and thus, Caius

Chilly temperatures mean a lot more birds coming to our feeders.  There's always a round, clear circle underneath the feeders, as foraging birds clear leaves or snow, looking for castoff seed.

Everyone knows red cardinals, but I am partial to house finches.  Their song is prettier and they just seem more pert and cheerful.

I often see birds, like this chickadee, rubbing their beaks against branches after eating.  It's their equivalent to a dainty napkin wipe!

Nuthatches are here, there, and everywhere, keeping an eye on everything that's happening on the ground below.

Woodpeckers find lots to eat in the dead branches of the tree!

Birds aren't the only creatures that we're seeing more of in these colder temperatures.  One stray has come often enough to warrant a name, so here is Caius, sticking his tongue out at us from a safe distance.

We've increased the amount of food we're putting out to help keep these guys a little bit warmer and better equipped to survive a cold winter!

Speaking of food...Thanksgiving was this past week.  So much food!  We hosted, so I put together a pretty large dessert table.  All pictures taken hurriedly with my cell phone...so the quality is not very good.  I made cherry muffins with almond glaze, an apple slab pie, pumpkin cake, chocolate no-bake cookies, maple brown sugar cookies, and confetti sugar cookies. 

My first attempt (but not last!) at making dough lettering for pies!

With the kids at a separate table, we had just enough room for the grownups at the big table.

Nothing fancy, just a couple of Fresh Thyme bouquets...

...and some leftover pumpkins from October.  I picked some rose hips from the bare multiflora rose bushes outside and interspersed them with the pine cones to add a little color.  

I think I made too much food...besides feeding 17 guests, who even took platefuls of food with them, Todd STILL has a week's worth of leftovers!  I love holidays, but I'm glad that Thanksgiving has passed.  Holiday seasons are tough for people who have food issues, like I do.  This has been a rough year with the upheaval of another move, and I think I've gained about 30 pounds!  I can't really get into a rhythm of losing weight again until the holidays are over.  Just too many pitfalls.  So I will enjoy a few more tasty pitfalls and then look forward to getting back on track in the new year.

Have a great week!

end-of-day silflay

Our first 4th of July in our new hometown and I felt very, very happy to see political/environmental activism well represented at the local parade!  The current "state of the union" has felt completely grim, repellent, abhorrent, and any other similar adjective can be inserted here...so it's really heart-warming to see like-minded people who are getting involved and making their voices heard.  I'm definitely looking into some of these groups after we get settled in. 

Now that the 4th is past, we've entered into that short stretch of the year that is probably the most uncomfortable for me.  Summer is my least favorite season, and July/August in Indiana is pretty tough.  It's been hot, dry, and humid for the past week.  But I'm taking a lot of pleasure in my new garden, which needs this kind of weather to thrive.  Considering that I started with what was basically a 10' x 60' blank canvas, the color is really popping right now!

The plants are really crammed in, but next spring I'll be able to spread them around and add in some nice annuals.  I can't wait to see what it looks like in a year!

The weather may be keeping us in, but we're still seeing a lot of wildlife.  Lots of rabbits coming out to "silflay" at dusk (I can't think of it in any other terms...any other lovers of Watership Down will understand!):

Wild turkeys...and their BABIES!...visiting the barnyard in the early morning (pic taken through a screen)...

...and, of course, the cacophony of birds at our feeders.

Frogs in the grass...

...and berries ripening along the fence!

These are our "dog days" of summer.

Have a great week! 

Woolly Bullies

This is the magic time...when every day is sunny and the temperature is in the 70s, when the trees are leafing out and the azaleas are all ablaze, when we have birds and butterflies but no mosquitoes yet.  Todd and I sit by the pond after supper and watch for frogs.  Windows are open and bouquets grace every available surface.

Azaleas!!

Squirrels are sunning themselves on branches...

Birds are singing...

Our woodchuck, Irving, is frolicking at the edge of the woods in the late afternoon sun...

Turtles are getting every bit of warmth possible...

Cats are sniffing the breeze at every chance.

In short...magic!

Progress is being made on the fence...

...and even though I'm running behind on many things and was unable to pull together an Easter craft in time to mail out, I did manage a pretty Easter cake.

One item of interest:  when walking around the property last week, I noticed these fuzzy things on one of our hemlock trees.

 

I'd remembered reading about woolly something-or-other in my Master Gardener class, and when I looked it up, sure enough:  we have woolly adelgids.  They're an invasive pest that feeds on the starch reserves of trees.  They'll kill all of our hemlocks in a few years if we don't take action now.  Spraying horticultural soap or insecticidal oils on the branches will smother the adelgids without killing any other insect that might be living there.  We also need to treat the soil around the trees.  Hopefully we've caught them in time and our beautiful hemlocks will continue to thrive.

Have a great week!