Sunny, Snowy, Windy Day.....

Friday's storm looked and felt like this. The sparrow is tough as he holds on in the wind. We didn't end up with a lot of snow but I am not complaining.

As the day progressed different kinds of birds showed up at the feeder. The mourning dove was a surprise to see but it did find a place under the roof to keep it out of the weather. The junco look whiter in a snow storm as it shows up better on a dull day.

I toss out scrap seed leftover from the cockatiels cage and so I see these once in a while on the downstairs patios. Now that they are here I will feed them more on the ground.

I added a make shift feeder on the table next to the other living room window. The tray is a cafeware plate from the early years.  My grandmother had some of these that she used for meat platters but she also served hot beef dinners on the stoneware dish at a small town cafe.  If I get birds to eat here I will take photos.

The lantern sat on the table so I brought it in to melt off its snow. The new feeder tray replaced it.  As dry as our air is in the winter time the snow will eventually evaporate into the air. It will help out with my room humidifier.

Yesterday's visit by the cardinal is a first for a very long time. I am hoping my new seed will bring him back. I have been sprinkling thistle seed with the regular bird seed and I am getting house finches.  I did get a shot of one while I was writing this. I think I saw a bluejay in the blue spruce tree but it has not shown up at my window.  I uses to have lots of them at the old place where there were big trees.


It is Saturday and we are staying inside.  The accidents that they show on the news broadcast show that it is tough driving out there. It is too cold to get outside anyway.  I hope everyone is staying safe.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Flurries Friday and More.........

I do not know what I am doing but I did go through and take off all of the larger leaves.  I did shape this better after I took the photo but I am not happy with it now.  I know that I need to keep pruning down the larger leaves so it will grow smaller leaves.  I will work with it a while to get that flat canopy look on each branch.

Our snow has started. Schools are now all closed and we are to hunker down for a couple of days. I can see the snow blowing sideways now but the camera just doesn't want to capture it.

In the middle of my blogging today I received a phone call from my youngest first cousin Janet. She lives in Alamogordo, New Mexico and her worry was the temperatures are a little low for them.  She just lost here husband a month ago and we talk a lot.  She is younger than me and we really didn't know each other  but we grew up in the small town area. We share what each of us knows of the past and we both learn things from each other.  She married our neighbor boy after he had grown up. We talk memory lane about family and distant family. She shares the funeral arrangements with me for this summer when she returns for a graveside service. The old cemetery will be in the middle of a meadow next to the Grand River that flows down through our farm south of there. We discussed how most of the people in that cemetery are Grosbecks but her husband's dad is  buried there. In the middle of all this talk a cardinal flew in and landed outside the sun room  I did have to stop talking to say it was the first I had seen in probably a year.

Fortunately the call did end in a couple of minutes later and the red bird did stick around.  I took many shots and can share a few the next few days. I had just put out fresh seed and there were a lot of sunflower seeds in the mix.  I now also have a lot of photos of a mourning dove sitting in the middle of the feeder helping spread seed for the other birds.

Arctic Zone.....

Looking through the door of the sun room the sun shines over the neighbor's house. I didn't step out on the deck to get the shot for a better picture because of the snowdrift and it is - 3 degrees F. The house was  making noises through the night telling us that it was really cold out there.  A sixteen year old house has a lot of years to expand and contract under extreme weather conditions. I took the recycle bin out to the curb later this morning and it is very cold out there.

Taking the shot through screen wiring you can see the long shadow on the snow of the birdbath. I miss spring and summer already and we just got started with this winter business.

This flower in exile does look good from the top view.  It has lost most of its leaves.  In the sliding glass door window downstairs, it will do well there.  It is cooler and I water them a little less. I still have my poinsettia from two years ago.  I grew some red leaves last winter but this winter it is just green.

I bought this plant a year ago and I still haven't repotted it. If I can get it into a nicer container I could bring it upstairs. That would be a good winter project. Sansevieria  is the name of the plant. It isn't as tall as a mother-in-law's tongue.

The guys are planning to not starve this winter. I have two of them and they take turns all afternoon feeding.  The squirrels are not  out there all the time and I see birds flitter in and out of the  spruce tree to get some seed. I think it is too cold for them to venture out of their trees this morning.

When I feed my cockatiels in the morning, I change their used seed in their tray to new seed. I am now throwing the used, leftover seed out on the patio to let the birds pick through it. I saw a morning dove yesterday afternoon doing just that.

