Skywatch Friday

The gorgeous sun is melting away the snow. Our skies have been this gorgeous blue the past couple of days. The clouds in the background look like snow covered mountains to me. Even the fields are emerging and the Canada Geese are taking advantage of what is to offer in those fields.

I hope you have a great weekend. Skywatch Friday has lots of skies you can see here.

Favorite Garden Bird

Layanee over at Ledge and Gardens asked in her latest post "what is your favorite (garden) bird?" Well, I just found that almost impossible to answer. How do you pick and choose what is a favorite when we have so many beautiful feathered friends to choose from??
I think one of my favorites (today) is the Northern Mockingbird. They are sleek, aggressive, smart. They fiercely protect their nests and young. What's not to like about them?We have one that comes to our garden every winter about the time that the holly berries become ripe. It sets up its territory to include hollies and pyracantha planted out in the front garden. The Cardinals and Robins have a rough time sneaking in for a few berries when the Mockingbird is hanging around but they eventually get their fair share.

It is always on the lookout for the next ripest berry ready for the picking. Now if you asked me tomorrow what my favorite bird is I would probably have a different answer for you. What is your favorite garden bird?

Garden Bloggers Muse Day - February 2009

Snow Angels

When the snow is pristine
I hear them calling
I begin to feel like a tween
I can’t help falling
It’s not that I’m so keen
I can’t stop laughing
My boots full of snow
The angels are calling
So down I go

For more Garden Blogger's Muse Day quotes, poems and other thoughts go Here. Carolyn Gail at Sweet Home Chicago started this some time ago. Lots of fun.

I must say Luna has never seen me lying in the snow. She was wondering what in the world is my Mom doing? She is lying there in the snow flailing around. (Pam this one is for you.)Heck, I can do that. It is easy.

I would really rather that she get up and run around with me even though it is difficult in this deep snow.Dad is over there contemplating the double dip hill where the children that sled here made a ramp at the end out of two trash barrels. Dad always likes a challenge. Hope you all enjoyed the weekend. We sure did.

Fe Fie Fo Fum...

We were leaving yesterday and I happened to look at the roof. What was that??? There were tracks on our roof. What, or who in the world was on our roof traipsing around?? I don't think it was the crow that i sitting in the tree in the back garden.Upon further investigation we can see right where they hop onto the roof.

Yes, all tracks seem to fan out from here.

I believe we know who the culprits are.
I hope you are all having a nice weekend.

After I posted my DB decided to get a couple of pictures to add to the one I had. You can see there are several of these rascals about the garden. Cute but they can be destructive.

Skywatch Friday

When we went to the park today for our daily walk that hasn't happened in the past couple of days we saw the sun trying to peek out from the clouds. A hopeful sign. We need the sun to melt off the ice on the roads. The park had nearly pristine snow as the city hasn't had time to plow the roads through it. We were the only ones there. Aaahhh, quiet.

Back at home this is how I saw the sun.

I tried for a picture without me in it. Difficult to do. Happy Weekend to everyone. For more skywatching go here.

Snow Caps and Snow Visitors

Some people have lovely snowcapped mountains to look at. Here in the flat lands we get excited when our flower heads from summer are snowcapped.
On this one you can see the layer of ice that was first deposited on the sedum head.
We had so many visitors to the feeders today that it inspired my DB to get the camera out. This male Cardinal looks so pretty sitting on the ice covered branch munching a seed. In the background you can see a male House Finch. He can't quite compare with a cardinal even though he is sporting a nice rosey red.

While the female House finch isn't a particularly beautiful bird I think this photo is a good capture of the little lady. She looks quite demure sitting there in the sun waiting for her turn at the feeders.I thought this was an interesting angel of the juvenile White-crowned sparrow. It is looking around for just the right seed to descend upon. I wonder when his crown will turn white.

The most unusual feeder birds we had today were two Crows. They rarely come into our garden. It just shows how desperate they poor things were for some food.They were eating sunflower seeds. I put some yeast rolls out for them. I didn't know just what to put out for them. I could tell they were appreciative because they ate the rolls then took off to look for something more.

Snow Again

Today we woke to even more snow than we got yesterday. This is what we got on top of yesterdays 5 inches of snow and one inch of ice.

This is the second go round of trying to get our driveway cleared in case we need to get out. We cleared it yesterday and then more snow and ice arrived. There is a State of Emergency called for in our city. You aren't supposed to get out unless you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle. We don't have 4-wheel drive so we will stay in for the day.

But yes I do get out and help shovel off the drive. As you can see we are only getting down to the ice. It will hopefully melt off with the sun coming out today. I wonder how long the sun will last.
Early this a.m. my DB shoveled out to the bird feeders and chunked away some of the ice so the birds could find some nourishment.

Yesterday Lincoln looked more like a bear.

Today he looks more like a Snowy Owl.Luna was sort of excited about the snow yesterday. With just one layer on the ground she could still get around farily easy.
Today my little Snow Princess looks disgusted with it all. She seems to be saying "Aww Dad do you have to take my picture again. Can we go in now?"
Even the knot garden is looking a little lumpy today. The globe is barely showing. Yes, we had some snow.