Middle........

It is promising to be a beautiful day.  It is not going to warm up today though with a high of 30 degrees F.  I keep thinking I should save this shot for tomorrow but I may get a much better shot on on the deck. I was limited on this shot as I was too lazy to put on shoes.  I stood out next to the snowbank and held my camera out my arms length to get a blind shot.

The birds are up on the deck searching for fallen seed. They mostly are juncos that are out walking in the snow.  There is a little melting going on as the wood deck doesn’t get as cold as the ground.

I almost didn’t blog today as I just have run out of new things to photograph.  I know I just being lazy but I did muster up some energy to find new things for sharing.

We have seen the commercial so many times that my wife picked up a couple of these to sample taste them.  Being shaped into a egg is one more tempting way to eat them.

He now leans against the tree to help him from being blown down with the strong northerly winds.  He kept falling down and landing on his nose. He was not a convincing lawn ornament when he would do that.

We are venturing out for a short time today.  I know the roads are better today after yesterdays snow.  Only one pile up yesterday and one death from another accident involving a van. People are younger and still can’t figure it out on how to drive on snow covered roads.

I wish everyone to have a good day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Snow...

In contrast to my yesterday’s first photo is the deck now covered with snow again. The birdbath is frozen over again and  accumulating snow.  I hadto bring out an emergency bird feeder.

Yesterday it looked like this with some rain. The yard actually has a green cast to it of maybe the grass is greening.

By the end of the day yesterday the male goose is upset and by morning the fake geese are covered with snow again. You can see the snow is falling when you gaze at the fence in the background. I will try to get out there today and set my goose right to the world. I call this my real news of my fake geese report.

The birds are back to wading through the snow drifts on the railings. I see them doing a shuffle to clear snow from the railing as well as in some of the feeders.

The roof of this feeder is helpful as it does keep some snow from filling in on the center of the feeder. The birds seem to figure it all out and they hit the tray feeder often. They get into the middle open seed area and shuffle things around to find the other snow covered seed.

We ventured out yesterday to the grocery store and it was miserable with the strong winds. It was the warning of what today was going to be like. It is a good day to stay inside and find things to do at home.  I moved my hardy geraniums out of the shop with artificial  light into the natural light of the sliding glass doors. I have one of them still blooming but I bet now the other two will start to put on buds.

If I were to start tomatoes in the window for spring, this is the time I need to do it.  I think I have thrown all of the starter stuff away in the dumpster. I still have to decide if I can just buy the plants that are started in a greenhouse from a nursery. It sounds good to do it that way but we will see.  I think I also threw away my box of many seeds from the old house.  The new me in the in the big city will have to start from scratch to grow anything inside or maybe don’t do it all.

I seem to be talking garden but it is too early.  I have an old house still waiting for me to work on it in early spring.  The furnace people called today wanting to check on the new one that I had installed last year.  I scheduled them in April to swing by for installation inspection.

I hope all are doing good out there. I know most of my blog friends are still in snow land. Others are basking in rainstorms or mild weather with sun.  Whatever you have going on outside, I wish you all to have a good day. Thanks....

Rain, Sleet, and Snow.......

The thunder and lighting for half the night gave us some needed moisture. The afternoon proceeded into a change of  scattered snow shower with lots of wind.  It is still winter in our area.

I don’t think that I lost a single iris over the winter.  This looks a little messed up with dead foliage but I won’t clear any of it until April. I am thinking that the whole area that was planted in a hurry could be turned into a country cottage garden by placing groups of other kinds of flowers among the iris and dallies. They could be annuals and more perennials.  A nice garden feature would perk it up and I won’t let the pumpkins take the over the whole area this year.

Out front I have more tulips pushing through.  I planted them last fall and I don’t have a clue as to what colors they will be. My mulch on this looks really chunky but I am zoomed in to get a good view of the tulips.

I discover that I had a wood pile left from the former owner.  I didn’t find it until I cut back the red twigs. I don’t have anything to put them in for burning and I don’t think I will buy anything.  I will have to ship them to the old place where a neighbor uses wood at a campsite that she manages.

My plastic Canadas who don’t migrate did get a move in their location yesterday. They may get a coat of snow on their backs tonight and tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by today.

We need a title here.......

Sunday morning views have lots of puffy, pillow clouds. The dark undersides are gray util the sun raises high in the sky.

As the sun continues to rise the clouds did lighten up in value. Rain tomorrow and snow on Tuesday means our days will be varied for sure.

The squirrels keep busy cleaning up from falling seed and eating directly from the feeder.


It is a springlike day today and a good afternoon for a nap. I hope all is well out there. Thanks for visiting.

It is a Positive Start......

