winter blossom

I suppose we all get just a little bit fed-up with winter. Not the intense cold so much, but the length of it - November through April. Unless you're a real outdoors person, the walls can start to close in a little. The old-timers called it cabin fever.

We're lucky. It's not quite that extreme these days. So with a little ingenuity, a little TLC and some modern technology (central heating) - we can bring a touch of summer and colour to our indoor environment.

My green-thumbed wife tells me this is called an Amaryllis . . .sounds like a comforting cocktail to me !

Bits

Well, day 1 of our new blog . . . an untried medium for us . . .and already something of note to put a buzz in our household.

We had an unexpected visitor in the back yard a couple of weeks ago. It's been an unusual winter, in that the weather has gone from one extreme to another. Fifteen below zero one week - snow up to our ears, then ten above the next, and no snow.

But we've maintained the bird feeders, and have been rewarded with a steady stream of winter visitors : nuthatches, chickadees, house finches, mourning doves, Hairy and Downy woodpeckers to name a few.

All calm and peaceful, until the other week when a Sharp Shinned hawk decided to hang out. He made his presence well known to all by using the main feeder as a perch. Since then he has swooped down a number of times to pick off a hapless innocent.

But, that's life I suppose.

We've learned to read the signs now. When all of the feeders have been abandoned, and it's quiet outside, you can be sure he's perched somewhere nearby.