Feeding the Birds in Winter

Getting ready to leap onto the feeder!

Puffing up to warm up

 The best part of winter is feeding the birds.  It is like having outdoor pets who visit the same time every day.  Each variety is fun and different to watch, and especially on cold days I am happy to see droves of these feathered friends show up to feast.  That is because birds need more food during those days on which the mercury dips low....if they didn't eat more they would not be able to generate enough body heat and would quickly perish.  So, I like putting out seeds that help them keep warm and safe in those cold winter days.

Swallow it whole?!

 For any regular reader on this blog you will notice a new   banner on the top of my sidebar.  That is a NEW blog that I  am running for a dear friend on mine.  She too is facing some cold winter days right now in her life.  I wanted to make a special post today in honor of her, her children, and late husband.  There are points in all of our lives when it is colder, times are harder, and we need a helping hand more than ever.  Her struggle reminds me that we are fragile like my feather friends seen in today's photos....and sometimes the generous help offered from others makes all the difference between being warm or facing peril.

 

So, please enjoy these photos, and short excerpts, and then head on over to: www.JohnsonFamilyFundraiser.com

Read about a great family facing great trial, and consider, "While earning your daily bread, be sure you share a slice with those less fortunate."

Can I offer you a napkin?

 By Thomas Watson:

 Consider the poor. Behold their tears, their   sighs, their dying groans. Look upon the  deep furrows made in their faces and consider if there is not reason why you should scatter your seed in these furrows…..We ourselves may be brought to poverty, and then it will be no small comfort to us that we relieved others while we were in a capacity to do it. We cannot always promise ourselves halcyon days. God knows how soon any of us may change our pasture. The cup which now runs over with wine—may be soon filled with the waters of Marah. Ruth 1:21: "I went out full—and the Lord has brought me home again empty."

By J.R. Miller:

Every disclosure of heavenly existence that has been made to us in this world, shows a life devoted to unselfish serving of others....Every disclosure of the character of God himself, reveals in him the same quality. His name is Love, and love is not love—which does not serve. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh, and he said of his own mission that he came, "not to be served—but to serve."