Another couple of weeks at home due to Covid-19, Dec. 18, 2020 to Jan. 4, 2021

 On the 19th, we went to Buffalo Park to watch the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.  Believe it or not, this is a photo I took with my cell phone - both planets and four moons of Jupiter were easy to see with the naked eye.

 

The moon was pretty amazing as well.

On the 20th, a neighbor organized a gathering with telescope to view the conjunction - with the telescope you could even see the rings of Saturn.

We received many cute Christmas cards - this one was from Megan.

On Christmas morning, we spent three hours on Zoom with Megan, Ben and Martha, as we all opened gifts at our three locations.  We had way too many gifts under the tree.

We continue to have some amazing sunrises, often preceding some sleet and snow later that day.

This is one of the ornaments made from Scrabble tiles that Patty found on Etsy.  This one was for Megan and it is on one of the placemats Megan made for us.  Patty ordered six of this type of ornament, but they did not arrive in time for Christmas, so I mailed them the day after Christmas.

As with vanilla extract, Patty wanted orange extract for one batch of muffins she was making - no orange extract at any grocery store in town.  We substituted frozen orange juice concentrate.  Muffins were excellent.

More stunning sunrises - I just love walking the dog in the early morning to see the sky.

 

One of the many thoughtful gifts from our kids was this collar and leash with lights - perfect for those early morning walks with the dog, as can be seen from this short video and photo.  Thank you Megan!

 

We finally did get a couple of inches of snow.
 

 The new bird feeders I got for Patty have attracted many birds - in this case, it was a northern flicker on the suet and a Steller's jay on the fence, in the second photo the jay was retrieving pieces dropped by the flicker.

We took another hike at Thorpe Park and this time passed by the bridge with tile art.

 On the 4th, we went to Kendrick Wildlife Watching Trail - we saw and heard nuthatches, but we only heard chickadees, ravens and crows.  Only a few other people, it was a quiet walk in the woods.

 Arizona continues to set new daily records with Covid-19, nearly 18,000 infections today, hospitals statewide are running out of space, with some running at 120% of capacity.  And they cannot find enough people to work, including vaccinating people.  What a royal, continuing mess we are in.  We continue to avoid people, wear masks, wash hands, maintain distance, etc., etc.  Such is life as we start 2021.