When we moved here to our country home (converted barn) it was a couple of weeks before Christmas. That first Christmas morning my husband and I woke up to snow, beautiful fluffy sparkly snow. We have 11 pine trees surrounding the barn. Of course the snow covered the pine branches. I looked out the front window , and there sitting on one of the pine branches was a bright red Cardinal. It looked like a Christmas card, all white with some green and red. I wish I would have had a camera ready at the time. It was just so perfect. It gave us that warm fuzzy Christmas feeling. As we sat and drank a cup of Hot Cocoa and a Christmas cookie. I hope we have fresh snow for Christmas this year. patti

I like the holly - I think I've got a 'Blue Princess' and a 'Blue Prince,' but my memory isn't clear on that, since I bought them at different times and different places. The female holly is VERY vigorous, but the male is quite wimpy - no idea why, they're planted within 10 feet of each other. Oh, well. I think I'd wait until spring to plant shrubs now - winter is just around the corner for us. There are SO many plants I love in my yard - it will be hard to leave most of them behind. But, I'll take as many daylilies as I can, depending on when we move, and a handful of other favorites. But, plants grow - so even a new yard will look full and established in a few years. While the new garden is small, the little details will be just as interesting. Laurel

Hi Vicki, I was about 2 feet away from the feeder waiting patiently for either the male or the female to show up. The male shows up towards the evening so I have to use a flash. He is quite fearless as long as I'm prefectly still. I used a 200mm zoom lens to get the pictures. Camera used was a Nikon D2x at ISO 100. Have to take several pictures because many of them don't show the lovely coloring under the chin. Here is an example of on the pictures where the color did not show Hope this helps. Praveen.

Very nice! It's hard to imagine eating sunflower seeds without fingers but he does it so well. I'd never noticed the shape of the cardinal's bill where the upper and lower meet. it's not just a flat surface like a hammer and anvil, it's zigzagged which must be more efficient. The tongue must be very active too. Interesting! Claire