WE GOT RAIN and our mountains got ... SNOW!!!!!!!!

Tuesday was a dreary day, but that was fine with me.  I had run out Monday afternoon and spread my California poppy seeds in various locations out front.  So, I was eagerly awaiting the nice, soft rain to help them get started on their way.  And, Mother Nature didn't disappoint!  We got over 1/2 inch of rain from Tuesday night through about late afternoon Wednesday.  PERFECT! 

I have a habit now of just scattering sunflower seeds from the birdseed out back and in my front yard.  I figured this year I would just throw out the seeds and see what happens.  So far I have a BUNCH of sunflowers coming up!  YAY!  It's also a cheap way to decorate the yard and the finches LOVE the seeds.

OOPS!  Ms. Cooper's hawk just flew by my office window in the front yard.  She hunts for a meal every 3-4 days.  There were 2 of them, and I believe the male is the smaller one.  She is certainly larger than he is!

My little feral cat "Little Man" disappeared for an entire week.  We heard cats fighting a couple of nights and then he disappeared.  I felt badly about that.  He turned out to be a very loving animal.  WELL, GUESS WHAT?  I looked out on the porch yesterday morning (Wednesday) and saw "Mr. Gray", our neutered older (FAT) male cat out there and 4 little white paws ("Little Man").  I went out to put food out and he is VERY SKITTISH.  He also has a cut on his ear.  He won't allow me to pet him, so I don't know what happened.  I think next month I'll TRY to get him into a cat carrier (I have two) and take him in for neutering.  It will cost me $96 and I'll probably have to first take him in for shots, but I don't wish to see him continue to be battered.  Our white male NEUTERED cat, Loki, who lived with us for 19 years, often got into fights, even though he WAS neutered.  He came home one time covered in blood (I SCREAMED!) and $500 later (YES!!!!!) he was wearing a cone of shame and had some fancy antibiotics and his throat was taken care of...sigh... Little Man will have to wait until next month because I have my $402 Medicare payment this month...sigh...As a retired teacher, they don't bill me monthly, but I think I'm going to set up automatic payments monthly through my credit union.  It's horrible to get hit with a $402 payment every 3 months...

What else is new here?  Well, both hubby and I awoke at MIDNIGHT last night....BOING!  Wide awake!  I was up from midnight until 3 a.m. and then I toddled back to bed.  I have no idea how long hubby was awake...I stayed up and sewed fabric and lace onto some pages for 2 custom journals I'm making.  Both have a travel theme, so I need to go to the library today and find some books and magazines.

We have to run out to our big WalMart today, which is out by Interstate 10, about 3 miles away.  We have a neighborhood WalMart just 3 blocks away, but I need to go out to the big one to buy papers for my journals.  I'm making 2 mini-binder 3 ring ones (both travel) and I want to have pages that can be removed or added.  Hubby wants to buy a couple of new waste baskets for his office.  And, I need Niger seed for the little birds (yellow ones) that come to the yard.  The ONLY places I can find that seed is WalMart and WINCO.  WalMart has it for $8.00 a bag, and WINCO has it in their bulk bins and I usually buy about $8 worth.  I tell you...those little BUGGERS go through that!!!!!

Well, hubby is STILL ASLEEP, so I may just run out to WalMart by myself and get what I need now before it gets TOO CROWDED.  I always go in and come out the garden entrance since I never have to stand in line there!   :-)

Later...
~Cheryl Ann~~~ 

That's Mt. San Jacinto on the right.  It is 10,000 feet tall.