Gee whiz!

Wow, it has been a long time since I've posted. I don't have any excuse, really, except there were other things which occupied my time!
That being said, here goes a post - of sorts.

We had some pretty good snow before Christmas. The birds were at a loss for food - other than the feeders, of course, so I made up a batch of suet. We tried different ways of offering it to them - since we couldn't locate the suet feeder - I stuffed pine cones - gone in no time! I filled little paper cups on the deck so we could watch them - also gobbled up. We filled a pan with water for them, it froze in minutes. We had a heater for the bird bath, but the wires broke - not the best solution.
When the sun returned, it was absolutely gorgeous!!!
While the weather kept us indoors, Dean went to work on projects in the shop. His brother, Larry, bought his lathe and has been creating pens and bottle stoppers, so Dean designed and made a display rack for him. I think he will have to design a bigger one, though, because he has too many to fit in this one all ready!
Dean also made a trivet out of the wine corks we have been collecting over the years. This one was a Christmas gift for Janet (and Jim)There is a story behind this next project. Dean made a name sign for Colin's door when he was a baby. Colin is the son of our good friends Deb and Jill and they are now caring for 3 of the cutest little girls and hoping to adopt them soon. Dean made each of them name signs and also for Larry's grandchildren, Zane and Avril, and our neighbor's granddaughter, Cydnie.
Autumn especially enjoyed her new name sign because, at 7 years old, she was a bit jealous of Colin's. Now she has her very own!! Here, Dean is having fun reading to Colin and being read to by Autumn.
We were in Vancouver for the holiday, during their foot of snow. This is in front of Jim and Janet's house - there is an open skylite above the Japanese maple that created this huge icicle.