Twofer day!

Hi SFriends, today is "Twofer Day", you get two updates for the price of one. 
#1, drum roll please, Willy is BACK. 

As you might remember from last spring, a family of birds called Rose-breasted Grosbeaks comes here every spring for a few weeks, they have their babies here and stay and visit for a time.  Then the next year, the babies are now full grown

and they return to start the cycle of life again.  And today, Willy is back!  We give the males the name Willy in homage to Willy Nelson-because of the red neck scarf appearance that the male Grosbeaks have, so then to make things easy, we name the ladies Wilma.  This Willy had an extra little white area in his wing when he was born last year-and there it is!  Welcome home big guy.

Wilma is brown, same size, with the same strong yellow beak. 

This photo is from Bird Watchers Digest online.

 She is more shy, so we get more pictures of  Willy.  Happy day when they come around.

And #2 update,

here are how open the Magnolia buds are-they have not had a lot of warm temps these past few days, so not much progress, but as much as I want to see the bush in bloom, I know that the blossoms do not last that long, so I will savor every day that they are giving me their gift of beauty.  Just as I savor every time you my friends check in with me-thanks for stopping in, and if you were here, I would share a cup of lunch soup with you-one of my favorite if you can not have homemade soup:

Gia Russa Kluski Soup!

If you are well or sick-this is the pick!  Hey a little advertising jingle!