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Busy Couple Days In The Garden
A very cold Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The temperature fell to -2° on Saturday, Christmas Eve morning, and by Christmas Day the temperature had risen to a “warm” 32° in the afternoon. This brought at least 12 species of birds to the garden where I had scattered sunflower seeds. Extra calories to help them…
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Just Flurries – So Far
This morning there were snow flurries for a few hours. Perhaps because we had flushed ice cubes last night. That’s good but we’ll still work on it tonight and again tomorrow night, Christmas Eve. This snow stuff requires hard work sometimes, even to get flurries. If you’ve got a snow candle, we’d appreciate your support.…
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Flushing Ice Cubes
A little willowy child has come to visit with one request. A request to flush ice cubes each night until Christmas. The weather forecast not quite perfection. No snow on Christmas. Perhaps we can help. Flushing ice cubes just might help the clouds form. The temperatures plummet. Now, Thursday night. One night, the spell cast.…
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Is This A White-throated Sparrow?
This handsome little bird showed up at the bird bath today. It’s a White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis). But this is also a White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis). Same species, but two different color morphs. The first image, a white-striped, and the second image, a tan-striped. A coloration that stays with each White-throated Sparrow for life. About…
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Baking Season
Seems it’s the season for baking all sorts of yummy things. Keeping the kitchen warm while the oven bakes away, as the season turns from autumn to winter. Want to get my blog posts in your mail box every day? Sign up here.
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Playing With Candy Canes
Christmas colors, the scent of peppermint, swirls, twists, curls. Gleeful play. Eventually, a Christmas card.
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An Afternoon Hello
A Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) stopped by this afternoon to say hello, as it was hunting for a dinner of berries. The second portion of it’s scientific name, gusttatus, is Latin for spotted. It’s one of several that are called the spotted thrushes. During the winter, identification becomes easy since this is the only spotted…
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Mistletoe
There are more than 30 species of Mistletoe in North America. Mistletoe is a hemi-parasite, meaning that it performs photosynthesis, but extracts water and nutrients from the host plant. If you’re considering using American Mistletoe as an indoor decoration, and have children or cats or dogs around, keep in mind, those berries are poisonous.
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One Of Many
Yesterday, a day of beautiful, glistening ICE! I planned ahead and had no place to go. But oh those loud SNAPS, and CRACKS. I knew that at the very least that sound meant a tree had lost a limb. Or even worse a tree was down. Or a tree was down across the lane, or…