Yeah!!!! Theo, welcome home and I've missed you. Me, not at the party? LOL. I'm like a bad penny. Jo, that is sort of what happened at my house. It seems like the things I share with my hubby, or teach him at, he usually excels in and surpasses me. He did that with embroidery first. I taught him how to do counted cross stitch and it turned into a decade long hobby with work more intricate than I'd ever dream of touching. Likewise the bird watching. He is very astute at noticing those minute markings one usually overlooks when describing common-looking species like sparrows. Because of this diligence, we have been able to document and photograph some rare sightings when ten years ago, alls we would have known was they were sparrows. We do counts daily and keep logs on them. I do the transcribing, but he does the bones of the work, keeps the feeders filled, and like your husband is very specific about what goes in them. It is correct the suet preference can change because the species change who prefer suet and some lean toward nuts and some toward fruit and it's a time and season sensitive thing.

Thanks all!! :) I'm exhausted -- JUST finished packing up and storing the decorations up in the attic (above the garage) My back is aching ...... time for a glass of wine -- and a bath!!! :) LOL! Zip!!!! 521!!!! Wow!!! We were very worried about running out of candy -- but we managed to make it through the evening -- starting about 5:30-9:30 or so ..... This was our largest number of kids in 20 years -- our street was full of cars -- and kids -- but everybody was GREAT -- and so careful -- and polite!!! :) And 2015 is coming!!! Halloween is on a Saturday night! So (after consulting with the neighbours ....) we are all sure that (if the weather is anything close to last night) there will be even more kids! :)

Thanks! It is soooo much fun. Everyone puts so much thought into their costumes. Some great ones again this year. SIL, her DH, daughter and her boyfriend were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One of my nieces dressed up as the shelf elf and they took pics of here all over the place with her hands wrapped around her knees. Cute, cute. We also play games. We had Minute to Win it Games last year. A murder mystery the year before....Always look forward to this every year.

I enjoyed a very needed break from my dumb backsplash decisions, so thanks! @socks: yup, mine looked saddle sore.