Coffee at Steve’s Country #20.

Posted on January 20, 2021 by

31 Comments

Good morning everyone on this cool and very windy Wednesday! That wind really cuts through a person. Of course, I wasn’t really dressed very warmly since I was just outside to feed the birds. Coffee and tea are ready for anyone wanting to warm up a bit and relax in the countryside of my world. Muffin is very excited this morning and running around here wildly while she waits for you to drop in. As I type and look out the window I noticed that the feeder was totally full…of rock doves! There was 12 of them, gorging themselves on the sunflower seeds. The feeder had been full of evening grosbeaks.

Theodore on the feeder yesterday morning.

The chase begins! I was out the door chasing those crazy birds away. For my newer readers, I have been constantly trying to get rid of these rock doves (more commonly known as pigeons) for a long time. They scare away all the other birds by their large size and being very aggressive. And they eat anything, from regular bird seed to meat. I finally got rid of them and things have been going well this year, but now they are back causing problems again. Oh good, the grosbeaks have returned. Yesterday the shrike was here again. It was later afternoon once the blue jays had gone for the day. I was watching out the window and noticed the little birds were sitting still. Suddenly this shrike came down so fast and had his chickadee and off he went. They dive in incredibly fast, and once they pick out a bird they seldom miss.

And here we have a ruffed grouse along the path on my last walk to the river.

Shrikes and rock doves are on my list of unwanted birds. Blue jays hate shrikes, one of the reasons that the jays are nice to have around. They protect the small birds. But they do leave early, about 3 to 4 pm, and that’s when the shrike likes to show up now, he has learned. When I went to feed the birds this morning I dropped my cup of sunflower seeds on the deck. I bent down to pick them up and Theodore flew up onto the railing right behind me. Kind of startled me, wasn’t expecting that. He went, “thwip, thwip, thwip”, which I’m sure meant that he was laughing at me. Sigh. We talked for a bit but it was too cold to stay out there for very long. Theodore went over to have his breakfast, I came inside. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.

Category: Beauty, Birds, Coffee, Cold, Country, Country Pleasures, Friends, Happiness, Photos, Positive, Relax, Uncategorized, WinterTags: , , , , , , , , ,

31 Comments on “Coffee at Steve’s Country #20.”

  1. Look at our Theodre, how great looking 😍😍ruffed grouse is cute too😻 Send those pigeons packed away to us 😂 we have people that keep them as pets😺🤓. Hope you had a nice long conversation with Theodore 😍😻 Don’t be startled next time when our turkey friend shows up☺️Hey, I’m first again😎🎉Time to celebrate it with a coffee 🥂Have a good day 🤗🤗🤗

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    • It was a short conversation, too cold out there!🥶 Hey, he sneaked up behind me, not fair!🤪🦃 Yep, you’re first, but you lost your competitors.😳 Two have stopped blogging, not sure what happened to the third one.🤔 Yep, have all the coffee you want!😁☕☕☕☕

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      • ha ha😂😂We never lose anyone😁 they are now virtually missing 😎 and will be back anytime🤓 Don’t worry, People will come and go, let that not disturb our flow of creativity😉👍🤗

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  4. What kinds of things do you do when you aren’t feeding your birds? Do you spent a lot of time on WordPress every day, or do you have other hobbies? I am curious to know what kinds of things you do on a typical day. One can’t spend their entire day watching birds…. or can they? 😂🤣

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    • I have known retired people to spend most of their day watching birds, it is a very relaxing hobby. I can watch the birds and be on my laptop at the same time, works nice. Winter and summer are very different for me, summer I’m outside most of the day if it’s nice, winter I’m inside nearly all day. A lot of time I’m on WordPress or doing other things. Winter is my time for sorting pics taken from the previous year. I took a lot of pics last year I have discovered. I read, write, sew, do small DIY projects. Really, I never have enough time in a day for doing things, certainly no time to get bored, I honestly don’t know what that’s like. I’m not on social media, don’t watch TV or YouTube, no time for those things, a day goes by fast enough! I also go for walks as often as possible, less in winter than summer due to health reasons. What’s your day like?🤔🙂

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      • My day? It’s pretty boring actually. I sleep in until noon, but sometimes I wake up at a decent hour. Becca usually sleeps in too now that she’s not in daycare everyday. During the day, I’m either doing chores around the house or I’m on the computer catching up on daunting tasks (e-mails, school-related stuff, applications and forms etc.)

        I couldn’t imagine a life without YouTube but I applaud you for staying away from it. I waste hours on YouTube. As for TV, it’s TV reruns I mostly watch, which is also a huge waste of time. I also waste a lot of time on my iPhone texting people. It’s not an up-to-date iPhone which is fine by me. Just as long as it works.

