IN the groups of birds, there were some that were similar to the Robins, dark gray, yellow beak and eye, but clearly no reddish orange breast coloring. They quickly moved away from my yard (still covered with a lot of snow and water) to another farther down that had more open grass and soil. The Northern Mockingbirds are too light gray, and I didn't see any white whits markings, though I could have easily missed them due to the distance. The Cedar Waxwings are a wishful possibility, but again, the birds I saw were of a uniformly dark color. Also, there are no berries around here. They were all gobbled up quickly in fall, and any drupes left on some trees were chased down by the squirrels on their high-wire act. The squirrels even go into my yews and eat all the little red berries. The birds I saw were clearly pecking and digging in the ground to find food. Today is colder and windy, and there aren't as many birds around

I'm in Iowa, and for the past 2 years Robins have stayed here all winter. Not a whole flock, and they weren't here every day, but enough to tell me they are tougher than we think! And this past winter was the 9th coldest on record. Thank you for the suggestion of fruits, Surya55. I'll try to feed them next year.

How exciting, on all counts. Hopefully, the kitchen will come together soon and you can enjoy your home. Sorry to hear DS has not been feeling well, hope he's better now. He's such a cutie. You are such a patient, kind mother, and he reflects the love and security he feels. (My DGS has been sick with rotavirus - finally getting better, but it's been hard on his mom, she's 9 months pregnant.) You are certainly keeping busy, now with the adoption, too. I was adopted 61 years ago, and I've had a wonderful life. DS will make a wonderful big brother. Barb

Got your name right this time, hee hee. I have one final request (for right now). I finally received the sample tile from Ann Sacks Zen Weave and I will give you the actual tile scanned from my computer and the one from the website. If you don't mind, would you please do a mock up??? Pretty please? I seem to remember you telling me that you had to take some things off of the counter and place them back on. You can actually do that on these mock ups because the green kettle, counter micro and the yellow cakeplate are no longer there anyway. Heck, you can take it all off as it changes often anyway. Thanks again. When I started this whole kitchen I should have just attempted to make it exactly like my inspiration picture and it was complicated and done by 3 designers and not the same space so it would have been much trickier and probably much pricier. But this Ann Sacks tile I love so much...if I had only chosen the Caesarstone in Baja....oh this was an expensive mistake. I hope I didn't already have you do this one. I couldn't find it on my other posts. Thanks!!!!!