Everything on the Internet is controversial in its strange way, even our backyard thermometer, which said the temperature at the farm was -20.

The Weather Channel says our temperature was only -1, but I trust the backyard thermometer, which looks like it’s been on the back wall for a century. Maria said it was the coldest she remembered feeling on this farm.

At 8:40 according to the weather channel it got up to 14° here. We’ll take it.

Maria said it felt like -20, and I was barred from going out, let alone in a bathrobe. I did get to a check-up with my doctor; it’s time to be more careful with my diabetes and revamp some of my diet. Diabetes is constantly changing, and so do the people who have it.

This happens every couple of years, and I take it seriously. I want to be around for a while. A nurse once told me that you take diabetes seriously or it will take you seriously.

Zip is, as always, a surprise. He ignores his heated barn hut, and like sit out in the sun on the ice at the back of the house. When I touch him, his fur always feels warm, just like the donkeys.

They have fur that soaks up the sun.

Bud is off to his own version of Florida, he never wants to go out in this weather, and always finds a spot by the fireplace or or in the sunlight.

Pincus, my new Starling Meditation partner was off yesterday, he came bye to stare at me in the morning when I sit for my bird medidtation. We are getting used to one another and the bird people have a point. He sure loves his food and is not shy about pushinng the other birds away.

The finches are getting less afraid of me by the day, they even swarmed together to push Pincus away and it worked – at least for a while. This is a great new meditation spot for me, and I love it.

Of all our animals, Zinnia was the least impressed by the weather. She paid no attention to it, happy to doze next to her pal Bud, or in my office, or out in the bitter cold, her favorite napping spot.

She and Bud are inseperable, cold or hot.

We have a lot more cold to go, and pipes are bursting all over the place. I am grareful for our very story farmhouse, which is holding up well, and are wood stoves are heroic.

I wish warmth for all of you, some news alerts popped up on my Iphone and I got to turn them off and celebrate four wonderful Calla flowers that came into Sue’s Cambridge Florist shop, she is a blessing.