Just the back yard!? Nah, I want the front and side yards landscaped in natives too.



Thursday, January 31, 2013

Winter is for the Birds!

I'm not a huge fan of winter; for years now I've said I'd be happy if it were only two weeks long.  Luckily, after buying our property, I seem to appreciate (and tolerate) it a lot better.  Attracting birds to the yard sure helps.  I love the activity and seeing the birds close up.







Out of Necessity

Although as a teenager and into my early twenties, I drew a lot and, eventually, painted, I've had not inspiration to paint or draw for years.  I do enjoy photography now more than ever--as my posts here can attest.  I did, however, end up drawing the other day...and, looking back, it came very easily--I guess it is like riding a bike.

After finding a dead female cardinal that had hit the door of the greenhouse, I came inside, found a photo of a hawk, drew it, colored it in, and taped it to the glass of the greenhouse door.  This was the second casualty within about an month--the first was a chickadee (I'd hoped it was a freak accident, but with a second death I had to do something).

Here is what I came up with:









January Highlights

There was snow on the ground the first week of January; some left over from the end of December and some newly fallen stuff in January--at least that is how I remember it  I spent that week at the hospital with Jeff after his major surgery (triple bypass).  Thankfully, they caught the blockages before he'd had a heart attack and now, a month later, he is recovering well.



January Thaw





At some point, mid-month, there was a thaw.  The snow melted and the temperatures got into the 50's.  I was surprised to see not only some flying insect, but also two woolly bear caterpillars (no big surprise), and a tiny grasshopper!



I also heard a frog jump into the pond water as I approached--I didn't actually see it, but what else would be jumping into the pond like that in mid-January?



The Deep Freeze








The warm-up ended, snow returned, but then the temperatures dropped.  We had a week of frigid weather with temps down to 4 degrees over night.  I made sure to feed the birds a lot extra that week.

There was a two-day warm up, but the temps are dropping back into the 20's this weekend.