Something I’ve noticed since the days have started to get – and stay – warmer; the birds are a lot more chill. Instead of the flurry of activity as they grab seeds and fly away, they’ve been more likely to just sit there, all relaxed, taking it easy
It makes for some lovely photo opportunities! :-)
Several of the outside cats just love sitting in the platform bird feeder, and just snoozing in the sun. Rolando Moon is one of these. :-)
While I suspect she is making that face because of the bright sun in her eyes, the reality is, she usually this ticked off look on her face. :-D
Some mornings are a lot more exciting than others.
That’s not always a good thing!
I just had to get a tire replaced on that van this morning – and probably should not have been driving on it at all!
Continue readingMy daughter saw a strange group of deer coming into the feeding area and got some shots for me. Including this deer with larger antler nubs than the little guy that normally visits with his mum. :-)
One nice thing about no leaves on the lilacs this time of year; we can see the birds in them, better. :-)
Things are quite a bit warmer, as I post this photo; the chickadees look so much smaller, now that they don’t have to puff themselves up like this! :-)
I’m finally getting to photos that were taken out our living room window in March!
First up, one of Butterscotch’s pretty little babies, all grown up.
I can’t remember; was this one Rosencrantz? Or Guildenstern?
On learning that my nephew and his wife will be having a baby, I started working on crocheted baby gifts. I’ve just finished the last of them – a gift for the mom – to go with the stroller blanket and matching hats I made for Baby’s first winter, including adult sized hats for Mom and Dad.
I made a capelet for our new mom to wear while cuddling Baby, and wanted to get a photo of it. I can post those here, as my family doesn’t know about this blog, so I won’t be ruining any surprises. ;-)
It’s pretty big, so I cleared my bed and stretched up to try and get the whole thing in the shot.
Oops. I cut off a couple of corners. Let’s try that again…
… and again…
… one more time!
Okay. I give up. They win.
I then removed the cats – plus the clump of fur already left behind = and the capelet is now safely put away with the rest of the items, out of reach for cats!
Now I have to find a box big enough to hold it all, so I can mail them out. Baby will make his debut in July, so I have a bit of time. :-)
For those who are interested, I made this using a simple pattern I found online – click here for the link – using Lion Brand Mandala yarn in Thunderbird, and a 5mm hook. The only change I made to the pattern was to add the trim on the bottom. I wanted the starting and finishing rows to match in both colour and width, which left me with just enough yarn to work my way across the bottom.
The Re-Farmer
After dropping my daughter off at work this morning, I decided to head over to the beach and see how the lake was looking.
I am absolutely amazed that there are still ice fishing sheds out there!
I can’t believe the ice is still strong enough to drive on! Most of the shacks are gone, and it looks like the last few are being readied to haul away.
What you see in the in the centre and to the right of the photo is water from the storm drain, partially covering the ice road. Yesterday, we had a quick dip into colder temperatures, so things froze up again, but we’re supposed to stay above freezing during the day for a while. As I write this, we’re still at -11C, with a “RealFeel” of -7C. We’re supposed to have a high of -1C, which means all that ice and snow is going to start softening again.
In this photo, looking towards where the ice driving track was, you can see a sign on the left that has already started to fall over.
Even the beach shows signs of how much more difficult it has been for vehicles to drive onto the lake; the top inch or two is thawed and soft, but it’s still frozen underneath, and you can see where several vehicles had to spin their way out of it.
With the temperatures we’re expected to have in the long range forecast, I expect this entry onto the ice to be soon closed to traffic completely. It won’t be long before the beach grooming machines are brought out, to clean up whatever mess has been left behind as the snow melts away.
At home, I’ve already started to do a bit of that clean up.
The outside cats’ food and water bowls are now well away from the house. The last couple of nights have been cold enough for the water to freeze solid by morning, but there is enough access to water for them that it’s not a problem, as it was before.
On the plus side, it means we can walk to and from the garage on areas of ice, instead of slogging through puddles. ;-)
Where the food bowls were, next to the sun room, has melted way into quite a mess. Frozen cat kibble and various bones and whatnot are now exposed. By this morning, the concrete around the house has, for the most part, melted clear. I was able to sweep things, and will eventually head out with garbage bags to pick up the big stuff that won’t break down into the grass easily.
I’m looking forward to being able to go all around the yard, and pick up all the twigs and branches that fell throughout the winter.
This is the ugly, messy time of year! :-D
The Re-Farmer
Checking out that human in the window!
Though this deer seemed to be staring the camera down, in reality, if I move too fast behind the tripod, they tend to dash off immediately. So not really bold. Just pretending!
This is the second group of three deer that started to visit us regularly in February.
Sometimes, both groups would show up at once, but usually, one group would arrive and the other would soon follow, as if they were hanging out somewhere in the maple grove, waiting for the first group to leave.
The Re-Farmer 