Outdoor Wednesdayhttp://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ is a delightful meme that invites you to share the outdoors with others. The theme encompasses the outdoors, a topic within the theme of your choosing. to learn more of this meme or to share your view of the outdoors please click on the 'outdoor Wednesday' logo on the right of this page. Happy Wednesday outood gathering to all
Its been a really snowy, blowy gusty day as is illustrated by the blowing snow off the rooftop of this old barn. We had a light soft snow last night and it is blowing around somewhat today.
How delighted I was this afternoon to find that another Ruby Tuesday meme has been established under the name Ruby Tuesday 2. somehow Tuesday's were lacking without have a place to connect with a Ruby Tuesday meme, when the original Ruby Tuesday meme closed. Thank you so much Magical Mystical teacher for hosting this. And shortly after discovering this meme a beautiful American Robin flew into our bird watching area, which we call Bird Alley. Welcome beautiful red breasted bird!
This wonderful old window frame was found yesterday on an old barn.
I am constantly searching the sky every evening to find the moon. I haven't seen it recently since the last quarter of the old full moon. but then, surprisingly early last evening around seven p.m. my husband spied it from our pantry window, in the western portion of the sky. I more often find it in the eastern sky in the evenings and often my first early morning glimpse will be from my pantry window in the west. huh? this waxing crescent moon seems to have really rearranged my expectations. but research this morning has lead me to searching the to find the moon in the eastern sky just after the sunrise. I haven't found it yet in the eastern sky this morning but apparently that is where to look to get a glimpse of it. I'll keep on looking. My independent moon studies project is getting interesting! the present moon is waxing, getting fuller as it heads towards its ultimate fullness of a full moon on March 8th., which I eagerly look forward to.
We do not get a good view of the eastern sky from our house:We have few windows on that side of our house and our neighbour's big house and a huge Pine Tree blocks the view from our living room window. However this morning I noticed a glimmer of colour in the sky and from our back sunporch when I went out trying for a clear sky view I glimpsed this beautiful, yellow coloured sky reflected in a window. Lovely! What to post for mellow yellow Monday this morning.? Problem solved: an early morning sunrise in the east. Thank you window!
A zig zag river of fresh water makes it way along on the frozen surface of the Oromocto river.
Each year immediately after Groundhog Day,( no matter what the groundhogs forecast) I start searching daily for signs of an early spring. I have already had my robin encounter ( what can be a truer prediction of spring days than to gaze at a beautiful robin Red breast?, I have seen mating behaviour of two blue Jays, ( one feeding another) and the branches of the redwoods are getting redder and the willows are starting to yellow up with their spring awakening and the birches are developing a rosy glow along the roadsides. On Friday I saw a river of fresh water on the frozen surface of our river. there have been reports of flocks of Canada geese having been seen and someone saw a redwinged blackbird earlier this week. I am eagerly awaiting the sound of a squeaky gate squawk of a grackle outside my window soon???? I hope so. Can any anticipation be sweeter than that of the delight of approaching spring..
One of my early spring rituals is checking out this body of water shown above. It is open water now!!! this is where I often have my first sighting of Common Goldeneyes each spring. I shall check here each day for the next while. I mean spring means ducks doesn't it?
I was quite elated yesterday morning when I saw this little Red Squirrel on a tree branch mistakenly thinking that this squirrel sighting was an early sign of spring.
However I was mistaken. Accordingly to Bernd Heinrich in his book 'Winter World , Heinrich states that Red Squirrels can be active during any month of the winter. It is in the periods of intense winter cold that they curl up in underground tunnels to protect themselves from the overpowering cold of the winter season Now that I think about it I have seen Red Squirrels over the winter while driving down country and woods roads, sometimes a lucky squirrel will dart across the road to reach safety on the other side. That is why I call it a lucky squirrel as it often maneuvers to safety. An early sign of spring or not I found this sighting yesterday very refreshing
Sometimes the day starts out just right as I had thought it would when Iphoto captured this bright sun through the tree branches outside of my window yesterday morning. but the brightness didn't carry through as the skies turned gray and overcast as when I snapped this picture below of a crow at a high sky view location. I wonder if its open mouth suggests a protesting weather complaint such as I felt like uttering as the rain fell..
My thanks to the hosts of Skywatch Fridayhttp://skyley.blogspot.com/ for continuing to host this very popular Friday skywatch meme. If you would like to post your own photos or just enjoy looking to see the photographic offerings of others, please scroll down this page and look upon the righ hand side to click on the skywatch logo to go to the meme. A happy Friday to all.
