This year I have an added delight to work with when it comes to journaling. It is a gift given to me by Sherry of Q's Corner. She is such a generous loving friend and I want to thank her for surprising me with this journal. It is different than any I have ever used. It has pockets for "stuff" and prompts and quotes to keep you thinking about the garden. Thank you so much Sherry for feeding my journaling soul. I look forward to finding things to put into those pockets and filling up the spaces that call for descriptions of other gardens visited. I hope you have your garden journal ready to capture all the action in the garden this year of 2009. I want to wish all of my gardening bogger buddies the best, healthiest, most flower/plant filled new year and I hope that all your Garden Dreams come true.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy New Year
This year I have an added delight to work with when it comes to journaling. It is a gift given to me by Sherry of Q's Corner. She is such a generous loving friend and I want to thank her for surprising me with this journal. It is different than any I have ever used. It has pockets for "stuff" and prompts and quotes to keep you thinking about the garden. Thank you so much Sherry for feeding my journaling soul. I look forward to finding things to put into those pockets and filling up the spaces that call for descriptions of other gardens visited. I hope you have your garden journal ready to capture all the action in the garden this year of 2009. I want to wish all of my gardening bogger buddies the best, healthiest, most flower/plant filled new year and I hope that all your Garden Dreams come true.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Winter sun
Friday, December 26, 2008
Skywatch Friday
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Out of the Garden
Despite a constant wind with gusts up to 29 mph and wind chill temps as low as -11F we braved the weather and saw quite a few good birds. We figured it would be a birdy day with a sunrise looking like a big bird was coming up with the sun. Can you see it in the photo below? That cloud looks like a big eagle soaring about. We did have 5 Bald Eagles during the day. There were 2 adults sitting near their nest. They usually start doing this around this time of year. The rest of the Bald Eagles were young, first year, birds.
Occasionally there would be an open window of clear enough that we could scan the thousands of ducks. It was a little easier when they went to the surrounding fields to feed. Mallards dominated the flocks. I won't bore you with all the details but suffice it to say we were pleased with the results since the conditions were arctic. It was most appropriate that the Snow Buntings were still on the break. This weather probably made them think they didn't go far enough south for the winter.
Highlights were, the Whooping Cranes were still here, we had two species of swans, Trumpter and Tundra. Falcons were well represented, Peregrine , American Kesteral and Merlin. Close to the end of the day we were saying that no CBC would be complete without an Owl. We were pleased to find 3 Short-eared Owls as our last bird of the day.
This will be one CBC that will be remembered for some time due to the weather. Dust and debris was flying about more so than the birds. It took two people to close some of the gates we had to go through and the steam didn't ever fully disapate from the lake surface. It just makes you wonder what we missed.
I hope you all were tucked in safe and warm this weekend and if I don't get back here the next few days... Have a Merry Christmas.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - December 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Winter Window Boxes and Planters
I think someone mentioned concern about how big the Purple Fountain Grass would grow when I planted it in this window box in spring. It didn't get too big luckily. It didn't have great growing conditions here but it did fill a space and the blooms lasted until I cut it down. Hawthorn limbs don't last very long. They dry up and lose their leaves, the berries dry up and look ugly after awhile. So when it gets cold I like to do a little something different with my window box. It looks so boring sitting there empty. Now when we look out the window we can feel like we are in a forest.
Do you do seasonal decorating with your window boxes and empty planters? I would love to see/hear about what you do to your empty window boxes and planters.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Out of the Garden
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Garden Bloggers First Snow
I went to the back door to let Luna out and it was still snowing. Whoo hoooo.... I just love the first snow.As soon as we could get ourselves moving we headed out to the park for a walk. The only thing better than walking in a warm rain is walking during a winter snow. Someone asked me once how I could find Luna in the snow. If you notice in these photos, she has a lot of yellow in her coat. You don't notice it until she is standing in snow. That is how you find polar bears in their snowy environment. You look for big yellow blobs instead of white on white. As you can see at the entrance of the park, they have a display of holiday lights now. The nice thing about this is that there is rarely any traffic here during the holidays except after dark. We have the park mostly to ourselves.
The lighted carousel below is one that looks good even during the day. It is big and colorful.
High up in the tree above this sign is a lot of mistletoe. I wonder who thought up this display??
I hope you all are having a great weekend. If you like snow you can go over to Nancy's blog and see whose blog to look at for other first snows. There are some really beautiful heavy snows to see.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Skywatch Friday
gave way to lots of puffy clouds
then the wind threw a gray blanket over the day. For more skies to watch go here.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Another Grey Day
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Out of the Garden
Today we almost decided to stay at home due to the foggy conditions. We also had some rain this morning to add to the miserable conditions.
One of the most interesting sights we saw today was, no not thise lovely little coot but one of its own being devoured by an adult Bald Eagle. Unfortunately when we got close enough to see what was happening we were unable to get a picture because the Eagle took off with its breakfast dangling from its talons.
All that was left behind were the feathers that the Eagle had been plucking. As we went around the SW end of the area we bird to an area we don't hit every week we were thrilled to find 8, no not 8 tiny reindeer, 8 huge Whooping Cranes flying through the air.I mean this is almost unheard of anyplace since these birds are still an endangered species. This area is right along the Wabash River which we suppose that the Whooping Cranes were following south.
New Blogger, Old Blogger
All I can say it is difficult to deal with change. This new Blogger format is not as user friendly in my opinion. I guess I will get us...