Today...

It's the last day of our Christmas/New Years break, tomorrow's back to work.

Here is a depressing fact of my life, I have closed 396 months or 132 quarters or 33 years of books.

I tried to relax to day and have the best day with mine Herb.

I didn't want to take the Nikon out because they were saying that it was going to rain. These pictures were taken with my old little Kodak.

Today we went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It was about 50 degrees. We wanted to take advantage of the warm weather, who knows when it will be 50 degrees again. The lawns and the ponds had a surreal look to them from the evaporating snow creating a low lying fog covering.

Close up of the Japanese Garden Gate.

I have been going to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens since I can remember. Way back in the days of old, the gardens were free and you had to pay to enter the Japanese Gardens. There was also a Japanese Rock Garden you also had to pay to enter. You took off your shoes and sat quietly looking at the patterns raked out in the rocks. Even then I couldn't sit still. I would stay for about 5 minutes and then move on.

We had an interesting day birding. We saw Chickadees and House Finches on Clinton Street as we walked to the Borough Hall train station. At first birding in the Gardens was slow. After lunch it picked up. We saw a Red Breasted Nuthatch.

It was too early and way too nice out to go home and I wanted to get 10K steps in for the day, so we went into Prospect Park to check out the feeders. I said to Larry that there were Pine Siskins on the feeders, but he didn't trust my ID. Another birder came by and said there were Pine Siskins on the thistle socks. That confirmed my ID-yes!

I recognized that they were Pine Siskins because they have the same wing pattern as Goldfinches and they are striped on their backs.

The paths in Prospect Park were not plowed and we trudged through what felt like miles of slushy snow. I love my LLBean waterproof hiking boots, my feet were warm and dry all day.

It was really peaceful in the park,

and I enjoyed the walk. All told we walked 5 miles! I got over 10K in for the day. Larry's pedometer recorded 11K steps, so I must have taken 15K. I always feel like the little Chihuahua that has to run along side its master just to keep up when I walk with Larry.

I achieved my exercise goals today and my food goals. Here is a picture of New Year Resolution Dinner Day 2

Yum. 2 thighs and green beans for dinner.

Tonight's dinner was Chicken Thighs with Lemon-Caper sauce. Of course the recipe I had sucked and I had to fix it on the fly. Sometimes I feel that they publish untested recipes on line. I removed the browned thighs from the stove top and cooked them in a 350 oven. I made a sauce with chicken broth, lemon juice and capers. I reduced the sauce, which was thickened by the flour left in the pan from dredged thighs. I added steamed green beans to the sauce to flavor them. And poured some of the sauce on the thighs.

It came out very good.

I have 6 chicken legs marinating in yogurt and tandoori spices for dinner tomorrow. I also have cooked baby bok choy in the fridge.

Oh Herb, you wild and crazy guy...

You can't hide.