Snow Day.....

I filled the feeders and they all stayed away for a while because I am such a scary creature. About fifteen minutes they started to come from the blue spruce.  They are eating and fighting over the spots at the feeder.  We are suppose to get a light snowfall all day long.

I found out a new thing with my camera this morning.  I was trying to get a focus on the birds and it wasn’t happening.  It was focusing on the heavy snowfall. I had to keep my zoom reduced a little to force the focus in the foreground. The sparrows and juncos are scrambling now as I place a new batch of seed.

I mentioned yesterday how I liked seeing the downy woodpeckers climbing up the wooden vertical slats of the deck.  Here the female has reached the top and is clinging to the edge of the rail. Since the cardinal rarely comes for seed, I am so glad that the two downy birds are feeding now regularly. I did see the cardinal this morning at my staging tree but it flew into the blue spruce and then never showed up at the feeder.  I remember that the blue jays would eat from the pine trees up at the old place so maybe there is something he is eating from the blue spruce.

Iowans are desperate for some melting of the snow to happen.  Yesterday we were at 33 degrees F. for about an hour and the cold ness of the snow itself really prevented much melting.  Roof tops did loose some snow but a lot of them still are heavily covered. I thought I heard a lot of snow leaving one portion of our roof like a load rubbing sound on the roof.  It isn’t all gone and today we ae putting fresh snow on them. This table is going to get shoveled off tomorrow as I am tired of waiting.  I think tomorrow will warm up so we can get rain.

The project for the day is to get the frame cut for this print. The mat is now centered and attached to the print and it doesn’t look lopsided as shown.  I will get the parts cut and then get it all glued up to make it into a frame. I bought the print in a tourist store with lots of Minnesota things.  It was in Duluth where the store had green canoes for sale along with lots of hiking gear and warm coats. My wife and I have not been to Duluth for 16 years or more. Family and other circumstances kept us away, but I bet this summer we will return for a visit.

We ate the two with sprinkles first.  It was a set of red velvet cake donuts.  I cut these in half yesterday morning for breakfast and we each had a half of each one.  The one was red velvet and the other was actually chocolate cake donut.  It is a splurge we do for ourselves even once in a while.  It is clear across town for Kispy Kreames so we get these sometimes instead.

We are having pretty have snowfall right now which was not predicted. I guess I never really think the predictors will be accurate. Thanks for stopping today at my posting.

Middle of the Week.........

  It is a female downey who has come to eat at the brand-new suet cake. Here she is looking at us. It was sort of strange when I first saw this. She seems to be a little smaller than the male downey.

Down the street we can still see the evidence of two different snow storms. We are looking at a high of 29 degree F. today which will help start some melting on the snow’s edges. Warmer temps than that are predicted which should send some of this snow down the streets and into the gutters.

Looking back up the street it looks just the same. The sky yesterday looked like a spring day even though it was still very cold. The clouds are welcomed as it too makes it look less like winter. The snow has settled a lot but it didn’t go away, it just became more compacted.

The sky looked like this as the sun is headed for the western horizon. The trees of the neighbors across the street shows the perspective of its location in the sky.

The male downey came by this morning to take its turn at the feeder. I like how both birds would land on the vertical slats of the deck as if they were tree branches. They don’t seem to startle much when I take their picture.


We are starting to think of spring plans now that it is March but they can just be put down on paper as the spring weather itself is not here.  I think that some melting will makes us feel like we are leaving the deep freeze. Alas we do have snow predicted again but two inches of snow is not a big deal. I am hoping all my blog friends can have some better weather as these weeks progress.  I thank you for stopping in today.

Red Flasher.......

It is sort of a red blur but I was glad to see him out there.  I was out of photos and he came to the rescue.  I did get pictures of him that are focused correctly.

I hurriedly took shots of him when he came to the feeder and most of them were blurry too.  But this one is perfect as the sun shines in his face.  I took a lot of shots of him in the tree and at least half of them worked for me.

The wind is blowing around some of his feathers.  He looks thing over at that tree and eventually he comes to the feeder.  He then flies to the north where someone else must have a bigger and better feeder.

Evidence of the heavy traffic to my feeders can be seen in the snow. We are just as cold as ever today. We are  promised thawing by Friday.  I can hardly wait to see the water running down the street gutters. An added two inches of snow is no big deal. We are at 9 degree F. right now and the high will maybe be12 degrees F. if we are lucky. The normal for today last year was in the low 60s.  Spring will come soon.  I wish everyone to have a great day this Tuesday.  Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day.

Looking Back....Staying Cold Today.

