  The crow was a first for me in a winter bird count. I was also expecting to see red breasted nuthatches, boreal chickadees, downy woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, house sparrows. However in one day you can't run into everybody.




    So to top the day off we got together for a potluck supper.

COFFEE N' CAKE

     I have listed some of my Christmas activities. I lead a bird watching group each Saturday. I planned a wind up Cake and coffee session. 

     I had to get permission to use the Red Deer River Naturalist's office for this event. So went I went down to set things up I was completely surprised to find that the tables had clothes and there were decorations. Our treasurer who uses the room most had set it up for me without telling me.

    So you an tell we had a good time.

THE OLD LIST ON THE WALL

    I keep a list taped to the desk of possible topics for blog posts. I found that if I didn't write them down I would forget all my great ideas.

    Well, my list doesn't have any topics on it at this time. I've been too busy lately to think of things and write them down. I have a series of posts I will do after Christmas. 

    Christmas is a busy time and activities crowd out times to contemplate blog posts. So in the next few days: Friday I volunteer from 1 -5 looking after the Nature center book store stall in the mall. It's fun to meet people and sell a few books. People like to drop by and talk about things they see outdoors. 

    Saturday I have a coffee and cake do with the birders I lead every Saturday afternoon. We enjoy our Saturday outings and everybody looks forward to sitting down and remembering the fun we had. Saturday evening I see a performance of the Christmas Carol put on by one of the local high schools.

    Sunday is the Christmas bird count. I'm out from 9:30 to 11:30 and then come home for lunch. In the afternoon I'm out from 1:30 -3:30 . I have two areas that I cover and have covered the same areas for about 40 years. 

    Sunday evening we have a potluck supper with all the bird counters. It's a fun time to share bird count activities.

    We've also had a lot of running around to do at this busy time. One example is that the sieve the Micro manager uses in baking came apart so since there was still more baking to do we had to find a sieve. So you know that finding a sieve with the micro manager will be a marathon. She wanted a sieve like the old one. Well boo hoo! They don't  make them like that anymore.

    Today we did find a sieve so there will be more baking.

    So being busy is part of the season and makes for an enjoyable time. But I will enjoy peace and quiet once Dec.  25 arrives. 

    Christmas bird count territory.