A Snowy Night

A couple of weeks ago when we got a heavy snowfall, I stood in the doorways and took pictures into the night.  I thought some of them turned out quite interesting so I hunted up a poem about nighttime in winter to share with you.  Enjoy!

A Winter Night

 

The storm puts its mouth to the house
and blows to get a tone.

I toss and turn, my closed eyes
reading the storm's text.



The child's eyes grow wide in the dark
and the storm howls for him.

Both love the swinging lamps;
both are halfway towards speech.



The storm has the hands and wings of a child.
Far away, travellers run for cover.

The house feels its own constellation of nails
holding the walls together.



The night is calm in our rooms,
where the echoes of all footsteps rest

like sunken leaves in a pond,
but the night outside is wild.



A darker storm stands over the world.
It puts its mouth to our soul

and blows to get a tone. We are afraid
the storm will blow us empty.



by Tomas Tranströmer
translated from the Swedish by Robin Robertson

Snow Day

Yesterday Barry was pruning the fruit trees as he leaves to go back to work in Alberta next week.  It started snowing in the late afternoon and continued all night.

By morning the yard looked like this.

 

No pruning today!   

The temperature was hovering around 0°C so it did melt some. 

 

 

Look at the snow hanging in the grape arbor.

  

Everything was weighted down from the moisture-heavy snow.

 

No ground was left uncovered, so poor Lulu won't be able to go out.  There had been some bare patches under the trees so she would go out on sunny days.  No chance of that for a fair while.

 

The Chickadee

When I was visiting my sister-in-law, Barb at her acreage outside Edmonton, AB we were able to hand feed the chickadees.  Here are some pictures and a poem about the sweet little birds.

 

 

 

 

THE CHICKADEE

 

Just out of doors, beyond the pane,

He flits from twig to twig, his air

A jaunty grace, yet, apt to deign

A visit of the morning fair,

He calls to me,

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee !
 

And blithe all wintry days is he.


 

His garb is plain, his sable cap

Fits to his skull, and all his mien

Bespeaks his mind that scorns the lap

Of plenty, while full oft, I ween,

He laughs at me,

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee !

He loves life's care to spurn and flee.



 

Light little vagrant of the sky,

He fears not want nor heeds the cold,

Yet through his pranks he casts an eye

Within betimes — so slight yet bold —

And chirps to me,

Chick-a-dee- dee- dee !

Please, sir, a crumb! and wins his plea.

 

 

by C. C. Lord


 

Robins in the Winter

This year we noticed many of the robins did not fly south for the winter.  Up until a week ago that was fine because we didn't have any snow yet.  Now we have snow and ice covering everything as we had rain after a light snowfall that made the driveway into a skating rink.

The robins have been eating grapes left on the vine and have cleaned off the mountain ash berries.  I am concerned that they will have trouble finding food until the snow is gone.  They have been on the ground, digging the berries out of the ice and snow that they dropped off the tree.



I did some research on the internet and they are mostly fruit and insect eaters.  We put out a tray with some of Lulu's hen scratch and topped it off with chopped apples.  Since it has been really windy, we put a big rock in the tray so it wouldn't blow away.

Now we wait to see if they come to eat.  If so, we have lots of fruit in the coldroom and the freezer that we can share with them for the winter. 

 

We've had some lookers, but no one has ventured onto the tray to eat the apples and scratch.  Hopefully, soon one brave robin will try it and spread the word that we have food for them.  I would have for them to starve until the snow is gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Groundhog Day

Hello and Happy Groundhog Day!

My computer is still not working properly and I still cannot post pictures.  It still is being contrary and bumps my out and off the web whenever it feels like.  I decided to do a quick update to let you know that Lulu and I are still around.

Our winter weather has been quite varied.  We have had some snow and some very cold weather for here, down to -20°C to -25°C.  We've had lots of wind and wind warnings. On the other hand, we've had some very mild days as well - yesterday hit +15°C.  We've even had a rain storm that pounded on the windows hard enough to wake me up one night.  I don't know what to expect from day to day.

