Birds, Snow, Snow, Snow, Birthdays and Poison

The cardinals met this morning.  No, not those cardinals!  The brilliant Northern Orange Cardinals.  There are five of them in this photo.  Every time I try to raise the blinds to get a clearer view, they hastily fly away.  Yesterday, we counted nine of them on the branches and more on the ground.  They were joined by wrens and finches.  They seem oblivious to the lake-effect snow and howling winds!

Even more of the birds gathered for my birthday last week.  The weather was the same:  snow and wind shrieking and howling off Lake Michigan.  The Baker had plans to take me out to dinner.  I had plans to curl up under a blanket and read.  It was bridge day, though, and I wanted to play. My dear friends and players had other ideas.  It was, after all, my birthday and they were going to make it special.  My sweet friend, Thelma, decided the night before to make a big pot of soup for us.  She also had spanakopita in the freezer and time to make a delicious chocolate and nut bar cookie.  Andrew drove me from our garage to the Brown's garage.  Then he picked up Thelma and drove her and the food back to the nice, dry garage.  Jane had set a lovely table for our feast.  After many hands of cards, we tucked into that tasty soup.  Thelma called it "everything but the kitchen sink soup".

Yesterday, it snowed from sunup to sundown--a beautiful snow.  It was a perfect day to enjoy a couple of my birthday presents.

"Bitten by Witch Fever:
Wallpaper & Arsenic in the Nineteenth-Century Home"

by

Lucinda Hawksley

and a lovely new Liberty of London teacup from

Anthropologie

Now to sip tea and read about "the fatal story of Victorian home decor".  I've long been a fan of the Arts and Crafts movement and especially like the wall papers of William Morris.

Tucked into the pages of lovely wallpaper designs, are small booklets that give the history of arsenic and arsenic-based dyes.  Thanks Elyssa and Stefan!!

Now I'm headed out to another birthday celebration.  It is one of the perks of having a winter birthday.