Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:00 a.m. in "The City."

We had a great afternoon yesterday. We had a light lunch and then journeyed to Hemlock Crossing for that ornament making session I mentioned in my last blog. I created a birdhouse ornament from a small section of a tree branch, some twine, some cardboard and other assorted things, along with two amethyst ornaments. Mary applied her talents to painting the inside of some milkweed pods. I think she has been holding out on all of us, as her efforts look terrific. Mary took some pix and I'll let you be the judge.

Mary claims to have "Borrowed" an idea from another person, but it still took her individual skills to make them her own.

We then went outside to see what could be found to use our camera and Mary's macro lens to photograph. Mary found several interesting things, one of which was this Staghorn Sumac plant that is currently dormant right in front of the Hemlock Crossing Education Center.

Although dormant for the winter months, this plant is still beautiful.

Along with the Staghorn Sumac, Mary found some other plants of interest in the fields adjacent to the building.

We're not sure what this plant is called, but it made a great pic.

Same here.

This is the meadow that will be brimming with life when spring arrives in a few months.

A closeup of one of the meadow plants.

I especially like this pic of a nearby pine tree.

As we were heading towards our rendezvous with destiny, AKA, our late lunch or early dinner at our favorite watering hole, The Tip-a-Few Tavern in GH, we had to stop as we observed a huge number of wild turkeys crossing the road. Since we were curious as to what that many turkeys is called, Mary went to an internet site/blog provided by the National Wildlife Federation entitled Twelve Unusual and Fascinating Facts About Wild Turkeys, that gave us more information than we needed.

If you are interested in other facts, here is the website that gave us all of these fun facts.

https://blog.nwf.org/2011/11/twelve-unusual-and-fascinating-facts-about-wild-turkeys/

For example, while too often a large gathering of wild turkeys is often called a flock, or like geese, a gaggle, the proper name is actually one of of these, a “crop”, “dole”, “gang”, “posse”, or “raffle.” Why? darned if we know. However, thanks to a concerted effort by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, AKA the Michigan DNR, the wild turkey population was brought back from near extinction to today's "crop" of over 200,000!

There are five sub-species of wild turkeys in the US. They include: Eastern, Osceola, Rio Grande, Merriam’s and Gould’s subspecies. There are subtle plumage differences and different ranges that distinguish the birds. Further reading also yielded the fact the wild turkeys sleep in trees and though usually seen walking, the birds can fly for short distances and can reach speeds of 55 mph! Who knew?

The Detroit Lions looked as bad as they really are in today's game, as the now 5 - 9 lions fell to the now 5 - 9 Buffalo Bills, 13 - 14. Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears clinched the NFC North Division with a convincing 24 - 17 win over the Green Bay Packers. 2nd year Bears QB, Mitch Trubisky, looked better than the Packers QB, Aaron Rodgers, much better. This is the first time the Bears have won their division since 2010!

We have a current temperature of 40° that won't last. Monday's high will be only 34° with cloudy-skies in the a.m. and partly-sunny skies in the afternoon. By the by, there is no difference between partly-cloudy and partly-sunny skies, it is all a matter of semantics.

There is also that Small Craft Advisory in effect until 8:00 p.m. tonight, with wind speeds of 25 knots and wave heights of from five to seven feet. The sun will rise @ 8:10 a.m. and set later @ 5:11 p.m.

We have no specific plans for today. It should be a good day for a walk with the fur-children. We have our cleaning person coming in today, something that my aching shoulder will appreciate. Mary wants to make a recipe that looks interesting for vegan cacciatore.

Last night, she was working on some needlepoint project, nee cross-stitch. I am currently listening to Christmas music on iHeart, which I was also doing last night. Ciao.