Surprisingly their favorite food is grape jelly. He’s perched on a bowl of it. So beautiful.
Outdoors
Spring Has Begun
For those of us now anxiously waiting for spring yesterday was not what we needed to see. It snowed, it snowed like crazy. Those torrential downpours you see in the summer? Yeah, that’s what happened here only snow. Six inches in less than three hours. We just cleared away four or five in our yard on Sunday. I’m just tired. And cold.
This morning the sun was shining brightly, it was 18 degrees. I opened the door to take Chester out for his walk and the first thing I noticed was birdsong. Not just any birdsong but spring birdsong. Robins, woodpeckers, chickadees all singing their spring twitterpated songs. A robin was sitting on a branch of the cherry, a flicker was chipping away at an old maple in the backyard, cardinals were fighting over territory (there’s nothing more beautiful than cardinals in the snow). Chickadees were singing their spring phoebe song. Sigh, they know. Even though there’s over two feet of snow in my yard today and most of the tree limbs are covered just hearing them makes me smile and think warm thoughts.
Time to stop listening to all of the bad weather hype and listen to the birds in your backyard, they’re telling you that spring is just about here.
Bracing
brac·ing
adjective
adjective: bracing
1. fresh and invigorating.
Yesterday afternoon my sister told me she had gone out for a chilly run, followed by a cold hike. I commented on how much I hated the weather when it was in single digits and the wind was blowing. She told me it was bracing. I laughed out loud when I read the word.
Fast forward to this morning. We didn’t get the predicted 3 to 6 inches of snow but it’s a little after 9 o’clock and the temperature is 5 degrees with the wind blowing what little snow we had. Last time I checked it’s about minus 14. The snow that fell was so fine it was like dust. When you are outdoors and the wind whips it up it feels like you are being blasted with sand, very cold sand. Suffice it to say it is painful to be outdoors today for any time longer than walking to your car parked next to the door.
The real burning question I have is why do your dogs have to spend an inordinately long period of time outdoors when it’s below zero and you have to walk them one by one on a leash? For them it’s bracing, for me it was frostbite.
Snow
Saturday we had the most amazing snowstorm. I have been whining lately about our January thaw. Mud season is my least favorite time of the year and I felt like we were in it last week. Everything was brown and ugly, not what I want to look at out my windows. Walking was a difficult slog.
This storm started suddenly. It was fairly warm out and the snow came down hard with huge flakes. Bill and I spent most of the day outdoors just enjoying its exquisite beauty. There is nothing the dogs like more than us being outdoors in the snow. Snow makes everything a whole new game.
Another Time and Place
Do you ever want to run away to another time and place? That’s where I am right now and this is where I want to be. July, early morning, shore of Bear Island as the sun comes up. Warm, quiet, surrounded by water, birds singing and nothing else. Mmmmmm.
Little Thief
The finches love this seed sock filled with a combination of nyjer seed and sunflower chips. They flock to it in droves.
It was hung on an S hook on a line going across the patio in full view of the kitchen window. I would drink my coffee with camera waiting. Well, last week we had snow, then rain and ice. What was on the roof came down and the feeders on the line were bounced off when the snow came to the ground. Yeah, yeah, not the best plan for hanging feeders but hey, live and learn. I arrived to all the still hanging feeders empty and went out to gather them in to clean and refill. The sock was nowhere to be found – gone. The S hook was laying on the ground. There were telltale tracks though and I thought it was the little red squirrel that I had seen the previous week.
I filled the feeders and brought out the fruit and nut mix for the top of the pine stump. The jays really love it there and it keeps them from bugging the other birds on the feeders. Once they were all filled and hung back up the birds returned. All the time I’m out by the feeders you can hear them singing, just waiting for me to get far enough away to feel safe. The chickadees don’t wait long.
Back indoors I made the usual cup of coffee and sat by the window. Guess what I saw?
Yup, and so innocent looking too. I don’t usually see gray squirrels here. I know they are around but they aren’t the huge, pesky hoard I have in Enfield.
So now I know who the culprit is and I’ve ordered another sock that I will attach to the line in a different way. I will also put it up as high as I can.
If You Feed Them They Will Come
I’ve posted an older, warmer photograph today because this is really where this starts – feeding the birds. Each year I try to be mindful of what I’m planting to bring the birds and butterflies to my veggie garden. I always plant sunflowers because the finches always seem to know they are there and wouldn’t frequent my yard much without the food to entice them.
I don’t feed the birds otherwise until winter hits – and it has. I hadn’t put feeders out in a few years because of the bear population and their affinity for bird feeders. I heard somewhere that anytime after December 1st in our area it’s safe to put feeders out so I put out a small one the weekend after Thanksgiving. I was surprised at the number of birds that were on it only 3 days later and at the number of different kinds of birds that were all vying for the seed of this one feeder. I was thrilled.
