Barbara and I have been to my home for a funeral: my last aunt. We enjoyed seeing family and friends, many of whom -- most -- we haven't seen since her husband, my last uncle passed away several years ago. Most of the land around my parents' house has been clear cut for pine logs and pulp. The resulting post-apocalyptic landscape was disorienting -- even for cousins who have lived there all their lives (except for brief periods of service). We could see across long distances (for this area) that were previously blocked by trees.

The day after the funeral, I rode around with my brother to check out the old home place: the area settled by my great, great grandfather in the early 1830s, and the log house my grandfather built -- and where my father was born -- on an upland area near a large creek bottom. The old bridge across the creek burned years ago, but some of the pilings still mark the crossing. The water was high because of recent heavy rains.

The photograph below is looking upstream from the bridge.

We also drove around my brother's and cousin's 650-acre hunting lease. My uncle previously owned it. The photograph below is from my cousin's wife's deer stand.

A nice, sunny day after the oppressive and dark rainy day of the funeral.

Barbara and I participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count every February. The amount of time required is a minimum of 15 minutes. You list the birds you can identify and the maximum number of birds of each species that you see at one time. Easy checklist to fill out at www.birdcount.org. We always enjoy it even if that weekend in February in the Georgia Piedmont is nasty. I encourage you to join in. You can also go to other locations like at national park locations: Kennesaw National Battlefield, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Mammoth Cave National Park, and many others.

Well, it looks like I haven't been posting yet in 2020. So to catch up on the first two weeks. Lots of rain here. Over five inches for the year. About half an inch just today. More rain forecast tonight and tomorrow. Warm temperature: about 63 degrees F.

We spent the first full week in Thunderbolt with Barbara's mother. Ate

Camellia bloom in Thunderbolt, Georgia, in January 2020.

some really good food. She's a great cook. Worked in the yard and on some jigsaw puzzles. Camellias are blooming in Savannah -- as well as here in the Georgia Piedmont. The attached bloom is from her mother's yard on the south side of the garage.

Before we left for Thunderbolt on Monday morning, we watched two pileated woodpeckers across the road in our neighbors' yards, and then in our back yard. I will try to upload a short video of one flying across the street. They tended to stay close to the ground in the shade and were difficult to photograph. I was worried about chasing them off before I could get a good shot. This video is about  as good as I got.