We have mail

A gift from home...need I say more? Thanks again, Tami & Lindsay!

A Black Swan

Here's something I've never seen before (picture by Petri Kuhno). So beautiful! And the brief YLE article:

A black swan was sighted this week in Hartola, a town some 200 kilometres north of Helsinki. This is the first time the waterbird has been seen in this part of the country.

Petri Kuhno, the avid bird watcher who spotted the bird, says he believes that the black swan joined a flock of whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus) migrating from central Europe.

The black swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. There are also a few small black swan populations in central European countries.

Black Swans have a mostly black body with the exception of the broad white wing tips which are visible in flight.

Busy Neighbors

We had a lot of activity in the neighborhood today. Two tugs just came to clear the ice and then pull the Eira coal ship back out to the gulf. Friday I took this shot of the bridge building crane operator coming down for his lunch break. Quite the commute! It was below freezing and light snow too.

Certainly puts the sense of working for a living in perspective. The most impressive thing was watching the crane assemblers a few months ago, in similar winter conditions - one climbed all the way to the peak of the structure and set the cables to balance the whole thing. I do hope they are making really good money.

Gerald is doing great. Almost two weeks since his gall bladder surgery and only one setback involving breaded/fried meat Friday, which he will need to avoid from now on. He's doing fine with most everything else, and has through this week off work too to get his energy back up. We're still in winter here and we haven't had the temperature swings they've had in the midwest. Just hovering around 30F, inching up by tenths of degrees, and not too much sun yet. But the paper reports today that migratory birds are beginning to return now, so that's a sign of things to come. This winter has definitely seemed longer than last, so the spring will be that much more welcome.