Squirrels can be discouraging as the hog the food tray, but they know how to pose for the camera so I won't shoo them away. They like to travel to and from our place by walking along the top of all the neighbor's fences.  I don't know if they hold up in the big tree to the north of us or if they go over a couple of blocks to the street that is lined with big trees.  That street was the early development where the 1960's and 70's ranches are all built.  Their trees are all mature now.

It is too cold to really venture out any where. We don't feel cooped in as we did get a lot of groceries yesterday.  We are stocked up with lots to eat.  It looks like the whole United States is going to be effected by this arctic blast one time or another.  Everyone take care.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Middle of the Week......

A part of my work load yesterday was to carry downstairs all plants that looked sickly. Some of them are bad enough that I may throw the plant away and get a new one for the pot. I had violets that took a hit from bad care from me so they went downstairs to a different bigger window. I won't over water them there.

The last of my things to get downstairs await for me to do it. I like to leave things at the top of the stairs and when I run down to do something I take a load with me. It should be cleared by the end of the day. The clearing of the villages in the sunroom meant a lot of trips taken down already.

Evidence of the take down of the village is shown here. It is nice to sit out there at the table to work on things.

Will I blog right now I discovered that I have a second squirrel feeding today. The one squirrel is larger so they don't feed at the same time. The larger guy shakes his tail to warn the other to stay  away from the feeder,  I bought a new bag of bird seed yesterday and I can now I know I will needed. I am still not getting cardinals any time of the day.

The newer visitor is a regular acrobat, crawling all over the feeder and railing. If I think they are eating way to much I can scare them away quite easily by walking up to the window.

We missed the freezing rain last night and also the snow.  It is north of us a few miles though and schools were delayed this morning.  Thanks for checking in on my post today.

Collecting Seeds.....

The railing is tricky but he did finally figure it out. You can see the two slanting sides form the top of the rail.  It did keep him from eating there but today he finally got very brave and jumped up near the feeder;s  edge.  I expect that he fell a couple of times when trying.  If he fell then he had to land on his feet from a two story height. He has made a couple of trips now that he figured out how to get up there.

On my way to the old place I stopped at a smaller grocery store in Polk City, Iowa.  I wanted to pick up a pie or cheesecake for our neighbor lady to give to her at the old place.  She has not been feeling well and I needed to make a visit.  When I walked into the grocery store I found these rigtht inside the door.  It looked like they had just unloaded a new case of them.  If your are not familiar with what I bought it is a famous fruitcake company from Texas that sells all over the world.

When I was a lot younger than I am now, I supported a missionary woman from Texas.  She had a sister that sent me this brand of fruitcake every Christmas to thank me for my support.  My wife use to make me fruitcakes but it did seem to be our busiest time of the year so she quit doing it.  My first cake I tasted was my Grandmother Brooks' who baked her in coffee cans. It was her tradition to save the bigger coffee cans and also the smaller cans. She made three or four of them,  My mom made them very seldom.  So yesterday I was treated to an ability to buy this..

The Collins Street Bakery sells on the net. They have a variety of different things now for sail other than fruitcake.  I see they have pecan pies.

We had our first taste test of it and I am certain they had baked it a few months ago.  There isn't rum on them to make them moist.  But this still tasted good with it loaded with dried fruits and so  many pecans.  I did tell my wife that here fruitcakes were sure a lot more moist. The double row of pecans on top make them labor intensive and they are not inexpensive. Mine was nine dollars less than the internet price and that was good for me.

I can take a break from the snow blower for a while.  We have stuff threatening on Wednesday and severe cold temperatures coming next week. Weather in the mid-west is always consistently inconsistent. We just take what we get as each new day comes.  I took down the last Christmas Tree today and I have a smidgen of Village pieces to put away.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Art work.......by AJ.

Our grandson AJ likes that he has an art gallery all over his house. When you make Santa and reindeer you just use two sheets of paper. I am glad he is confident with his art work. I had to smile when I saw the reindeer as his drawing of the antlers looked exactly like his father's drawings 37 years ago.

A portrait of Santa is proudly displayed. He took me around the house to take the photos and describe his work.

Ella can sit up on her own but big brother AJ thinks she needs some bracing by his torso. He really likes his baby sister and she really likes him to. She gets a big smile when he gets into her face.

One of the many vehicles that AJ owns. His collection keeps evolving as his interests develop.  It was a train world a few years ago but now it is things with wheels that interest him.  He is still a Lego fanatic.

I couldn't fine one of his creations right now so I will share mine with you.

Snow blowing snow at two different properties today. The one to the north is getting more snow right now but it won't account to be so much in depth.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Toys of Old......

Enjoy or don't enjoy the collections of various time periods of toy. Some people like to gaze into other peoples things.