The Snow Report.....

 

The robin looked surprise with the weather this morning.  I bet it will be hard to find worms under all the snow. We will partially melt this afternoon.

 

 

The cardinal and house finch seem to be chomping on their seeds at the same time. It is nice to see the cardinal show up at my feeder and stay for a while.

It was a bonus day as the female cardinal showed up to eat.  The house finch pair do not seem to be bothered by its being there. 

 I finished my second wooden platform yesterday. It seems to be fitting that it is over decorated just like the house. 

 

 

 

The project is done.  I have a snow picture to share on another day with these two having snow on their roofs.  Thanks for stopping by today.

A Rambling On Day.....

 

The fighting, the positioning, the bad attitudes among one another seems to the norm for the starlings.  One starling can be eating and another comes along and just shoves him off.  One could not learn good manners and citizenship when you observe them.

 

 The mini-daffodils are blooming in spite of the cold temperatures. Bulb plants always amaze me as to how little of heat that it takes to get them to shoot up and bloom. I suppose it is the light more than it is the heat.

I saw the bird coming my way and captured its shape.  I didn't know what it was until I looked at the camera screen.  The cranes travel from waster spots to other water spots around here but I don't often see them fly over like this.  Between the Lake Saylorville and the Des Moines River we have water surrounding us.  Canada geese do the same thing but my camera is rarely with me when I am seeing them or just hearing them fly over me.

In my younger days I would say not to make it all over decorated but now that I am old I can over decorate.  The second stand that is shorter is done but the visual isn't ready for today's production. I need to go downstairs and get it and photograph it and I am too lazy. 

I have added an l-brace to be used to attached it with a wood screw to the deck,on one side.  Strong winds will topple it maybe so I am not taking chances.  I added feet to this that look like the one's on my antique Stickley flower stand, squares on the bottom.

I made a run to the grocery store this morning for a lot of odd things.  I needed batteries for my blood meter and orange juice for my wife.  Found a pill sorting box for my meds which I should have had two years ago so I don't have to shift bottles back and forth all day long to open for the time of day that it is.  I take a lot of pills to be alive and well.  My heart doctor told me I was one of the healthiest looking patients that he has but don't stop taking the heart pill.  I bought a new plant and coffee beans. Anyway, the temperatures dropped while I was in the store and the wind was very cold.  I am so tired of winter in spring.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday's Things.....

 Construction obsession is probably not treatable but when the wood pile runs out it will stop.  I made a pedestal for the one birdhouse.  It has been painted all white now and it sits out on the deck next to the white metal railings.  I did go back downstairs this morning and made a midget pedestal for one other birdhouse for displaying alongside of this one.  Creative construction is really fun for me and I put things together dimensionally piece by piece.  Scrap lumber is still being used for them which includes old bookshelves and scraps from remodeling on the old house. 

I did find some good uses for my houses as you can see this one fits right in with the flowers. I hated to see this one to go outside and get rained on and wet. 

The oxalis continues to reach for the light.  I see I need to trim back some dead parts hanging on the back parts of the pot. 

The aquarium and the sun created a perfect prism causing the rainbow on my old brown rug downstairs.  I suspect that the sun position has moved already and it isn't making a rainbow anymore.  I thought I really had to photograph it as the real thing and not just write about it.

It is a sunny day but is still very cold.  I hope spring warmer weather comes soon.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Hey Cousins.....

I first selected a sunrise photo for this spot then I realized I have been boring everyone with too many of those.  I took it off and will share the glow of orange of the goldfish gang. 

To continue with the pet theme I was able to get a good shot of one of the cockatiels stretching its ings.  These guys are quite a pair as the great me in the morning and scold the birds out side when they see them.  They really enjoy the bigger cage that I got them a few years ago.  They like to fly but when not in the cage they do ike to just walk.  They some times dive bomb drop to the bottom of the cage and look around for things to get into then crawl up the cage when done looking.

 

 

The hanging bird feeder is getting to be low on seed again.  They can empty it in two days.  The suet is being eaten. I am glad as I had it out there for a few months and had not takers.  Now the suet is being enjoyed.  I have not see a single woodpecker at it though.  

I can now say that I am Irish enough to be able to use this mug.  I have been working on the Ancestry program and am finding so many interesting things. The program can take you back to the 1500s on some branches.  Things really work well when the program leans on all the other people who have already done trees.  I found family lines coming mostly from Germany and England. The newer proofs of other lineage includes England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Slovakia, Prussia (Poland) and Canada.  The things that I now know were things my parents never knew.  A lot of my lineage did come from the colonial times and others were those who came over in the 1800s. I had relatives fight in the French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, and also Civil War.  I learned things about relatives surprisingly that were on both sides of the North/South division and I had people who were military leaders of soldiers. Two of the nationalities that my parents definitely knew were the Germany and England countries. The rest they would imagine but did not have any proof. When working with the tree I can see that one follows the relative line of thousands of people. So I can really say I am part Irish when it is St. Patrick's Day.

A photo of a clue of what I have been up to as the mad carpenter.  It is a stand that will hold a birdhouse which will sit out on our deck.  White paint is needed to complete the job.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunny Cold Sunday.....

 A cold spring morning can create this kind of sky.  The colors kept changing and I could have taken many different shots.

Another batch of tulips have sprouted up in another location.  I want to see the blooms and leaves on the trees. 

Our spring is late by a week or so.  These mini-daffodils usually are in full bloom by now.  It has been too dry and too cold to encourage them.