I've been keeping a low profile - reading, crosswords, computer, etc. since I broke a bone in my foot in early December.  It wasn't in a cast and I re-injured it by walking in the yard on uneven ground too soon.  I had it re-xrayed in January and was told to take it easy until early February.  So I've been lazing about relaxing and thinking how glad I am that this happened now instead of during gardening season.  I have been doing some baking and also crocheting some dish clothes as my supply had dwindled.

Lulu has been good company and content to stay indoors during the bad weather.  One day when it seemed the wind had died down, I had her outside.  She was contentedly pecking and scratching in the flower bed when a big wind came up and blew her about four or five feet out into the driveway.  I brought her in after that and she complained about the windy weather interfering with her chickeny duties..  On nicer days, she has been out digging in the flower beds and under the grape arbours.  If it is too cold or windy to go out she is content to lay on the end table and look out the front room window. 

Lulu refuses to step in the snow.  I had to shovel the driveway one day and took her out for some fresh air.  She stood exactly where I set her down and refused to move a step.  What a princess! 

Lulu isn't laying and hasn't been since early December. She is molting a fair bit and always seems to be grooming and pulling out feathers.  I pick up handfuls of feathers at a time off the floor around her.  She doesn't have any bare spots but seems to be quite thin.  She doesn't seem to eat much but drinks a great deal.  Lulu even seems to have lost her love of peanuts and sunflower seeds! 

My plans are to get a new computer soon.  Take care and remember spring in around the corner!  ;)

Indoor Grass

Since Lulu is mostly an indoor chicken during the winter, someone suggested I bring in some grass for her.  I think they may have been joking but I decided to give it a try.   

I got a plastic basin and went out into the yard and cut out a piece of sod large enough to fill the container.

I have it up on a shelf near a large south facing window.  I keep an old sheet there for Lulu to stand on so she doesn't slip.

Since she has been able to go out on days when it isn't so cold or snowy, the grass has had time to grow.

When I put Lulu up on the shelf, she really enjoys eating the grass.  She usually eats the longer blades near the edge, so when she is finished, I just turn the container around.  That way she keeps the grass from getting too long.

Usually she stands on her blanket eating the grass.  One day, however, she decided to jump up into the grass to take a closer look at it.

I think she was looking for some dirt to scratch, but the sod is in the container right to the edges so there is no loose soil.

There was not a great deal of room for her to move around.  She seemed to enjoy herself - on the lawn, in the sun and indoors out of the weather.

She managed a few nibbles and poked around for dirt with no success.

I haven't had to let her at the grass every day because we have had quite a nice winter so far and Lulu is able to go outside.

I noticed very tiny bugs crawling on many of the blades of grass and on the edges of the container.  Since this window is in the kitchen, I didn't want indoor bugs.  I made a spray of dish soap, oil and water and sprayed the grass and container.  I didn't let Lulu at the grass for awhile because I did not want her to get sick.  The bugs all died so I sprayed the grass with straight water to get rid of any residue before letting Lulu have another feast.

I don't know if the sod will last the winter or if it will go dormant like it does outdoors.  It isn't growing as fast as it did at the start so we will see what happens.

In the Blink of An Eye

For several days this past week, I was outside raking leaves.  The weather was nice and the grass was still green. I was piling the leaves on my herb beds since I had some winter kill last year.  I figured that we don't usually get enough snow to cover the plants, so I would cover them with leaves.  Come spring, we'll see if it helped.

I still had more leaves to rake as all the trees hadn't even finished turning colours.  When I got up the next morning what do I see - SNOW! 

Snow on the lattice and in the clouds over the mountains.

Snow on the herb garden that I just finished covering with leaves.

On the grapes and trellis.

The trees aren't finished dropping their leaves.

In fact, this apple tree hasn't even finished changing colours!

The cherry tree is still loaded with leaves.

Another grape trellis with the snowy mountains in the distance.

Mountain ash berries wearing tall white hats.

My poor Coco, all covered with snow.

I used to have a dog named Coco that looked exactly like the statue.

We received about 2-3" in our first dump of snow.  Hopefully, it'll disappear before long but if not - get ready for WINTER!