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Bird of the Day - Pyrrhuloxia This bird is part of the cardinal family.
This is a male
Bird for the First Day of Spring - American Flamingo
Bird for the First Day of Spring - American Flamingo
Look at the huge clodhoppers on the baby, lol!
Winifred, dinner last night sounded wonderful (yum). I have a carpet cleaning machine that's been sitting in my entrance hall closet going on 2 years. I am determined that this is the year I clean the carpets. Your dinner sounds yummy. I was never that much of a cook but I did much more when my husband was alive. I think it is wonderful that you are passing on some family history to your siblings and grandkids. I wish I knew more about my paternal grandmother. She was half native american and never one to talk about the past. My dad and all of his siblings are gone so there went the history.
Bird of the Day - Blackburnian Warbler
Male
Female
Hi everyone! Bird mama, my Grandfather was Cherokee, and the rest of me is Irish (on both sides), German, Dutch, English, and with English comes some Scotch, I am sure. As for the house, the rec room, front deck, kitchen and deck off of it, laundry room, and family room were renovated, the kitchen and laundry room actually being extended six feet into the yard, enough to get an island and a 48" range top, and a larger laundry room. Both decks had literally fallen apart, and the front deck caused a huge hole in the rec room ceiling, so this had to be done. I had built in cabinets and drawers on all three walls of the family room installed, some with glass doors for displaying things, a dream I have had since I have lived here. This house is a lot of glass, so hardly any storage space. There have been a "ton" of issues with the cabinets, but they are gradually being rectified, but each time, it is at least a month's delay before I receive replacements. The so called designer, I could write a book! I designed everything, and she put it into proper form for plans, but she made a lot of mistakes, so it has cost me more money to have others rectify the mistakes.
The kitchen was the original, but not charming. We updated a bit when we moved in, but it still had the original cabinets where one has to get down on hands and knees to reach into the dark abyss of the cabinet. No getting down on my knees any longer, so I am having all drawers in the new kitchen, with the exception of an upper cabinet over the wall oven unit, so no upper cabinets as I could only ever reach the first shelf anyway. There will be an eight foot window over the sink, so much of the wall, as I do love seeing my garden even when I am not out in it. I will have an island and a fan over it, yippee! I have had to use a small fan on the old hutch for some relief in the hot weather, as no air conditioning here, very expensive to install it.
I had originally planned to redo two bathrooms, as again, they are original and a total mess, but with unexpected expenses in the kitchen remodeling, I just don't know if there will be any money left at the end.
The difference in the deck off of the kitchen is that it will have a roof, extended from the original, over it for shade, which will be great, I think. The deck itself was supposed to extend further, but someone messed up, and it wasn't. Everyone passes the buck, and blames the other, but in the end, the customer suffers for their mistakes. It will still work, but it won't be as long as expected. I could go on and on re the issues that have arisen, as if I havn't already, lol, but moving on, I will survive it, I hope. 
Possumm - I am a foodie also, love to cook, make up most of my recipes, especially great at pastas, if I may so myself, though I have a million cook books, I hardly ever use one. I am going to have "two" file cabinets in the new kitchen for all of the folders of recipes I have collected, and at arm's level, yay, so no more bending over practically to the ground to sort through them. Maybe now, I will actually use them much more with the easier access. I have been cooking from the rec room for almost two weeks now, and we havn't ordered take out yet. I have a two burner unit for frying and boiling, the microwave, and toaster oven, so can do most anything, but am trying to keep meals simple. Usually, at the end of a meal in the kitchen, the room is a disaster, piled high with pots and pans, etc. I am liking this routine now, everyone washes their own dishes, and the clean up is practically nil.
Winifred - beautiful weather her also, but the mornings are freezing. Your dinners sound yummy, simple and healthy. I am planning to create a book of my recipes for DD, because she loves my cooking, and as I mentioned, I make most of them up.
Keep the gorgeous birdies coming everyone, I just love them!
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Hi Birding Friends, I hope you are having some nicer weather, although for many, it's going to be quite cold again next week. I just found this on Facebook and thought maybe Birdmama would enjoy seeing some of Poppi, Presto and Peewee's( I hope I remembered the names correctly) kinfolk. Amazing how some people can get wild critters to be so tame.
Winifred that is so interesting to hear about your great great grandfather. I love hearing about the past generations. Sad to say, kids now days don't seem to care as much about knowing their forebearers. One of my cousins, I have close to 60 first cousins, did some research on my grandfather's brother and an aunt of mine had some of our family history traced back to the 1500's. She died and my cousins, her kids, are all gone too, and I don't know where the family information is. We still have many relatives in Switzerland. My mom's mother was from Switzerland. My dad's mom was Irish and my grandpas were German, and one had a bit of French in his bloodline. ( The part of France near Switzerland). ~
~ Grandma learned English when she came over from Switzerland but her children all learned to speak German. Mom tried to teach me and my brothers and sister some German, but we were silly and laughed at the "funny" sounding words. I wish I had paid attention. My oldest GS is becoming quite fluent in German. He is thinking it will come in handy with his music career, and he's probably right, so many composers spoke and wrote in the Germanic languages.