A year ago today it was 58 degrees F. and it looked like this.  Today we are sitting on -2 degrees F. with sunshine but a lot of cold air and snow everywhere.

A year ago I also had doves on the deck.  I suppose they will come back as the weather does warm up a lot.

A year ago the buds really were not showing yet across the way and down the street.  I am certain by the end of the month everyone will be a lot happier with the weather.

Today we still look like this. It is colder today than yesterday but the wind is less. You can see the tracks of the meter reader who walks from the sidewalk up to the corner of the house and then across the yard to the driveway. They still read them manually but one normally doesn’t see them as we don’t have views out to the  front unless we are at the front door.

It is Monday and it is time to regroup and start a new week. We need some small mouth of grocers but I am not sure that it will ever warm enough to matter as to when we go. Park close to the door and dress warmly.  We do have sun and it appears better than it is.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday’s Shorter Writing......

My plant keeps growing and I keep cutting it back. It really is a terrarium plant but when planted out in the open it grows big.

It likes being on the top of the new plants stand.  It really gets a lot of light and the leaves are so healthy. The whole planting reminds me of a bonsai presentation but I didn’t intentionally make look that way. I just bought a new book that will give me inspiration to try and create bonsai arrangements in pots.

I liked the book, as the author uses some common plants in which to make arrangements. I liked that she shared some of her soil ingredients which include clay.  My back yard is full of clay and I can find small gravel and sand to help create bonsai soil. A couple of plants that I consider weeds where also used to create groves of bamboo trees.

We did make it out today in spite of the very cold temperatures. We are still sitting at 1 degree F. and that is a warm up from -5 degrees F. that we had this morning. One tries to park as close as possible to the entrance as the windchill is around -22 degrees F. My face still burns a little from being out in it.  The day has sun but it is very deceptive.  I hope that the warm up will come very soon.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday’s Stuff.......

I am having a house finch invasion out at my feeders. I am assuming that the ones with more red are the males but all of them have the red feathers on their heads. This guy has a sunflower seed in his mouth.

They are busy trying to work around the squirrel who takes over a whole feeder. They keep and eye on him when he is stuffing himself. The house finch does fly in flocks like a bunch of dive bombers.

The spruce is full of birds.  I know that next for house finches do get built in the evergreen.

Flowers in a vase helps a little when you have the need for natural color. There is a small sunflower bloom in there. They tend to putting a large variety of flowers that makes the bouquet seem less consistent in design.

The thoughts of tulips and crocus are in my mind as the whit winter drags on and on.  It is so cold today that it seems like we will never melt away any of our snow. Garden shows are nice to watch to help one to become inspired during the growing seasons.

Yesterday’s sky was a pretty looking one.  The fluffy white made nice patterns making it seem like pleasant weather.  In fact, it was pleasant because we had reached just above freezing yesterday. Today it is 14 degrees F. with some windchill temperatures.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Friday’s Findings.....

Informal shot of my office area in the living room. Coffee, the remote, note pad for lists and magazines. My office chair is actually a wing backed chair.

Another informal shot taken downstair with all the stuff displayed on top of my tow cupboard. Most of it could be put away in just a few minutes but I am not in the mood to do it today.

My trip to the pet store proved to be advantageous for the new betta. I found a perfect Japanese garden styled piece to put in his small tank. I also bought some real green plants to grow in there with him.  He seems to be happy with the whole set up.

Going to a pet store wasn’t so easy yesterday, having lost Barney now three weeks ago.  I stayed in the aquarium sales area but a woman with her very young beagle puppy tempted me to go pet the dog.  We both had needs to talk about  as her loss of her 15 years old beagle and how she just now has gotten this new little guy.  I did share that we lost our 15 year old border collie and she and I had a chat about things. Her replacement puppy was getting her up at three in the morning.  She was so pleased with her little one and he was so glad to lick my hand all over as I pet him.  Dog people are always going to be dog people.

I have taken some more successful photos of my new fish.  His fins are fascinating to watch as the swim around.  I haven’t seen him go inside his little temple but I bet he will. The real life plants help make things look better for his natural surroundings. Keeping the plants in the rocks will be a challenge but I can tie them to a rock if I need to do so.

I have always liked this kind of decorations for the garden so to have a small one for the tank made me happy. It does lean for now but I can fix that.

We are having warmer weather today. The birds seem to be eating a lot today and the squirrel is eating a lot today too. The photo of the sparrows are in their staging tree waiting to go eat at the feeder or to go back into the blue spruce tree.  They should eat today as tomorrow we are going to drop into another very cold temperature spell for a couple of days.  Our Sunday is suppose to get extremely cold with some snow.

I thank your for stopping by today.