At last I have a picture of one of my current projects to show you. I set it and another project down just prior to Christmas to make time for Holiday activities. The sad thing about setting a project down is that frequently I do not return to it. I picked up the other project but this one waited a couple more weeks. The silk that is with it will be used for the finishing.

Perhaps if I report my progress weekly here, it will motivate me to finish it.

As much damage as we thought the squirrels did to the bird feeders and food, we had some even worse visitors yesterday. We had a full yard with at least four male cardinals, two female cardinals, more junkos than we could count, several chickadees, lots of finches, maybe both nuthatches, and the downy woodpecker. The birds were flying back and forth between the feeders, trees, and fences. They were circling around the feeders. In the midst of this activity, in flew a blackbird pushing the birds out of the large feeder; then four or five more blackbirds descended upon the feeder. They tipped the feeder, spilling the seed. They swarmed around the feeder, preventing the other birds from accessing it.

Initially we thought that we would have to bring the feeder inside. As mysteriously as they appeared, the blackbirds disappeared. The other birds began to return but not as many as had originally been there.