Activity in the woods

The work of a Pileated Woodpecker in the hemlock.

Some creature has wondered through.

Day is done.

signaling the end of another day
tranquil
calm
thankful to witness such wonder

(for more click on skywatch)

A moment in time

What a spectacular sight I came upon this morning. A huge flock of Cedar Waxwings, maybe 75 to 80 birds. They were engaged in foraging rose hips and wild cherries. I watched as they flutter in and out of the scrub in large groups gobbling down the berries.

RED HAT GIRLS

Lovely red combs adorn the heads of my hens.

Red giving Blackie a little attitude below.
I can just hear it:
"You're not the only chick here. I'm pretty too!"

Check out all the Ruby Tuesday hosted by Work of the Poet.

And more snow....

Nemo looks a bit worried. Hang in there! One month to go
before spring.

Nemo rides on my car antenna this is his 4th winter.

My Girls : The Hens

Carole at Fowl Visions recently posted about WHY she has chickens.
I realized that I have only posted once that I have hens.

I have four girls.
Two white leg-horns and then Blackie & Red.

So, why?

Well, being a farm daughter I seem to have this in-grained need to do chores and care for farm critters. I can't think of a better way to get the morning started then lugging fresh water & feed for them every day. In return they give me eggs, laughs, friendly pecks and joy.

My family thinks I'm crazy.

I built their little chicken coop my self with scrap lumber I rescued from the town dump.

It's not large, about the size of a dog house with one window and a door with a ramp out into their fenced yard. The view above is looking in through the nest box door. The lights give them the hours of light they need to keep producing eggs (14) as well as warming the place in the freezing temperatures we have here in winter.

Sugar Snow

Click on the link above to see the sky all over the world.

A saying my parents use to describe wet, heavy snow
that falls in large flakes and clings to everything.
A regular occurrence during the Maple Sugar Season.

I love how it dresses up the trees.

All are white again if only for a few hours
before the sun and wind release it from the branches.

A little melting going on.

It has warmed up over the past week or so to melt away a bit of the snow.

NH Audubon Backyard Bird Count

Every year I participate in the Bird Count, watching the feeders more than I normally do, actually taking time to sit still and watch the birds fly in and around. It was pretty much the normal sightings chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches, blue jays, titmouse, crows and downy woodpeckers.

But my watching paid off:

Photo courtesy of the great folks at Wikipedia.

A Red-Bellied Woodpecker!

Another check on my life bird list. I watched him for twenty minutes going up and down the dead pine we intentionally left standing. He poked his beak into every hole he found and paid little attention to the suet feeders located on the same tree. I got my husband to witness the sighting, You see these birds are infrequent visitors to NH.

Necessity, the Mother of Invention

My daughter was complaining about her cheap paper lunch bags and how they wouldn't even last til her lunch period. She recently stepped up to the whole 4R's of recycling and thought that using paper bags was not good for the environment. We had talked about making a lunch sack and I had pictured your usual rectangular shape that would fold down and stay shut with velcro. She wanted a bag that was round in shape with pull-ties. Okay!...but I just moved all my fabric to the "new tiny" house. What could we use? YES! a tyvek envelope that had just come in the mail. It was a big hit at senior high lunch table. Some of the teachers even commented on how original it was. Another box checked off on the to-do list.

I'm Bananas for you!

Go Bananas!!!!
Learn what Curious George and NH have in common at the ReyCenter.org

Working Dogs Wait Patiently

I have never seen this pair of dogs at the post office before. They are definitely work dogs. Well behaved, no barking and didn't mind a bit if I snapped a few pictures. They share the back of the truck with the tools of their owner but had plenty of room to lay down for a nap.

Four and Twenty Black Birds

Baked in a Pie!*
This one is apple and blueberry.
The pinwheels in the back are leftover pie dough spread with butter, cinnamon & sugar.

Swirly conversation piece

We get a lot of the comments about my snow art from folks who come to our place.
I like to keep people wondering. The shadow you see is of our house.
I wonder if people see it from the air?

Ice Fishing Derby aka Winni-Derby

This past weekend we went up to Meredith Bay to check out the Rotary Club Ice Fishing Derby. It was in full swing even with the 30 mile per hour winds.
1st prize is a boat and 2nd is an ATV.

This picture is looking out onto the ice.
Folks ride in on snow machines, drive on with SUV's and ATV and set up house.

Looking down the lake with Church Landing Resort on the right you have a "modern" bob-house. Most folks just build something crude out of plywood and scraps, some have tents, and others drag some old shed out onto the ice and leave it until spring. It was sunny but windy and we saw two bob-houses break free of their tethers and blow and tumble down the lake.

There are different categories and this is a shot of the smallest type of fish caught.
Other fish were yellow perch, cusk, brook trout, and rainbow trout.

Cupid ALERT!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Sunbeam on Snow

“Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through
a thousand bosoms without losing a particle
of its original ray;
nay,
when it strikes on a kindred heart,
like the converged light on a mirror,
it reflects itself with redoubled brightness.
It is not perfected till it is shared.”
~Jane Porter

OH MY!!

OH MY!!, originally uploaded by addvt2nh.

Icicle defined.

A pendent,
and
usually
conical,
mass of ice,
formed by
freezing of
dripping water;
as,
the icicles on
the eaves of a house.

Pushing back the banks.

Snowbanks that is. When 3 feet of snow has fallen and we're bound to get more, the road crews get out in full force pushing the snow further off the roadways. The fire hydrants get completely buried and the front end loaders go around and rescue them.

Atop the Town Church

I see this steeple every morning watching over Main Street. The sky to the East is often a bright mixture of pink, orange, red, blue and white. How wonderful it would be to capture this steeple with that backdrop. The terrain makes that nearly impossible, but I was able to capture the morning glow shining upon it.