Like most of Eastern Canada and much of the Central and Eastern US, we had dismal weather to start the New Year. Freezing rain, followed by heavy snow, followed by bitter cold, followed by more freezing rain. It’s a good thing I adore my family and that we enjoy spending time with each other! Many rounds of Munchkin, D&D and (our new favourite game) Pandemic were played. Many cookies (so. many. cookies.) were eaten.

Our black cat Xeno enjoyed watching what we like to call “cat TV.”  This involves him sitting on the windowsill and staring down birds as they flit to and from the feeder. One morning he seemed especially agitated, chattering and thwapping his tail repeatedly until I joined him at the window. This is what he was watching.

A male pheasant was perched in one of the crab apple trees in my front yard, picking and gulping as much fruit as he could manage to yank off the branches. We have pheasants that wander around our land throughout the year, but they usually keep to the woods behind the barn, huddled and chortling between the alders. This, I thought was an unusual sight.

The next day he returned with a friend, but she seemed to prefer the apples in the other tree.

As did three of her closest friends.

By the end of the day, there were ten of them dining at once, causing one neighbour to wonder if perhaps I’d bewitched them there.

I’ll never tell.