Remember playing Pick-up Sticks as a child?  The game was suppose to develop hand-eye coordination while having fun interacting with other children.  It's been years since I played the game.  Actually I thought it was boring and lame as a child, probably because I always lost, and the other evening confirmed it when I played pick up no. 4 pasta sticks from the kitchen floor.   My big pot of water was boiling frantically on the front burner when the cellophane package slipped through my fingers landing at my feet strewing pasta noodles in all directions.  I picked them up, blew them off and slipped them into the boiling water.  Days later while vacuuming under the fridge, I found the rest of the pasta.

It rained Monday, poured all day yesterday, 2+", annoying spitting rain today and another day of  cold rain is predicted for tomorrow.  The wood stove warmed the house and I baked banana carrot coconut muffins and cornbread and butternut squash soup. Also, finally began storing my dried garden herbs that have been hanging in the kitchen for too many weeks.

                                             Italian flat parsley and sage

This was a strange sight at our waterfall on Boulder Creek Road yesterday.  This scrawny blue heron belongs in a warm Florida climate.  Don't know how it ended up here.

A new bird showed up at the house feeder yesterday.  We have lots of acrobatic white-breasted nuthatches with black caps but this little fellow made its first appearance at our feeders.  It's neat to see new birds and animals show up.