Last weekend saw flocks of birds at the feeder at most hours of the day. A surprising number of woodpeckers were visiting as well including two Red Bellied Woodpeckers. They are the real stunners so far – large and flashy. They are there everyday so now we just wait to see them. It’s quite the colorful group as well – House Finches looking so rosy and Bluejays on the ground mixed in with the Goldfinches, Juncos and Chickadees. It seems like they all visit at different times of the day, each species taking its own turn.
Last night I decided to make something special for the woodpeckers to eat and proceeded to process suet, peanut butter and a nutty, fruity mix into self hanging feeders. I mixed the ingredients warm, packed them into large paper cups that I had threaded a looped and knotted piece of twine through the bottom. Once filled I put them in the freezer overnight. This morning I peeled away the paper from the cup and hung one out on the hook next to the feeder. We’ll see how this goes. I’m also looking at other types of feeders and seed to try and cut down on the congestion at the one little feeder.
Cornell has a wonderful bird guide on line if you decide to feed the birds in your yard this year. It’s a fun activity that brings life into your yard through the doldrums of winter.
So my camera is ready, the food is set out and all I need a little time to just sit and watch.
Let the Christmas Season Begin
Every year we trek out to the power lines with a group of friends to pick out our Christmas tree.
Russell loves loading everyone onto his hay trailer and towing them out through the field to where the trees are. I opted out of the ride this year because in years past it has really scared me at moments. It’s not as if the bales we are sitting on are attached to anything. It looks like a tame ride in the photographs but once you are on the high tension lines it’s anything but.
Bill cut down the first tree he saw that fit the “small” tree requirement. It was also right on the top of the hill so there wouldn’t be any dragging up the steep, icy road.
Everyone fanned out beyond where we left the tractor and trailer. It’s some fairly rough terrain and the tractor was turned around and parked quite a ways back.
The kids were quick to pick their trees and trek back to the trailer. They were all with their babies and the wind had a bit of a bite to it. It’s nice to see them start the same traditions they have had most of their lives.
Finally the people looking for the perfect tree managed to find and cut just that. We harvest our trees on this stretch of the power line every year. The lines are on Russell’s property and if we don’t cut the trees down when they are smaller the power company will cut them down when they get bigger. The trees grow unfettered all along the road and they are as beautiful as any tree you would buy anywhere. I think more so because they just grew, no help from anyone.
Everyone makes the walk back while Russell drives the load of trees to the barn. The walk is one of my favorites, this is such a beautiful spot.
This year the difficulty came in figuring out who cut down what tree. Ours was easy, it was the smallest one. Everyone then goes inside to share a meal and hot chocolate and lots of desserts. I always bring an apple pie warm from the oven and really who needs any other food when you can have warm apple pie?
Too Cold Too Early
This past weekend was one of the coldest November weekends I can remember. Having snow is not surprising but having temperatures below 20 degrees with the windchill making it below zero is quite another.
We went out to eat on Saturday night and returned in what I thought was a squall but Rowe was covered in a good few inches of snow by Sunday morning. I woke up to the sound of the plow going up the road.
We were toasty in the house with the wood stove blazing away but there were things that needed to be done outside before the day was over. I kept putting them off looking out the window at the snow swirling around the field and the trees being whipped about by the wind. I kept hoping it would die down and warm just a bit. Didn’t happen.
I went out and removed the pumpkins that were decorating the grounds (and now looking a little like a Salvador Dali painting melting over the edges of steps). They were all frozen solid to whatever they’d been placed on, the pots of Kale as well. With a little kick they were released from their perches and flung over banks or thrown into mulch piles. A couple I tossed near one of the perennial gardens. This was done in an effort to see if anything will grow in the spring. I also picked up most of my solar lamps decorating some of the gardens.
I finished up what needed to be done in about 20 minutes but I’m telling you it felt like it was taking forever out in that wind. When I got back into the house it took a while to thaw.
You know it’s too cold to go out when Chester looks at you as you bundle up and appears to say “No thanks” and returns to his daylong nap in front of a fire.
Gold in the Back Forty
This was an amazing sight to me the other day when I walked into the back forty. It has been COLD for the past week and it was more than unexpected to see mushrooms growing. The photograph doesn’t really do justice to how beautiful they are. They are iridescent, like a pot of gold by a stump. They glowed on a cold, overcast day.
These mushrooms are called Honey Mushrooms (Armillaria mellea). I had to ask my sister for a direction in identification and after a little research found a great description on The 3 Foragers.
As beautiful as they are the thought of cooking and eating them never crossed my mind. The extent of my foraging is stumbling upon mushrooms of some sort, looking them up to see what they are and moving on. “Mushrooms are poisonous” was drilled into my childhood brain. Even mushroom foragers have a saying – there are bold mushroom hunters, and there are old mushroom hunters — there are no old, bold mushroom hunters.
Words to live by.
Fort Pelham Farm 