A Calling Bird

 He called so often daily and finally he found a mate. It seems to be too cold for them to nest but I hope they stay in our territory. 

 She is actually larger than him but she has great subtle colors instead of the bright red. 

 They took turns sitting in out maple tree. He calls yet even though she is here right in the same tree. 

 

 

We do still have snow everywhere. It did melt off some yesterday, out in the open, where the snow was thin. I shoveled off the heaviest of snow off my deck and it help speed up things a bit. We didn't get too far below freezing last night. It still is not a warm day today. I went for meds and groceries this morning and I am glad I wore my winter coat. 

This is the last day of the month. I can't believe things went so quickly. Both of us spent a couple of weeks sick with the flu. I am now over it and my wife is a few days from being at the end of it. It last so many days and the sore throat is the last to go.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

 

No Snow Blowing

 We reached 62 degree F. today. Our snow is melting. It isnt such a quick melt but it is nice to see some of it going away.

 Looking down the hill I can see our brown grass. We caught up n our needed snowfall but we missed out on the last one all together.

 I dug out a path on my deck to get a path to the bird feeders. If is stays warm tomorrow I will do a better job of clearing it. The winds really pile up a lot of snow on the northeast side of the house. 

 Looking down the back stairs I was surprised to seed how much snow was still there. I don't have a need to shovel it out.  I am looking forward to spring to see what the tulips will look like along the railing there.

. Did I mention tulips in the last line. There they are coming up in the front yard. It isn't unusual for this time of the year.

 

The two garden spots in front of the garage have the first tulips showing up in the spring. I didn't plant new tulips last fall but I have plenty that will come up and bloom. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things

 It is suppose to warm up today enough for us to thaw a bit. The morning sunrise looked smudgy for some reason but we do now have clear sunshine. 

 The is a view of my hill in my backyard. It is a long story as to why I don't have a flat backyard but I get use to it and then take photos and see the strange lean of the land. I should plow out the land next to the fence and create a giant flower bed. 

 

 The birds leave their tracks as they search for fallen seed from above. The seem to be hungry today even though we just are not  that cold right now. Having been under the weather the past seven days for different reasons, it was fun to step out of the house and take photos while trying not to step into the snow with my stocking feet.

 The catalogue lays open from where I left it days ago. I did not buy new ones this year. I have three or four that I bought last year that I am counting on to be blooming in the late spring. 

 The photographer and editor of the catalogue do such a great job to get people to buy. The know their trade and know color is a big design element to catch people[s eye. I follow the reel of this company and it is fun to see the beds that are developing through the year. 

 I am feeling better and yet still have sore throat residue. I went for groceries yesterday as we were just out of everything.  I was strong enough to shop and yet it was a long job putting things away. My wife has caught what I just had. Each person gets different symptoms but she is sick. She is sleeping it off day and night. I never had this kind of cold that lasted for so long. Each day I developed a new different ailment. One night I had to sleep in an easy chair vertically as my throat was so swollen and my breathing was being impaired. Now I am keeping liquids going as often as possible to get the throat cleared up. My energy level is almost normal now but I am not going to do any brick laying today.

Thanks for checking in today. 

 

Middle of the Week

 The morning sun glowed through for a short time. Most of the day it has been gray and cloudy.

 Patterns are everywhere. The stairs and rafters give off a good pattern along with the railing. Repeated squares are always a winner. 

 

 I am the end of a long cold. I develop new things each day. The sore throat last night was a real winner but I am getting stronger. We missed our oldest grandson's 13th birthday. He will get his card and gifts but not on time. My one brother turned 83 years old yesterday. He lives in Yorba Linda, California. He is looking forward to the Santa Anna winds, to start blowing, to give him perfect weather. I am anxious for any southern wind to blow our way. 

Thans for checking in today. 

Red Returns

 

 I put more seed on the tray and the cardinal showed up this morning. I took many shots and kept three of them. He was in a tree outside earlier and I didn't get a shot as he didn't stick around for me. 

 I have been ill. I was set back from medical test last week and I am just now feeling a little better. I don't shoot new fresh stuff when sick but the birds have helped get me some visuals for the blog.Tomorrow will be the fourth day of being down. I think I will be better soon and then the crud develops into something else. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Rocking Raisin

 

Sunday Afternoon

 At a perfect moment I caught tthis guy in the blue spruce tree. I keep seeing him f rom a distance and just happened to look out with my cameraa.

 I do have a closer shot of him as he was just about to take off with a sunflower seed in  his beak. He looks like an acrobat. 