"Never ignore the commonplace!" that lesson was reinforced to me today. This morning while having the theme of 'two' on my mind for this week's Thursday challenge theme, I saw only Blue Jays outside my window. I thought "why not?" as I raised my camera. and look what I caught!!! Wow! One Blue Jay feeding another!! You can see the bird seed in the beak of the Jay on the right while it was attempting to place the seed in the beak of the other, on the left. Blue Jays, You are so beautiful today! I am so happy that I took your picture. a mating ritual?? Yes, I think probably so. I have read in my research that the male of a bird species will bring food to the female, thus proving to her that he is capable of proving food to her and their future nestlings.
and on the same day I had taken a picture of snowbirds ( Snow buntings)on overhead wires; Two of them!
actually I had cropped the snow bunting photo above to have a picture of just two of the, but it worked out nicely.
No, this isn't a recent photo as I have not seen any Pine Siskins all winter, but I do miss their presence. they are delightful little birds and their streaks of yellow are a welcome stimulating touch of 'winter sunshine ' when they do appear.
colonizing the parking lot,
a COLONY of gulls.
The tree is still full of apples hanging from it. That is where I saw a Robin this morning, in this apple tree!!.
This was my first view of the Robin in the tree this morning..
The heart-shaped designs on this beautiful Calico Pennant Dragonfly occurred naturally in nature.
I was so pleased to have found this dried Swallowtail butterfly, which I had forgotten about. It was in a covered blue container along with the remnants of a 'beautiful blue 'Robin's egg that I had found last summer and I probably had saved these nature treasures planning on sharing them with a grandchild. Today I am sharing the swallowtail with you. The details on this butterfly are so clearly defined. It begs one to get out their drawing pencils and pencil crayons, or watercolours, or permanent black marker for outlining. This activity would be a perfect escape to summer on this wintery day with a projected wind chill of -35 C forecast; here in the cold Canadian northeast. One can dream can't they while holding or viewing this tangible proof of halcyon summer days.
Yesterday was just like a spring day! the sun was shining very brightly and warm. There were pools of water created from melting snow along the streets and the sky was a beautiful blue and its spaciousness was like an invitation for flight. I was lucky to see this Eagle sighting.
the Eagle!! soaring high in the sky! It was so beautiful and majestic.! I took the pictures from the cab of our moving truck. I only had my smallest zoom lens on my Canon Rebel. a Canon 55-250 mm. IS. But it was sufficient:with cropping and using the sharpening and lightness features on Photoshop I am able to post these photo results this morning.
The head and tail of this Eagle looked so white and clean, it might have been an ad for a laundry detergent.
Just look at that white ???? tail! in the photo above That bird needs some 'Eagle Power Powder' to launder its tail to make it 'as white as snow.
However , this losing of its fullness is not evident in all of my photos. This photo above; taken later in the morning, after my morning cup of coffee and internet searching, email checking activities ,ushered a bit of early morning moon beauty into my camera lens. Isn't it lovely viewed through the branches of our old tall maples which tower over our driveway and house?Thursday Challenge is a meme which offers a different theme each week. This week's theme is red. To join in on the fun you can find this meme at:http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html
Bringing summer inside is always part of my plan when digging up the geranium plants from our summer flower bed. I rescued two of them but left a third in our garden, for no particular reason. When our rains have stopped and it starts to dry a bit I will check to see if the third one is still surviving in our flower bed. They are quite hardy plants and so I will not be surprised at how it is faring, although we have had some pretty heavy frosts last month. I transplanted this geranium in an old bean crock, although I would have preferred a large size stewed tomatoes can with the wrapper still on it. Maybe if the remaining plant is still surviving in the garden I will pot it in a tomato can. Why a tomato can? Early memories of my grandmother include seeing geraniums potted in tomato cans sitting on her kitchen window sill.The heat from her kitchen wood stove accompanied the setting for comfort on those long ago winter days when I would spend much time visiting with her in her home. The geraniums would become very tall and gangly at her windows, their beauty accented by the summer greens of Gram's wall paper of intertwining ivy wallpaper. I think that wallpaper pattern was always on Gram's kitchen wall. When the paper needed replacing, Gram always seemed to choose that same pattern over and over again.
Placing my potted geraniums at my window brings about constant memories of my Gram. (Myrtle Alice Nason)
When I had read earlier this week that the theme for Thursday's challenge was' two; I immediately thought of crows for I have seen lots of crow pairs recently, especially near tree tops. when I saw this pair on Monday I thought" unhuh, that's the two I want" I think they are a handsome pair.