Again, your meal sounded so good. DS fixed steaks and twice baked potatoes, and a gravy that had some wild mushrooms that I picked up at Publix today. I love mushrooms, esp. morels, but they are impossible to find fresh in stores.
Mousie, That's a cool family line that you have. DDIL is English and German + Irish. I have many, many cookbooks too, but have one in particular that I treasure along with my notebook full of very treasured recipes. The cookbook is "Mary Meade's Country Cookbook" and was published many years back. My mom gave me a copy for Christmas in 1964 and wrote a nice comment in it. That book is my source for Plum Pudding, Mincemeat,( I made it from scratch), Chicken and Dumplings(drop), gingersnap cookies, oatmeal cookies, candies and pies. Everyone in the family knows that in case of fire, those two books are to be rescued along with the kitty. My brother almost had a hissy fit when I took those two books with me when I came down here to my son's home a few years back. He thought I was giving them to my son, not that I can't but some of the recipes in the notebook, are from our grandmothers and are family favorites. My son scanned many of the recipes into his computer. That's what I should to too, especially to the notebook as they are hand copied and many newspaper and magazine recipes that I taped into this notebook. I also have a habit of clipping interesting articles, columns from Dear Abby, etc, that I tuck into these cookbooks. Both have been used so much that I have big rubber bands holding them together, even the hardback cookbook. Other notebooks are in the same kitchen cabinet and are in my grandmother's handwriting. I don't know if my kids will treasure all of that stuff as I do.
I do like to concoct my own version of recipes, always tweaking them to my taste. My son does the same thing and he's an excellent cook. He used to mention that he might like to open his own little diner when he retires, though he has said in the past, that he doesn't plan on retireing. He likes the challenges of work. ???? I could go on and on about food, recipes and ingredients till the cows come home. Love the topic.
It sounds like you are managing pretty well fixing meals in the rec. room. You have all the basics you need there. Have you started in the garden yet? That window over your sink is one big window. I'd love that too. I love exposed beams, stone/rock and glass. My ideal house for me, if I was younger, is a log style home, log walls, stone fireplaces and even in the kitchen, very open inside and many many glass windows. Of course, I'd want it out in the country with woods and a stream and lake and a couple thousand acres. Don't want too much, do I?? I'd love it to be in Missouri or Maine.
I guess I have rattled on enough for one sitting. Need to put the tootsies up.
Waving to all Birding Friends, Sweet dreams, and have a terrific weekend. Be safe and well.
Happy Saturday Birding Friends - it's cold here but I don't care - I am in a Spring frame of mind. Speaking of heritage, on my Dad's side, we have Cherokee (I think that was the tribe, I have to ask my sister if she remembers) and Irish. On Mom's side, German and Polish. I took two years of German in high school. Loved the language but I didn't have anyone to speak with and lost most of it.
Mousiegirl - your home is going to be fantastic. I give you so much credit for handling the delays with some modicum of grace. I would be on nerve pills (lol).
Bird for the Weekend - Jabiru, a member of the stork family
Bird mama - DD asked me why I don't explode, LOL. I told her I had enough to deal with right now with a bum knee and all of the aches and pains that come along with lifting heavy things and moving things around constantly. I plan to go to Yelp and explode, lol. I never think to go there, but when my architect told me to yelp her, I looked up the designer and wouldn't you know, she has bad reviews, one person hit the nail on the head with experiences I am having with her. If I had gone to Yelp, I would have looked elsewhere.
Possumm - my Mother who was the English in my line, her family having come from England to Canada before she was born, and settled there, always cooked mincemeat pies with the bottled, but added fresh fruit and suet. I made it from scratch once, and it was pretty good, but I am the only one in my family who likes it, so never bothered again. She also make plum pudding every Christmas with hard sauce, loved that hard sauce. She left me her Mother's recipes, but no way can I duplicate them. The were cattle farmers, as was called then, and her Mother made bushels of everything when she cooked, at least eight people to feed daily, and the recipes were written this way, not in cups, etc.
My Dad was a chef, so when he came to visit, we ate extremely well. My Mother was more of a baker as she had a sweet tooth, but overcooked meat as was the custom back then, and I eat red meat rare, so when my Dad came, I stuffed myself. When I grew up and had my first apartment, I made his tomato based stew just from what I thought I tasted, and it came out great. I havn't thought to make that in years. He would also take me to Moony Pier in SF at the crack of dawn to catch crabs or fish. When we got home, he would chase me with the wiggling crabs, and then make the most outstanding crab feast, sometimes cioppino.
I agree with the description of your dream home. I have become more rustic than when I was younger, so until then, this will do, in the midst of trees and critters and my garden. I only get into the garden on weekends to weed a bit and water, but as soon as the worked leave for good, I will be out there 24/7. We have so much to plant from the one gallon cans I put plants in when they arrived in the Fall. They have grown and should be raring to stretch their toes in the ground.
Off to pick up DD from the barn soon. She will be in her last show in June before leaving in August. 
Wishing everyone a great weekend!
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