 

 Inside, I moved the new plant over to the window to give it some more light. It is a tropical plant and all I know don't know how to care for it. I just water it often but not too much.

 The fish are always moving so most of the time I just get a blur of guppies.  They are keeping warm in the heated tank, Outside we started out at 19 degrees F. again this morning. The warm up isn't much. We chose not to go outside anywhere. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Birds of a Feather.....Stick Together.

 One hundred paper cranes fit nicely in the plastic bin that my wife gave to me. I have slowed down on the making of them, but I still grab some paper once in a while and fold. 

 I have folded over a thousand now. Their are three of four different kinds of papers that I use so they pile has lots of different patterns. I intended to try to do some with Christmas paper but that hasn't happened yet. 

 We woke up to 10 degrees F. and our high for the day will be 25 degrees F. We did need to go on a cople of errands but we voted to just stay inside. What we needed can just wait. The severe cold froze up all the clumps of snow into hard rocks so it is hard to walk on them. Roads are cleared pretty much and the sidewalks in our area are good. 

 I take shots of these at a distance so the cropped photo shows the head out of focus. They are moving quickly to get to the seed. 

 The junco is a great snowbird that visits only in the winter. It will head north in the summer.. We have a pair of cardinals out there but I was only able to take one photo a few days ago. While putting out my flag this morning a male cardinal was calling in the front yard area. I think he was across the street in neighbor's tree. I never saw him but did hear him.

I had a clinical test on Thursday and am still resting from it all. The appointment seemed to mess up the whole week. Resting and doing odd jobs is all I need, or want, to do. 

 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

 

Winter White Stuff

 

 The eight and a half inches of snow is blown around on our deck blowing it into a large drift. 

 

 I will eventually shovel out the deck so I can put seed in my feeders. My fix for now is put out this plactic tray on the top of the snow.

 I could have used my snowblower today but two young boys came to door to do the work. I like helping out the neighborhood kids. They were so pleased to get money and also a few snicker candy bars.  The snow was very heavy and the guys were younger so they had some difficulty moving it. We found all the loosed cash that we had and paid them.  The one boy was the spokesmen and he said he lived in the gray house up on the hill. Keegan was a very polite one and even called me sir.  I have paid them for the work a couple of times before earlier in the winter. 

Tjanks for stopping by today. 

Looking Up

 The journey out on the deck to look around. I saw the neighbor boys our playing football in the warm weather and dogs out barking at the neighbors.

 As I turn around and look up, I see that the clouds needed to be photographed. I like having the house in the foreground to give it a frame of reference of how it really looked. 

 The hardy geranium that enjoys the protection from the outside weather. It seems to be slowly opening up one or two few blooms at a time. There a many buds on it below the flush of red. 

 Checking on my backyard plants. Not much to see but these new iris are surviving. I did get a little more soil on a couple of them. I didn't bury them. I just wanted a little more protection of the rhizomes. 

Life is busy right now and I am hoping things settle down by the end of the week. Thanks for stopping by today.  

Red Roses

 

Sunny Sunday

 The cardinal was not in sight all day. The calls worked yesterday as we had a female show up for a brief moment at the tray feeder. She was there, grabbed a seed, and was gone before I could reach a camera. 

 A watercolor hummingbird showed up in my card yesterday. It is done well for a reproduction. The artist had good sense of color for it.

 The insides of the pop up card had lots of dimensional flowers and a hummingbird with movable wings. 

 It is the real thing as I got a good shot of my angelfish. I saw a reels on angelfish that had many of them floating in a large cylinder tank. The person present said that the fish is no angel as it slowly nibbles away on other smaller fish. It is their nature of the beast. 

We hit 61 degrees F today. It was nice weather for winter in Iowa.  Thanks for stopping by today.  

Seeing Red

 

My wife sae him first. She heard the call and went out on the deck to search for him. He is just spot at the top of the tree but he was calling for his mate. He left and when he returned the second time we both went out to photograph him. His calls are great and eventually when we were back inside we viewed a female for a brief second at the feeder.

 Fire stations to follow the theme of red with building showing red brick. I took this shot as I was out trying for more views of the cardinal. The sun was shining in the window just right to make it a good photo. We have the village up still as we are still enjoying it.

 The sun coming through the window gave the village a real natural daytime look. I had to take a shot. It is the only place where we have snow right now. The village will come down when we both feel like doing it. Right now it is great to see it both day and night. 

We have a warmer day again today. The neighbor boys are out playing basketball with short sleeved shirts. The neighbor dogs are all out having a great time running around in the warmer air. We will take this weather as we all know that winter is not over for us. 

Thanks for checking in today.