15 Dec 2012 - Overnight snow

Yesterday the backyard looked like this: green grass, green myrtle, with the ever present does eating both. 

Today? We woke to 11 inches of snow. It rained first, so the snow is wet, heavy and really sticking to even the tiniest twig. It is gorgeous. And I am so grateful we don't have to leave the house today. 

Once again because the snow is so sticky and heavy we have more downed limbs. 

  This is the first thing I saw this morning. Woke up, opened my eyes to the all-white view. Seeing no real reason to get out of bed, I turned over and stole another hour out of the day for sleep. What a luxury. 

The forecast is calling for another four inches this afternoon as well as snow everyday through next Saturday. We have had more snow in December than we had during the entire 2011-12 winter. Hope this is a good thing for our water situation. 

Meanwhile we do have the proverbial winter wonderland. And it is wonderful to be all cozy inside, cuppa in hand, and just admire. Jack, bless him, has the blower all fired up and is making a path out to the shop. Yay! Nice to have a snowy weekend in front of me with no reason to go leave the house, other than to work in the shop.
 

 

But even with a lot of snow, it is so wonderful when the sun comes out. In the late afternoon the sun highlights the ridges and the snow on the trees is breathtaking. 

 
 
And, of course, the critters continue to amuse. While working in the shop, the herd came by. This young buck stopped and looked in my window. He gave me a chance to grab my camera before he followed the rest of them around the corner.



 

4 December 2012 - Life, Death and Dominance in the Backyard

Anyone following along knows that we feed the birds all year round and derive great enjoyment from this. But lately, our bird feeders are taking on some sinister connotations. A Cooper's Hawk has been staking out the feeders. An overhead fly-by will result in pandemonium. Little birds hit the windows in big numbers trying to escape. 

This week when we had a Cooper's fly through the yard a pair of house finches hit the living room windows, hard. The male was knocked out, but came to and an hour later was recovered enough to fly away. The female died. 

But this is the 'who knew?' part.  A little red squirrel came along, carried the dead finch away to one of the balcony rafters and proceeded to eat it. Squirrels eat birds? 

On reflection, I do know they rob bird nests, eat eggs and sometimes baby birds, I guess that a very fresh bird is a welcome lagniappe. 

We also have a large quail population that comes through several times a day. 

Unfortunately, they are easy prey for peregrines. It is really hard to hear birds thunk into the windows, then see the hawk fly off with a quail. I know they have to eat, but I rather object to them dining off my feeding stations. 

After a recent hawk sighting, most of the flock flew for the safety of the pyracantha bushes, but several were on the porch, too close to the house to fly, so they just froze in place. It gave me a chance to get some nice head shots. 

 





I love their topknots.  A fully mature male's plume is made up of six feathers that eventually join up into one feather. The older the male the more magnificent the plume. I have to think they are very proud of their feathers.

I do, however, wish the hawks would take their business to another grocery store. 

On the upside, we have morning magpies. They show up for breakfast every day. Leftover cat food is quite the treat. We have seen as many as 15 at a time. Magpies are the clowns of the bird world. They are big, raucous, smart and great fun to watch. We have spent hours watching them figure out how to get to the suet feeders by jumping up and hanging upside down.  

The deer are starting to come down in larger numbers, and in addition to all the does, the young bucks are beginning to show up. Tonight we had three very young bucks in the back yard, two had spikes and one was a two-pointer.  They were very busy head- butting. We had our noses pressed to windows watching these babies start their quest for dominance. Hmm. Would that be doe-minance? 

Here the two yearling spikes are pushing each other around. The larger buck in the background got involved as well. We weren't sure if he was coaching, or taking both or them on. Sometimes I feel that we spend most of our time at the windows. We have a busy, fascinating world, right in our own back yard. 

 

 
  

 

30 November 2012 - Family, Feast and Fix-ups

My entire family was together for Thanksgiving. All four of us. We had a great time, as usual.  Robin came in a week before Thanksgiving, which gave her time to visit with her friends, then she was free to be with us the following week. We decided to eat our turkey on Monday, giving us plenty of time to eat leftovers during the week. We all love turkey dinner leftovers. 

We decided to go simple this year. Just the staples, nothing  extravagant. And we mostly adhered to that decision. However, a 20 pound turkey for four people was a bit over the top. David made a pumpkin and a pecan pie, which we gobbled up in a hurry. I whined a lot when they were gone. Thankfully David took the hint and whipped up another pecan pie for us, so we could finish the week in style.

While it seems we spent a lot of time cooking and eating, we did have some fun. Robin and I went to the Marriott Library to see a book exhibit from the International Book Maker's Guild. There were some interesting bindings, shapes, and concepts. The two other exhibits: one of broadsides and the other on bindings with a Fantasy and Nonsense theme had both been removed the previous week. I was unhappy about that, as they were really wonderful. 

Robin and I spent several hours standing in a checkout line at an Xpedx store, making friends with the many others in line. Xpedx closed all their retail stores, and this one has having a 50% off everything sale. It was mobbed. I found many reams of paper for my printing projects, and Robin found some specialty metallic papers--at a very good price. 

Robin and I took a pass at the garage. It was a chilly day, and the    garage was even colder. You can't see that she is about frozen in this picture. We pulled out many boxes, mostly Christmas decorations and lights as well as more quilting fabrics and notions, yard art (yay!), kachinas, and lots more. We unpacked some boxes and found places inside to put yet more stuff away. And we did a little decorating in the living room. Gotta have a little sparkle. 

At the bottom of one of the piles, I was excited to find the box with my architectural stars. I was beginning to wonder if I had left them in Michigan. Now two fence panels are filled with my stars. So nice to have them up where I can enjoy them. 

Robin and I also spent some time poking around in stores looking for the perfect candlesticks for the mantel. We found them, too. Hefty and sparkly, what's not to like? Even the gargoyles have festive ribbons. 

Robin and I made some big snowflakes, and David helped me hang them. It is beginning to look a bit more festive around here. 

What else does one do on a vacation?  Work in the shop! Finished the February calendar page for the Monks and Friars. The calendar page ended up being more complicated than I had planned, ending up with five passes through the press.  I also printed a Solstice card --it makes me laugh every time I see it.  

 Robin cut paper for me and once again helped with shop clean up and organization. If I could only get a regular schedule out of her--it could be pretty nice out there. 

Robin also indulged me in my passion (or is that obsession?) with signage and handmade metal stuff. 

I love old signs: neon signs, bowling alley signs, motel signs in particular, but you name it, any of the above result in hard braking and a picture. 



 

 Then there is my personal favorite from this set. How can anyone not love a sign like this?  A seedy hotel with the Mormon temple on it?  What's not to like? Now I need to see it at night, all lit up, although you can tell it is missing a ton of bulbs. Still, could be interesting. 

 
 Two weeks later: I did go back at night. Darn it. So many lights were missing and most of the neon did not work. Very disappointing.


I had also hoped to get a picture of the Ritz Bowling Lanes sign at night. It too was missing most of its lights. Humph. This sign is easily three stories high. The bowling pin should be completely lighted. The word 'bowling' rotates inside the pin. I always loved this sign.