Flowering, Ripening, Growing

I drive the speed limit and blink even when I’m the only one on the street. I pay my (one) credit card bill, my taxes, my library fines. I smile, I make peace, I don’t gossip or speak ill. But I am no goody two-shoes. I am the most subversive person I know. I grow …

Who’s at the Feeder and Hoop House Trouble

I enjoy nothing more, in winter, then sitting by the big window with a cup of steaming tea and a good book or chess game, and observing the birds at the well-stocked feeder. We have the usual flock of juncos, who love playing in the snow. They are having it out with a flock (the …

Fun on the Farm

Spring is here! The first Robin arrived two days ago, along with a bunch of House Finches, and (I believe) one Pine Siskin (must be part of a flock). The neighborhood is full of bird song: it’s so good to hear! Our garden is home to many  new generations of squirrels but I haven’t seen …

More Squirrel Shenanigans – and the OWLS!

To follow up on yesterday’s Outdoor Hour Challenge on Squirrels, here are some of today’s nature pictures. Squirrels, of course. Even though I dug out the snow around the bird feeder, they are still attempting to get up onto the baffle. The prickly bush approach must have been too painful, and it wasn’t working anyway: …

Snow Ghosts and Full Wolf Moon on Snow

It’s 8 in the morning and everyone is asleep but me. I’m in bed, next to the sleeping bodies, trying to type quietly. They lie so deep, while I’m on the surface, eyes wide open. I’m looking out of the bedroom window at the trees in our western garden and in the neighbors’ garden: beeches, …

Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers Together

– I’m growing! That’s what Amie would say if she realized that some months ago she couldn’t tell the difference between a Downy Woodpecker and a Hairy Woodpecker – and that therefore she couldn’t tell which was visiting our bird feeder either – and that now those appellations simply roll off her tongue: – O …

General Malaise Barely Evaded

Why do I even look at the news – my “consumption” of which is out of spiritual necessity minimized to reading the headlines in Google News? 8-year-old boy shoots himself in the head at a firearms expo, 7-year-old boy kidnapped then shot to death, Neo-Nazi plot to assassinate Obama. The places where my jawbone fits …

Outing on a Fall Morning and a Yard Sale

Amie and Baba at the Park  Yesterday morning was blustery and a little cloudy, but sunny and quite balmy. The three of us went to the Larz Anderson Park, where Amie ran and ran, up and down the hill, in a field of leaves and dandelions, hemmed in by trees changed to all kinds of colors. …