My walk around the pond was a sunny but frisky one this morning. 
With a nighttime temperature of 31F there was frost on the meadows and the car windows were frozen as well.
Fortunately I'd wizened up and bought a front window covering last week so I didn't need to spend an hour scratching before I could leave.

There were some guys fishing, as well as this little Bufflehead, who caught herself a nice Sunday breakfast ...

After the Christmas tree has been put away the room always looks rather barren, so I cut some moss covered oak and fir branches and brought them inside.
Together with a few hawthorn berries they make a pretty, 'wintery', arrangement.

In the ditch in front of one of the neighbor's yard I also came across a whole bunch of Snowdrops so .. yes, they had to come with me as well of course.

      

                                               
Their little bell-flowers were closed when I brought them in from the cold but within 30 minutes they completely opened up showing little green dots in the bright white petals:

       

I'd been thinking about getting a few plants after all the Christmas decorations came down because, like I said, the room always looks so sterile afterwards .. and I actually used to have quite some plants, that is before we moved into an RV, so now we don't travel anymore I thought it would be nice to get some again.

As luck would have it, when I did my shopping at Walmart, they were just reorganizing the area where they had their Christmas stuff and were bringing back some plants that were there before, so I seized the opportunity !            

These are some of the strongest, easiest, most adaptable plants you can get so I hope they will do OK in a small(ish), rather dark RV.

 

        

I like the effect. Next week I'll get some more! 

 

And look who celebrated his (67th) birthday this Saturday!

Since he wouldn't be home for coffee at 10am (he went golfing), he had his birthday 'cake' (an apple-blackberry crisp on request) for breakfast! 

Hey, when it's your birthday, you can have it any-way you want it!

He brought back his favorite food for dinner ... Sushi: 

That's one happy Birthday-boy!

We don't really 'do' any presents anymore but my dutch family surprised him by sending a package through Amazon. 
A pair of golf-socks (the frustrated golfer, ha-ha) and a handy dandy grill basket set for fish and vegetables.                               

         

Very nice guys! Thanks again!

Besides baking the crisp and a (delicious) rosemary sourdough I didn't do much else this week (what else is new?). 
But I'm doing a lot of research and am making a lot of plans ... what I'm going to sow in the garden this spring, new menus to try out (thinking of going vegetarian) and finding a few 'easy' exercises to do to keep in shape. 

I'm also starting to figure out and setting up appointments for a doctor's visit, dentist, eye and ear exams, vaccinations .. and more. 
I'm turning 65 in April which is when I finally will be eligible for medicare (after 25 years without health insurance) so I figure I really should have some basic tests done, especially  now they're covered.

I did finish this puzzle:

'Only' 750, larger than usual pieces, so 'fairly' easy. Which was nice for a change.