Snowy Owls and Mushroom Barley Soup

I never realized all the time I would have on my hands after becoming an empty-nester. Time for reading, piano and walking. Time for lunches with girlfriends, late movies with Tim, and long TV series on Netflix.  ( can anyone say ‘House of Cards’?)

I really wanna see one of these guys...I found this one on the internet. 

And speaking of time, today after church, Tim and I spent 2 hours driving around looking for Snowy Owls. TWO HOURS. Now, before you write me off as crazy, please understand that the beautiful Snowy Owl has decided to make the northern United States his home this winter, and he’s usually an arctic bird, so it’s pretty special to see one way down here in Michigan. 

*ALL* my friends have seen them. 

*EVERYONE* has a great photo on their phone of their favorite owl sighting. 

Supposedly you can see them *EVERYWHERE*….. So we decided to see for ourselves. ….. and of course…..we saw NONE. … Not one….

But we did see some pheasants.

And this HUGE hawk.

And this Merlin.

We had to settle for this plastic owl.

 Too much time on my hands? Maybe....  

Extra time also means I get to perfect recipes. Here is a re-make of an excellent Mushroom Barley Soup. Same recipe as I posted previously, but I added dill and lots of lemon juice at the end. Also a dollop of sour cream. Still soup weather up here....