Which means that I fill up the 16 feeders I have outside in the morning and by the time I get home in the evening they are empty and my cardinals and chickadees are complaining at full voice. Luckily this is a temporary thing, they are simply stopping off during their migration North and I can get back to twice a week filling of the feeders soon, still it is annoying, but, they are heading north, it is that time of year folks, the birds are heading north. IT IS SPRING!

It is one of those wonderful North Carolina evenings. It has been warm today, in the upper 50s and when I got home and let the dogs out I went outside. The air was warm, and there was a delightful breeze blowing, a warm breeze rustling the trees and ruffling hair. The sun was setting at the back of the street and the sky was filled with an orange glow. The birds were singing, no doubt settling themselves down for their nightly sleep in temperatures that for the first time in a while did not threaten their delicate frames. Ahhhhh I just love evenings like this.

It was Sweetheart's ball this weekend, a fundraiser for the band, dinner and a Jazz Band show. In addition to the other stuff there is a silent auction, I donated three of my framed and matted shots for the silent auction and to my delight I raised $160.00 for the band. Not only did I raise money for the band but people actually liked my shots enough that they were willing to pay for them!

Other than that I spent my evening taking various abstract shots of the band, things that I found interesting but that which others may not. The shots were pretty rubbish, due to the low light and movement issues but I liked the results and liked them enough that I may go for a re-shoot with the kids not actually moving.

I posted quite some time ago about the obvious corrupt practices of North Carolina House Speaker Jim Black (D). Well guess what today he pleaded guilty in Federal Court to corruption on the one thing his lawyers said he was guilty of, accepting 29,000 in cash from several chiropractors while he was in the process of pressing through legislation which would benefit chiropractors. He is facing ten years and a $250,000 fine. This is not the end of the investigations however, since the whole legislation requiring children to have an eye exam by an optometrist before they enter school debacle (wonder how much cash the optometrists paid for that one?) he has been under the microscope and all his dirty little secrets started falling out of their respective closets, illegal campaign contributions, lottery kickbacks, lobbyist kickbacks, you name it. If he thinks that by pleading guilty to this he is going to manage to escape all the rest of the stuff he is sadly mistaken. And the democrats have the gall to say the Republicans have a "culture of corruption." Strange how THIS has not made national headlines is it not?

Con, my darling cat who, for the most part lives outside cause the rest of the cats in the house do not like him (or he does not like them) is fed at the front door three times a day. I put out dry food for him first thing in the morning, then again when I get home at night and then he is given his dinner at the front door when the other cats gets their dinner (salmon, mackerel or tuna). I was quite surprised to see that the dry food was disappearing quite quickly, and just assumed that the next door neighbor's cats were eating it. A week or so ago my husband went outside for some air and called me to him, he had spotted a possum, right by the front door which quickly ran up a tree onto the garage roof when he went outside. This evening I went outside to feed Con and sure enough there was the possum again, chowing down on Con's food, as soon as he saw me he shot off up the tree onto the garage roof and sat looking at me. I am happy to feed the possum you understand, the poor creature must find natural food lacking in this cold weather. Just so long as Con gets to eat he can do what he wants.