A Day at Home in Winter

We were home today to let in the plumbers and the stone guys who were replacing the countertop, sink, fixtures and toilet in our master bathroom and another toilet for the guest bath upstairs.

It was a beautiful, if cold, beginning. Sunshine and -11 when we woke up, with temps rising slowly til mid-afternoon. The remodeling work progessed as we watched the beautiful day outside.

We were watching the usual goldfinches, housefinches, sparrows and juncos when a new visitor caught my eye. Blue on top, a rosy breast, and white under. Robin sized. It landed on the arch right outside of our atrium window, then dipped down to quench thirst at the heated water dish. Another followed. As we snuck up to the window to see more, hoping not to scare them away, they flew up to the library honeylocust, then away to the southwest. Looking for photo ID, I swear they were Eastern Bluebirds - though they are not generally found here in winter. Nothing else matches what we saw.

Bill went out and refilled the feeders, and all day the regulars fed at the thistle feeders. Once I spied a red squirrel making an attack on the sunflower feeder, but a quick open of the door and "shoo" scared him back to the willow.

The mourning doves roost in the late afternoon in the honeylocust tree. Sometimes in the neighbors tree, sometimes in ours. Today in ours.