A Spledoinkel Day

Today is granddaughter Alivia's 6th birthday, yesterday evening I took her birthday shopping, we had a really nice time out and ended our evening at her favorite restaurant, McDonalds! Alivia selected her birthday meal, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, and fruit cocktail. My son Matt, Alivia's daddy, is making a giant meatloaf to bring over, and of course there will be birthday cake and ice cream. I made up a vegan loaf for the vegetarians and vegans in the family.  I just love that a six year old enjoys such a nice comfort food kind of meal, she picked the same birthday dinner for her 5th birthday, and grandson Patrick picked the same meal for his 8th birthday this year. Grandson Henry always picks spaghetti and garlic bread, and grandson Charlie always wants pancakes and sausage. I wonder what meals the five younger grandchildren will want as they get older.

Alivia and Ralphie enjoy their Happy Meals at Mickey D's

Vegan loaf all mixed up and ready to pop in the oven a little later today

This morning I went out for a run, it was a little below freezing, no wind, and the air was clear and sharp, really the most perfect running weather. My times were excellent, I only ran three miles, but did each one in under ten minutes. When I finished my run I took a few pictures, it was simply beautiful out and the crisp fall air very invigorating.

Pretty fall foliage

A picture of the tree line

Me feeling invigorated after my run.

My "big bird" running pants, ha ha!

A view of the back of our house with a frost covered roof.

The day went from a cold and frosty morning to a brilliant fall day. Grandsons Henry and Patrick came over for the afternoon and have kept grandson Masen entertained. They built a leaf nest and then sat in it eating Kit Kat bars. 

The boys in their nest

 Dave has taken advantage of the mild weather to  trim some branches in the areas that we park out front, a necessary chore and one that I think he rather enjoys.

I just finished reading The Lido by Libby Page, I enjoyed it for the most part although felt it dragged a bit towards the end. It is a nice story, I cared about the characters, but felt that the ending was really rather unlikely. I much preferred the book I read before it, The Keeper of Lost Things. I am now reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, although only a little way into the story I am really enjoying it.

I picked a few books up at our local library branch, it is a small branch and the selection of books is a bit scant. I like the MC Beaton Agatha Raisin stories, but am not a fan of his Hamish MacBeth stories. They are both sort of silly mystery story series with the "cozy" factor so many mystery have.

I have never heard of Becky Clark, but I think it is going to fall into the silly mystery story with the cozy factor genre. The third book, The Farm by Tom Rob Smith sure sounds good, but the reviews are rather so so, I will give it start and see how it goes.

I refilled the bird feeders today, I cannot tell you how much pleasure the grandchildren and Dave and I get from watching all of the birds who visit our feeders. We have many woodpeckers, lots and lots of sparrows, blue jays, red wings, and cardinals. In the summer, gold finches, blacked capped chickadees, humming birds, join the throng, and we saw a Baltimore oriole and an indigo bunting this year. We get cat birds and cow birds, and mourning doves. And occasionally our neighbors chickens go on a wander and always manage to show up to peck at all of the dropped seed around the feeders. Nature, there is always something interesting to see and enjoy so it is very important that we all help take care of the environment.

The all you can eat buffet for the avian wildlife

And last, but not least, I bought a new tea towel for the kitchen, it is hanging on the front of the stove, don't you just love Mr. Fox. When we purchased this stove I made sure it had a handle on the front of the oven that would allow me to hang a towel from it, our last stove did not and I always wished it did.

Splendid Mr. Fox