I have three sprouts of this coming up and another one that is reddish in color. I am thinking that these could be daffodils. It will be a while before I will know for sure.  I was shocked to see them up but it is the first week of March.

The two squirrels continue to look for free food.  This is a new position for this guy who really is hanging onto the feeder by his back paws. The feeders are less busy now as the snow has cleared.  I have my finch feeder out but have not seen a one.  I had lots of goldfinch last spring. They don’t migrate so assume that the found a better place to find seed.

It was a strange set of clouds that were covering the moon. It didn’t really ever focus but I the effect that was created is good to see.

The flower beds do look like they are thawing out faster than soil on ground.  I did notice today that there is less frost in the ground as the grass felt softer than it has been.  To think last week it was brittle with frozen rain that Barney didn’t want to walk on it.

There is not sign of any bulbs coming up yet in the yard planter.  I did plant a lot of them there so it will be good to see some by next week. The peonies are  not pushing through yet in the long narrow bed.

The kestrels are still flying though our back yard.  I don’t know if this house finch escaped with his life with him just losing a chunk of his feathers. The kestrel that I saw last fall was vicious and he didn’t hesitate to gut out a bird.

Our area does feel like spring but we are still not in the fifties yet.  I can tell by the sky shots that spring is coming. We are having a quiet day at home today.  Both of us are moving slowly today.  Thanks for stopping in at the post today.

Friday’s Morning View.......

The morning sunrise was short lived as it seems an overcast of clouds is dominating the sky. As evidence of the earth’s tilting back for the summer, the sun is located far away from the house roof on the far right. I don’t remember how far the sun will be when it reached it farthest point, but you know I will keep track of it.

Our staging tree for the birds who sit on it before coming to the feeder, had a larger visitor in their tree.  I had seen three robins a few days ago  while out with Barney and had no camera.  This morning my wife noticed it and I walked out and took a shot on the deck. I was visually level with the bird.

I looked at shots of another photographer last night on the net, trying to get visuals of the snow geese.  He was over in the eastern part of the state.  When I first saw them I thought he had pulled some of my shots to share.He didn’t get focused shots of them either.  I then also saw shots from another photographer showing the Mississippi River covered with snow geese.  The local nature specialists believed there were a million or more geese in that flock.

A neighbor, who is a hunter, shared with me that the snows and blues are overpopulated.  The tundra areas in the far north of the continent are being destroyed. This type of goose pulls grass up by its roots and eats everything.  They are clearing big areas of tundra gasses as they feast.   Because of that the neighbor said that there are no restrictions on the numbers that can be shot and there are no limits on the numbers that can be shot. In Iowa, hunters most want Canada Geese for harvesting for food. I am not sure that the snows were ever around central Iowa in all of these years.

I had an opportunity to get this shot a couple of days ago of the moon. I tried to get a visual last night while the moon is in a full stage and I did not succeed.

We are warming up a lot more making it feel like spring.  We still have frost in the night and the days are cool.  The hope for spring is much stronger now though and I think we are going to make it.  I know we can get freak snowstorms in March so one would not be a surprise but the sub low temperatures seem to be history for now.

I hope all of you have a great day today and thank you for checking in today.

Thursday’s Things.......

This is a blurry photo that I used with all my decorative filters to make a design. I think it was a snow goose that I tried to crop out of one of my distant shots,  Even when you enlarge them they stay blurry.

When Saylorville Lake was created many years ago,  the engineers needed to figure out how one section of the lake would not ruin a peaceful smaller lake. The big lake would be attached to the valley and would fill up the whole area of Big Creek Lake.  Big Creek would have higher water levels taking out lots of residences and the whole recreation area already created.  This road is on top of the dam that separates the two sides. The smaller lake is on the left and Lake Saylorville is on the right.  There is an overflow created that would dump to the small lake but there would have to be a very high large lake level to spill into the small lake. On this road we see bald eagles, pelicans, ducks and trumpeter swans.

On the big lake side is the marina.  You have seen me take photos of all the boats out on the water in the summer. I like seeing all the masts on the boats in the background of the photo and wonder if they are on land or in the water.

If you click on the photo you can see the trumpeter swans crossing the area.

The swans are here crossing the marina before they take off to go to the other side of the road. The two ducks at the bottom left I can not identify. At the same time a bald eagle was soaring and was gone before I could take a shot.

I saw some great shots of swans flying but I didn’t get out of the truck fast enough. It was the same with the soaring bald eagle. I also had  power lines in the view when I did get my act together. I took this blindly while walking towards the area.  This image shows a clearer impression of them more that most that I did take.

We are warming up today, higher than normal temps, but it is still going to be coat weather. I hope all are well out there.  Thank you for stopping by today.