OT - Snow, Birds and Marmalade :- )

11 years ago

I'm not sure how this post is going to show since I uploaded photos to the Photobucket beta version.

Pics during the snowstorm we had the day after Christmas
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Pics from Sunday's second round of cleanup. Love the snowblower as it throws the snow out away from the edges of the driveway but when the winds pick up, more snow drifts back again.
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Our birdfeeders have been very active. I took these through our windows. Some pics not so clear but I think you get the idea.
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And lastly, Marmalade (the cat who showed up on our porch before Thanksgiving), who decided to stick around and slept all day yesterday in the mudroom. She is a very gentle and friendly cat.

Julia

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Comments (11)

organic_kitten
11 years ago
Beautiful pictures, Julia. Cold birds, all fluffed out. Marmalade's a pretty tortoiseshell, isn't she?

Especially like the tree picture. Maybe we will get a light snow this year. Sigh, Thanks for sharing.
kay
Cindy zone 6a
11 years ago
I thought perhaps you had made marmalade! :) She is a very pretty cat. Your bird pictures are wonderful, I just love seeing the cardinals and bluejays, they contrast well with the white snow. Your snow pics are good! Even though I hate the snow, but I know it is needed. Looks like I have just about the same amount of snow as you do.
Cindy
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My garden and house caters first and mostly for my dog - he's the most pampered pet you can imagine :-) This includes his own doghouse in the garage (that he hardly ever uses, but is used by the roaming cats in the neighborhood, much to Timmy's distress), an enclosed front porch with doggie door, basket, rug and private sofa, free roaming of the garden, two more beds inside the house, etc. You get the picture - he's the king of it all :-) As for wildlife, since we live on the foothills of a small mountain range and part of a natural park, we do get quite a lot of critters. We have a birdbath that is used not only by the birds but also by the bees and wasps, of which there are gazillions (we are in a honey producing area). Birds in the garden include sparrows, robins in Fall and Winter, loads of blackbirds, gold finches and a multitude of others I can't name. Last Saturday I saw my first swallow of the year. Above us on the hill we can frequently spot hawks, of which there are some colonies in the park. At night owls are a frequent visitor and we can hear their calls many times. Cuckoos are also a familiar sound as soon as Spring is here. I have a lot of evergreens in the garden and this provides excellent nesting sites for the birds. Preferred are the bay trees, laurustinus and the conifers. I'm constantly finding nests whenever I prune anything. I had a resident bat for about a year, sleeping in a closed garden umbrella we had on the patio. Unfortunately I had to remove the umbrella because the wasps decided it was a good place to nest, so it had to go. I was already stung twice, didn't want to be stung whenever I opened the umbrella! Still, bats visit frequently and it's common to see one or two flying around the garden at dusk. Some years we have glow worms in the Spring, which I absolutely love. It's magical to see them hovering around the garden at night. Other assorted critters include geckos, small lizzards, snakes, mice (yuk!), crickets, locusts and the occasional hedgehog. In terms of specifically catering for critters, I keep the birdbath going all year (we don't have hard freezes) and try to plant things I know will be used by the wildlife. This includes berry shrubs like pyracantha which are a major hit with birds in the cold Winter months. I also have a weeping mulberry tree and let its production go to the birds, who have a feast with the fruits. The compost pile is also a good feeding ground and there's a little bird that spends hours there hunting for the small fruit flies that proliferate inside the pile. Butterflies are catered for with things like lantana, mock orange and buddleia. I need to add more larval food to cater for butterflies, but haven't come quite up to it yet. I don't use any sort of chemicals in the garden, don't even spray the roses, and this of course translates into a welcome sign for critters, even if it means that slugs and snails are huge, sigh... I don't use a slingshot to get rid of them, like Edna does ;-), but I do throw them onto a neighbooring field that is kept wild. All in all, I consider a privilege to have wildlife in the garden and have been slowly educating myself to encourage it as much as possible. Eduarda
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Vee, November used to be my worst month when I was on my overlong stay in the UK, 1990-2003. It was supposed to be a year's sabbatical but my husband found all kinds of interesting work so we stayed on and on... I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and need a lot of light to counteract it. Not helpful to have night fall about 4.30pm when the clocks go back either. It isn't that sunny in Perth at present considering Summer will soon be here. We get a day of good weather then back to dullness, wind and sometimes rain. At least we aren't under thick snow as I see in some parts of the US, on our TV news. I recall we had a discussion about Greasy Joan as I visualised her cleaning the pots but the word "keel" has been translated as "cool". As the poem is about how cold it is, I don't like that at all and prefer my vision of her. A hefty woman with strong muscular arms, wrapped in a vast sacking apron.
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jean_ar
11 years ago
Thanks JUlia for sharing your very pretty snow pictures,I really like that first one with the snow in them trees, sooo pretty.The little birds look like they are cold,well, some of them do, all fluffed out.The cat is very pretty cat, too.You certainly have a lot of snow for early winter.

