Hello! I don’t think I’ve written about our bird friends since we put the feeder back up. If you’ll recall, I had to take the feeder down for a couple of weeks because some of the house finches were showing signs of an eye disease called mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. I gave the feeder a good cleaning and a bath in a 1:10 mixture of bleach and water (in the actual bathtub, because the darn thing didn’t fit anywhere else). The birds are back at the feeder, which gives me great joy, and I’ve been keeping a very close eye on our finch friends. So far, no funky eyes. Thank goodness.
Last weekend I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count, a joint venture between the Audubon Society and Cornell University’s Ornithology Lab. I was one of 267,866 participants from 176 different countries. It was incredibly easy and so much fun. All I had to do was download the Merlin app (a free birdwatching app provided by Cornell), look for birds in my backyard (it didn’t have to be my backyard – could have been a park, etc) for at least 15 minutes over the course of the weekend, and submit my sightings through the app. I got a lot of satisfaction knowing that I was a small part of such a massive citizen science project. Here is a lovely video sent out by Cornell to thank the participants.
One of my goals on my 20 for 2020 list was to take yoga lessons. I had taken in-person yoga lessons in the past and had also practiced on my own (using online tutorials), but I hadn’t done much yoga lately and wanted to get back into it. I never did take any in-person lessons in 2020, for obvious reasons, and I also never got in the groove of trying any of the many yoga videos/lessons that can be found on YouTube. I had been doing a lot of general stretching during the day, because sitting at a computer all day really does a number on my back, but never made the transition to yoga – until about ten days ago. I rediscovered “Yoga with Adriene” on YouTube – I don’t even remember what made me take the plunge again, but I’m so grateful to be practicing yoga again. In the short time I’ve been back practicing, I can notice a difference in my flexibility and strength, especially in my core. It’s a tiny difference to be sure, but it’s enough to get me hooked again.
My busy season at work is, for all practical purposes, over. There will be other, smaller, busy times later this year, but nothing like what we just went through. Last week was my first week back working 8-hour days. Instead of logging onto my work computer at 7:00 each morning, I now have a leisurely early morning of riding my stationary bike for 30 minutes, followed by 20-40 minutes of yoga before getting ready for work and logging in at 8:30. What a relief!
The skies were beautiful today – clear, blue, sunny. I had planned to go to my sunset-watching park and catch tonight’s sunset. However, when I woke up from a nap at 4:00 (I love my weekend naps) the skies had completely clouded over. No sunset tonight. At the beginning of January I promised myself I’d watch at least one sunset a month, and February is quickly drawing to a close. Thursday and Friday’s weather forecasts look promising, but I really must start front-loading my sunset each month from now on to avoid this last minute scramble (I seem to recall I did the same thing in January)!
Have a wonderful week, friends. Stay warm!
Love,
Michelle xoxo
