Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee At Steve’s Country #27. Wild And White.
Good morning on this wonderful, sunny Wednesday! It’s a rather chilly morning again, no wait, make that very cold morning again! It was -33C (-27F), and with the light wind felt like -38C (-36F). It has warmed up a couple of degrees already however and is going all the way up to -21C (-6F) by this afternoon. But the wind is supposed to pick up a bit so it will feel much colder. Just one more cold night and it begins to get a bit milder again until later next week when the cold returns. This winter the temps have gone up and down a lot. There’s a hairy woodpecker sitting on the side of a smaller tree right now, it looks like he’s stuck there by his tummy, his feet don’t show at all.
All these poor birds. But at least here they get some easy food when things get tough. I didn’t mention this about chickadees yesterday, but when it’s cold, they will take one last sunflower seed back with them in late afternoon when they head to their roosting spot for the night. I don’t know if they use it for one last seed at night or if they keep it for morning so they have something to eat when they first wake up before coming back here. They come from quite a distance away, across the street. There are a couple nice spruce and balsam groves back there which is likely where they go for the night. So I’m inclined to think they use that seed in the morning, a little boost for their flight back to here. In their natural eating that is what they do if food is plentiful, they will keep something close at hand for the morning.
The birds are very busy out here now and the sun is getting closer to shining down here. The shrub out back here is alive with little birds, plus Baxter the blue jay. He has his favorite branch to sit on and open up peanuts. Each of the chickadees also have their favorite branch to use and always go back to that branch with their sunflower seeds. I haven’t seen the little nuthatches yet, but I may have missed them. Anyway, today we have some beautiful white wildflowers to share with you. Hmm, I guess the one is white and yellow, but it still fits. Thank you for coming on this cold morning, have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Art In Nature #4.
Hi everyone and welcome back to Art In Nature again today! It is such a beautiful, sunny day, yet so cold. That sun shines it’s beautiful rays all across the landscape making every part sparkle with so much beauty. But it’s not really a day you want to be outside. Personally on days like this I prefer to be on the inside looking out at the wondrous beauty of winter. That way I can stay warm and safe. Anyway, back to art in nature…of course the sun is part of that and helps to really make things stand out in a beautiful way. Like the featured image at the top, the way the snow is curved on the rock right at the water’s edge and then reflected in the water, perfect art in nature.
And then in the picture above we have the remnants of ice fog that deposited these beautiful flakes of heavy frost on top of the snow. And the sun shining on them really makes them sparkle! But art in nature can be found anywhere and any time of the year.
Like in the picture above where we have this grass, and some other plants, growing right out of cracks in the rock. The main clump of grass does have some sand in the bottom of it’s crack in the rock, but there isn’t much. But it stays beautifully green and healthy with it’s roots undoubtedly going right down into that river to drink all the water it needs to grow.
Our last photo just above shows the remnants of a plant from the previous year as this photo was taken in early spring with the river as the background. But even a single dried up flower stem like this has it’s own beauty which stands out so nicely as it sits by itself with the sun casting it’s light on it. There is so much beauty in nature all around us, we should always take time to stop and enjoy it for a while. Well, I hope you enjoyed the photos today. I hope you all have a nice sunny day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 