Jean
Julia WV (6b)
Original Author
11 years ago
Glad you enjoyed the photos. Yes, Marmalade is a tortoiseshell color per the vet. I just think of her as multicolored. Although she is not the color of marmalade, I liked the name. My husband calls her "Hello Kitty".LOL

Yesterday afternoon we attended a meeting and when we walked out it was snowing hard. That blinding snow when your high beam lights just make seeing worse. Unexpected and not the best conditions to be driving at night in. This morning it is still snowing. The weather person calls it flurries but I call it snow. Being by the lakes we are more apt to have lake effect snow.
The predicted temps last night was to be single digits and today only in the low 20's. Good thing the gardens are covered with snow.

Julia
houstmag
11 years ago
Beautiful photos it sure makes me miss the snow LOL. I really like the bird photos and Marmalade sure looks nice and cozy it's wonderful that you gave her a home.
Linda
Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)
11 years ago
I have a "thing" for Torties and Marmalade is a beauty. 99.5% of all Torties are female and they are almost always exceptional cats with above average cat intelligence (she picked you didn't she?).......Around here we call the first bird in your picture "the monk bird" for obvious reasons. It's a Junco and we only see them when there is snow on the ground (which isn't that often). They probably are around other times too, just not as visible. And Cardinals just take your breath away with their merry red color against a white background. As to THAT background, you can keep it. As far as I'm concerned it can snow one day of the year - Christmas. Then it needs to be gone the very next day. But it does make for pretty pictures, as long as it's you that's enjoying it.....Maryl
lesmc
11 years ago
I have really enjoyed your beautiful snow pictures! Thank you for sharing them with us. Lesley
celeste/NH
11 years ago
Those winter scenes sure are familiar! We have about the same amount of snow here. I actually would welcome more snow since my husband's business relies on snow revenue and the past 2 winters have been brutal on his business and our pocketbook. I'm not crazy about it personally, but it is 'white gold' to many. Plus, I do like it blanketing my daylilies over the winter.
We have the same birds at our feeders as well. I so enjoy all the birds in the dead of winter. We have feeders everywhere, of every kind imaginable, and suet cakes too.
My favorite feeder is the one right by my kitchen window where I can watch the birds up close while I do my dishes.
My cats like to sit and watch them too and cures their winter boredom. I am always happy to hear that a kitty has found a loving home. Lucky Marmalade to show up at your doorstep! As I've mentioned before, I am jealous of all that land you have....just wonderful open space. I have too much of woods around me and not enough sunlight!

Celeste
katlynn719
11 years ago
Julia, Your photos look like Christmas cards and you have a beautiful home!
Kathy
Julia WV (6b)
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you all for the compliments. Having so much open space is a blessing but also keeps us very busy. As we get older, the amount of time that is spent keeping things up to par gets harder so I need to keep my gardens under control. Nothing worse than letting weeds invade but I do enjoy gardening and weeding....odd huh?

The snow is melting, hurray. Our temps have gone back up into the mid 30's during the day and I'm starting to see the plant markers again and also all the rabbit tracks LOL.

Marmalade keeps us active for sure. What is it with cats. One day they stay inside all day sleeping and the next, don't show back up till 9:00PM. My husband says she is working late hours. I say, just don't bring any dead things up on the porch.

Julia
Waitforspring
11 years ago
Julia,
Love your snow pictures. The first one is my very favorite. It looks like it should be a Christmas card. The bird pictures are great too. You seem to have quite a variety there. Marmalade looks so cozy resting up for another adventure.
Val

OT - Snow, Birds and Marmalade :- )

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organic_kitten

Cindy zone 6a

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OT - Snow, Birds and Marmalade :- )

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