Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season.  We are keeping it pretty low key this year:  no visitors and no gifts.  Just a lot of holiday music and a little extra care with food and drink.  Not having kids around makes a big difference!

We have lots of wind today with gusts up to 50 mph (80 kph).  We'll be going into Las Vegas to visit our daughter but it shouldn't be a big deal.  The desert is normally pretty windy if it isn't absolutely still so we've plenty of experience driving in it.  There is a little snow on the mountain but not a lot.  California has been getting the brunt of the rain only leaving a bit for us. 

We had some excitement the other day.  A hawk came in and caught a pigeon!  We didn't see the actual capture but he sat on the pigeon on our patio for a while and nibbled on it.  Finally he took it off to the far corner of the yard to complete his meal.  Wild life includes death for some.

Now that I've got that cheering news over; guess it only remains to repeat my wish that everyone have a great holiday season.  I'll try to return before New Year's Day!  Take care.

Well, actual rain!

On December 2, last Tuesday, I looked out the window and saw it!  Rain!  This is what it looked like at first.

It looks like there is more rain closer to the camera because it is splashing off the house.  But then it actually turned into a nice gentle rain the kept going all Tuesday afternoon.  Wednesday was overcast then on Thursday we got more rain.  This is just crazy!  Granted it's probably not going to amount to much but still.  It's been a long time since we had any rain. 

I had to take this photo on Thursday.

The pigeons didn't care about the rain; they wanted to bath anyway!  We started with two bird baths; one deeper and one more shallow.  The shallow one is plastic and decided to crack.  I have been fooling with it for months trying to get it to hold water again.  No luck!  Maybe it's time for a new one.

It's still kind of foggy today so we are enjoying the difference.  This photo of the mountain behind our house  was taken on the 1st.

The following was taken this morning.

Pretty cool!  We used to live in Seattle and it wouldn't be unusual for Mt. Rainier to be cloud covered for a month at a time.  Here it's pretty unusual. 

We are flying the flag today.  It's December 7 "a day which will live in infamy".  Here's hoping THIS December 7 won't be so bad.  Have a good one!