This evening as I was driving home I crossed the bridge and noticed the most beautiful sunset above the river. The sky was a miriad of pinks and peaches and some areas of it almost looked like they were on fire. As I drove down the road I noticed that there were a flock (more like an army) of birds flying south, every time I thought the line had ended there was another wave, all flying in black silhouette against the magnificent sunset. The line of birds (I would say four or five abreast) must have been about 20 miles long considering the time it took to pass over. It was the most spectacular of sights and made for a spectacular image. And it occurred to me that I had noticed this scene almost every evening last week, a spectacular sunset with the birds flying south across it. AND WHERE WAS MY BLOODY CAMERA? SAT HOME ON THE CAMERA DOCK GETTING ITS BLOODY BATTERIES CHARGED THAT'S WHERE! WHY IS IT I CAN'T GET A BLOODY CLUE AND LOAD MY CAMERA INTO THE CAR WHEN I GO TO WORK IN THE MORNING SO I CAN ACTUALLY GET SOME OF THESE SHOTS, I MEAN WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF DESCRIBING SOMETHING SO INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL IF I AM NOT GOING TO HAVE THE SENSE TO PHOTOGRAPH THE DAMN THING. *cough* sorry, I got a little out of hand there. I MUST take my camera to work with me tomorrow, in fact I am going to put it in the car right now while I am thinking of it. *sheesh*

There is a garden spider outside my kitchen window. I do not know why she has not laid an egg case and died, but she hasn't. The cold is bothering her, I can see that, she moves slowly when the chill sets in for the night. It is hard to watch her when she is trying to build her web at night, her movements are almost like those of an arthritic old person, painful and slow. She is trying though, each night she builds a web and each day she sits there in the middle of it waiting for something to land. Of course insects are thin on the ground these days so I am not sure what she is eating. Perhaps she didn't mate, perhaps she didn't eat enough to be able to lay an egg sac, but she persists, snuggling close to the house to benefit from its warmth. I am not sure how long I will have the pleasure of her company but I am pleased to see her every morning when I make my tea. She has survived two hard frosts so far, and this week the temps are supposed to get up to the mid 70s so perhaps there will be some things on the wing that she can feed on. She hurts my heart to watch her, I just hope she will be okay.

I just spent over an hour a u-tube, I went there for some other reason (lawd I can't even remember the reason right now) but I ended up at the giggling baby section. Now you have to understand that I do not have children, so I am speaking as a non-parent right now, but I honestly believe, despite being a non-parent that there is nothing more infectious on the face of this planet than the uncontrolled giggles of a baby, whether it is a result of a parent doing something absolutely silly before them, or having a raspberry blown on their stomach, a baby's giggle is simply the most infectious giggle on the planet. You cannot, (and I will challenge you to this task) cannot listen to a baby giggle and not giggle yourself, in fact I would say that it is almost an impossibility for you not to at least crack a smile. When one hears a baby giggle it is almost like a primeval instinct is awakened within you, you are compelled to giggle along. If you don't believe me go to U-tube, hit the comedy button and then go to the videos of babies giggling, I can guarantee you, you will be laughing in minutes. I have probably just wasted an hour of my life watching babies giggle, it was the most fun I have had in quite some time.

The all time classic is this one.... if you don't laugh at this you are not human

[[LINK:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYO7WUWZsNc&mode=related&search=Baby%20laugh%20giggle%20infant%20funny%20cute%20adorable]]

This evening we are going to have a hard frost, so it will be the end of the line for various things in my garden, canna, dahlia, banana, elephant ears, impatiens, zinnia, angelonea, tourena, they will all be toast by tomorrow morning. It is sad, but it is inevitable (although we normally don't get a hard frost this early in the winter). My plants, like me, will hunker down for the winter and wait for the first watery rays of spring sunshine to wake us and wait for that first honk of the geese as they head north overhead, we will wait for that first butterfly to be sighted on the early clover and dandilions, we will wait for the spring bulbs to poke their heads from the frozen soil, we will wait for the asiatic lily foliage to push up into the sun and then we will know it is time, it is time to grow. In the mean time it is time to clean out all my bird feeders and get them ready for the invasion of birds that arrive in my garden for the winter. The gold finches will return soon, and like a small army they will arrive and demand thistle seed, my resident birds will depend on me through the winter to keep them fed and happy and the bands of birds who are heading south will stop off here as a feeding stop to fatten up before carrying on thier migration. It is a busy time of year for me, and thankfully, a productive one when it comes to bird photography. The great backyard bird count is fast approaching and I have to prepare.

a died in the wool, tax and spend liberal. This was a direct quote "if we don't take the house and sentate next tuesday this country will be bankrupt in two years, we need to take control then bring the majority of the troops home as soon as possible and then bring the rest of them home then DISCHARGE THEM AND STOP PAYING THEM." THAT is the democrats' plan? To discharge all the troops and stop paying them, so as to fund their miriad of welfare programs for people who are capable of working but who refuse to do so? This is a PLAN? You fire honest, hard working men and women who have put their lives on the line for their country so that the government can fund programs that pay people to sit on their butts and watch soap operas all day, THIS IS A PLAN? You pay 20 million dollars for a bridge to nowhere in Alaska but you discharge all the military personnel and this IS A PLAN? Oh wait a minute, this sounds familiar, right after the Gulf War, veterans returning from the war were given their pink slips, Clinton went through the military like a hot knife through butter. Think about this next tuesday people.