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      • Wow, I can’t imagine sleeping that late. I slept in until 9 once, but that was years ago.
        I stay away from YouTube because I know if I get started I will waste too much time there, same with TV. And I do not like wasting time. But that’s just me. I also don’t like texting, though I will do a little.
        Right now I’m attempting to downsize a bit, well, maybe more than a bit. Getting Covid and then fighting with all the after effects of it made me realize I have too much stuff. Hmm, think I might have mentioned that before. Anyway, it’s going well, just kind of slow since I’m also doing a major cleaning at the same time. And I still don’t have the energy I had before getting Covid. Amazing really.😳😕

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      • Sleeping in makes me very unproductive. It is a bad habit. YouTube is very addictive – I deleted the app from my phone but still use safari to access YouTube, so it didn’t really stop me…. I wish I could stop wasting time, but I could honestly stare at a wall all day and not feel “bored” doing nothing. I guess that’s good for meditation but my mind wanders a lot…

        Downsize or declutter? I have been actively decluttering the house, and yet, stuff still seems to accumulate. It’s part of the reason why I stopped buying things. There is no point buying more things when we already have so much stuff. Stuff is overwhelming and anxiety-provoking, so I do not blame you for wanting to clean. I couldn’t imagine what COVID is like, but from what I heard, “it feels like the worst flu ever.” My lungs are not good, so I cannot afford to get respiratory infections. I also heard that it zaps people of energy. We still don’t really know what the long-term side effects are yet.

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      • That’s another problem I have had since having Covid, my mind wanders a lot, never did that before, very strange. Yes, my doc says that too, they just don’t know what those long term effects are or how they might affect people. Will some problems go away and then come back? There seems to be evidence it might do that. I mean problems that have gone away for longer periods and then showing up again. I have things that seem to clear up for awhile, but then come back, but that’s just short term. But most things seem to have cleared up now, so I guess that’s a good sign. But trying to stay focused is hard, especially for things like writing and reading. Oh well, could be worse, certainly not going to worry about it.
        I am decluttering, but also downsizing, I want to get rid of some furniture, plus reduce my collections. This place is just too small for all my stuff. Kind of funny, while sorting stuff I started counting blankets, 22 of them. What do I need with 22 blankets?🙄 I only have one bed. Oh well. I didn’t buy all of them, but people keep giving me blankets at Christmas. Kind of funny really. Have a nice evening Hilary.😀😺🌙

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      • I recommend donating the blankets to animal shelters. Cats and dogs can use them. Wow, 22 blankets is definitely a record. Here I thought i had too many blankets. We have 7 blankets I think (2 beds). A couple of them we use for our vehicles. Becca likes them.

        Same here, this place is too small and we have way too much stuff. We’re planning on moving this spring and I’m hoping we can leave some stuff behind. Even though we sold our dining room table and chairs, Nick replaced it with a Bowflex which takes up the entire space 🤦‍♀️ As for COVID-19, I hope that you can go back back to your BC baseline (BC = before COVID) and that you start feeling better again 😷

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      • Animal shelters? Now I like that idea, I will check with them to see if they want some. I usually use 2 blankets on my bed in winter, it does get a bit cool at night in here.
        Are you staying there or moving to some other part of the country?
        Good way to do it, sell small, buy big! I have been guilty of that too, though it was years ago and I had the space to do it.
        I’m sure things will get back to normal eventually, but I must admit, I never thought it would take so long! Muffin likes it, keeps me at home more.😂😹

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      • Animal shelters take blankets and even towels. Animals love blankets. Many vet clinics will accept them too since they need them for the kennels.

        We are staying in Calgary but moving to the opposite end of Calgary. The new place will be double the size of this apartment (I hope). I think we are going to buy a townhouse for the time being. Just taking things day by day. Thinking about everything I have to do is quite overwhelming. January had been a surprisingly slow month, which I was not expecting.

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      • Hmm, missed this one. Yes, they certainly do love blankets, Muffin loves hers. When Muffin was at the cat shelter, all she had was a thin rag to lay on,😿 not exactly soft or warm. And she was right next to the exterior door.🙀
        Moving is a lot of work. I have moved many times. My parents moved a lot and I carried on with the tradition.😂 But each time I move gets less exciting. Moving into a bigger place will be nice for you though.😁

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      • Think of it as a way to give back to the shelter and the animals. There are probably cats still sleeping on thin rags, and I am sure they could use some of your warm blankets #meow

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      • Yes, that’s true enough, there’s over 80 cats in there right now, too many for that small space they have. And very few have anything good to sleep on.

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  5. That bad shrike ! Chickadees are so cute and defenceless if the blue jays are not around ! Sad…thanks for the hot beverage ! ☕️☕️🙂😺

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    • Thanks for coming Sharon! Yes, the chickadees don’t have much chance with that shrike and no blue jays to help. That shrike has learned when to come and that’s bad.😬😾☕☕

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