We recently found a sugar free chocolate cake mix on sale.  That means there are two kinds out there as the other one was a yellow cake mix.  My wife made it for me yesterday and it is so good.  I put sugar free syrup on it instead of frosting and that does taste good.  I actually had some without syrup this morning with my morning coffee pretending it was a chocolate muffin. 

It will be cold all day today.  We are not planning to get out today.  I had steak at the Outback Steakhouse last night.  It was good with all the grilled vegetables that I ordered with it.  I snuck some of their brown bread in a minimal portion.  It was a great birthday yeserday.   

Thanks for stopping by today.

Too Old to Blog.....NOT!

 

I got a birthday shirt with my painting printed on it. The Brave New Journey started back when I quit teaching.  I think though the last three years have really been my brave journey.

The morning looked like this and it was below freezing in temperatures.  It really isn't going to warm up much today. We are going to eat out this dinner time.  I am still trying to decide which one I want to go to.  Living in the large city makes it a luxury to pick whatever I want and it is in short driving distance. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Lilies......in the Vase.

 A great view of Peruvian lilies.  The seem to last longer than a lot of cut flowers.  The colors of all of them are great but this one is one of my favorites. 

It has been a blustery cloudy day.  Large clouds above and strong March winds seems to be the weather report.  It feels cold with the strong winds making 51 degrees into a much colder wind chill.  The day is lighter as the earth keeps tilting.

The first part of my iris order has arrived.  It was great to see it out there but I know that I can't plant them yet as our ground is still pretty cold.  The tulips are popping through though and I think I have one crocus bloom out there. 

It is Friday.  The birds are busy and are making nests as I watch them pick up materials for their nests. Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things......

 The neighbor cat gets something to eat or drink and sits in the window. If he wasn't made up with the tuxedo patterns we would never see him.  The family is gone all day so he is bored.

The cat could be watching birds as they seem to be everywhere.  The act like it is spring and it sounds like it with all of them in the trees chirping. 

The morning was one with a light snow falling. and it made it look grayer.  The trees would look better if a little green was setting on on the branches. 

Our spring wreath looks great while the outside is so gray. Our trees out front will have white blooms on them someday.

I repotted violets today and worked with a small rose that had stopped blooming.  They are all in new fresh soil and were soaked with lots of water. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Rain, Rain, Please Stay....

 Activity includes dodging the rain and finding food to eat. The were two sets of house finches out working the sock feeder.

My tray is the present time water gauge.  I think we have had a lot more rain than the weather predictors are saying.  Now that the rain gauges for weather people are computerized I question how accurate that they are. 

My project for the last two days was to again repair our dining room chairs that were made in China. I had to engineer wooden panels to put in the seats so the cushions actually work rather than fall through a center hole.  I attached the panel under it and figured out a way to make it long lasting. The chairs really could head for the landfill  but I will keep working with them.  The finish on them is bad, blemished and poorly applied.  I guess it is a quick job to make things that look like chairs but they really are not well designed.  They were a good looking product that was just a mirage. 

Rainy day for most of the day and it is cold again.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Squawk of the Blue Jay......

 

 He sat at the top of the tree and made calls.  I don't know if they were territorial calls or he was calling for a mate.  It is an unusual view of the belly of the bird.  He flew away rather than turn for me to get a look at his blue feathers. 

The birds like to sit on the top of this tree before flying down to the feeder. The sparrow stayed there for quite a while before taking flight. 

I am anxious to see if I killed this shrub.  It had a lot of dead areas so I trimmed it back.  It is a burning bush.  We are getting rain today and that should help it. 

I was surprised to see all the leaves collected on my flower beds along the southeast of the house. Most of the leaves have come from trees that I don't own.  The blow through town many times with strong winds the fly all up and down the block.

The moon is now waning.  We are having a rainy day.  We need a lot of rain but we are just getting drizzle.  It will do drizzle though for most of the day.  That should get the grass growing though.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Monday's Mentions......

 I had five silver maple trees at my old place.  I am glad to see this one off to the southeast.  I drove through the area today and see tjat it stands in the old part of town just to the edge of the newer developments.  For years  there was a broken branch that  hung down there and the derecho did take it down. It is an old tree judging by the size of it. It is almost always in my sunrise photos.

 

 Sparrows and house finches seems to be my only kinds of birds.  I can't seem to get the house finches to hang around long enough to get their photos. 

Proof of a cardinal showing up for a few seconds this morning.  I have the shot through a screened window.  

A year ago today I posted this photo of a cardinal. I don't know why they seem so scarce but I want to blamed the neighbors who took down the very large tree over the summer.  It was just two houses over from our house. 

We have been watching the foundations being built. We didn't really know what its purpose would be but I was thinking a bike trail bridge.  This is the ad about it.  It is larger than what it looks like because trucks and John Deere trucks with equipment have to drive under it.  I can see that it really is a site for the bikers to start a trail that will end up way northwest at our old town  of Woodward,
where we use to live.  The Trestle Trail Bridge is there and this new bridge resembles a train trestle bridge also.  We will be privileged to drive under it every time we head to the eastern shopping area of our town.

At the end of the trail from our town is this High Trestle Trail Bridge that spans the Des Moines River.  It use to be a train bridge in which I use to hear the trains in our town  after they had crossed this bridge. 

My tulips bloom a week or so after the neighbor's do.  The neighbor lady told me just today that her's  bloom April 7th on her daughter's birthday.  So I can expect blooms in three weeks. I will take pictures of hers on April 7th then.

Thanks for checking in today.