Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Merry Christmas From Steve and Muffin! Plus Coffee!
Good morning and Merry Christmas everyone! It’s another cold morning, though not like yesterday. It actually warmed up overnight with that south wind that began last evening. The sky is clear so we might get a chance to see the sun for part of the day again. We have lots of coffee available this morning, but I realize everyone is busy today so you may not have the time to stop in and visit. But Muffin is merrily waiting anyway, ready to greet everyone. I have been watching out the window as the birds wake up and start coming to the feeders.
Hmm, they must be busy today too, for about half an hour the only birds were 2 chickadees. Finally four more showed up. Then Baxter and Betty came, and a little while later 3 other blue jays showed up as well. Finally a little downy woodpecker came for his breakfast. Jasper was the last one to arrive and he started hauling away peanuts.
Poor Jasper isn’t too bright sometimes. He goes up a tree with his peanut and “hides” it on one of the branches. He leaves and a blue jay is right there to take his peanut. Jasper sees that and the chase is on! Then the blue jay kind of teases him a bit by going just far enough to stay out of reach. Finally he jumps at the blue jay…but the jay just flies away and Jasper is left clinging upside down on a very tiny branch. But there is a bigger branch under him so he lets go and lands on that branch and sits chattering at the blue jay.
One day Jasper will learn that you can’t chase a blue jay and win. Well, maybe he will learn. He also needs to learn that putting a peanut on a branch is not hiding it. Oh well, it all helps with his exercising I guess. I will keep this short this morning and let you enjoy the pics. Have a wonderful Christmas day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Art In Nature #2.
Hi everyone! Here we are, back again on this very cold winter day. I was outside for awhile cleaning snow off my deck, almost turning into a Stevecicle, but the sun had broken through the clouds so it looked nice out there and I remembered some pics I had taken back in March after we had some freezing rain. So I thought I would share some of those pics for our second art in nature post. The trees were really sparkling in the sun that day, like they were covered with hundreds of tiny lights. So these pics fit for the season too when there are so many beautiful, decorative lights around brightening up our long dark nights. These sparking tree lights, however, are even better, they are solar powered.
Of course they do have a big down side since they are only available in all their beauty on a nice sunny day. But that’s okay, nothing wrong with beautiful lights during the day. The birds were landing on those ice covered branches without any problems at all, no slipping and sliding. But I must admit, the thought of bare feet on ice sent chills right through me. Much like today as the birds are constantly landing in the snow without a care. Although they do regularly lift up a foot to warm it in their soft, warm feathers. And when they land on the branches it actually looks like they are landing on their stomach, their legs and feet are so well hidden!
It’s quite interesting to watch a chickadee while it is sitting on a branch, holding a sunflower seed between it’s feet, totally impossible to see under the feathers, and yet it is pecking it open and eating the contents. Must go by feel, not by sight. One little chickadee dropped it’s seed while pecking it open, but it flew down and caught the seed before it landed in the snow! Back up to the same spot on the branch to finish eating it’s little prize. It can be so much fun to watch these little birds.
Hmm, guess I’m a little off topic for my post today, but I do hope you will enjoy these pictures of the sparkling light trees and the last pic showing some dried flower branches also covered over with a thick layer of ice giving them also a shining beauty to enjoy. So often we just think about the ice and say “oh no, not again”, and ice can be treacherous and dangerous. But it can also bring such beauty along with it as well. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas everyone!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
