Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Dreams and Other Things.
Good morning everyone on this rather nice February day and welcome to Steve’s Country once again! Well, considering the terrible cold we have had it really wasn’t so bad today. Barely froze my fingers out there taking pics today. Yes, I do that most days. Except when it’s really cold. And even then I will if there is a lot of activity or something new around my place. And it’s amazing the things that can happen around here sometimes. Simply amazing. One of my readers wanted to see a pic of my desk. The place where I do my writing. Or try to at least. So here it is, open.
Shopping time is…
Rather an interesting time for me. I mean, nothing goes normally for this guy. I never know quite what to expect. Most people go shopping and nothing out of the ordinary will happen to them. Must be dull. So there I am. I have one item to buy, bird seed. It’s a holiday so there is only one checkout open. And 8 people ahead of me. So I stand and wait like everyone else. Person at the front has some problem with item being bought. So they had to call for a replacement item. No answer. The lady calls again. And again. Finally someone shows up with the replacement. Another person has trouble with their credit card. Even the second card tried did not work. Finally she pays with cash. Sigh. I should never go shopping.
Another time…
I am going around with my cart, everything is normal. Suddenly this older lady runs into me with her cart. Sorry, she says. That’s okay. She was nice. A little while later she hit me with her cart again. Oh, I’m sorry, she says. That’s okay. This time she caught me right on the heel and knocked my shoe off. Sigh. I bent over to put my shoe back on. Wham! A young lady came quickly around the corner of the aisle and slammed into my cart. Which hit me on the head, since I was still bent over. Sorry, she said. That’s okay, I enjoy headaches. I didn’t actually say that last part. But considering how many times I hit my head I sometimes wonder if I really do enjoy headaches. Sigh.
Here I sit…
Drinking my raspberry leaf tea and dreaming of warm summer days. When everything is green. And I can sit outside without freezing. And it doesn’t take 20 minutes to get dressed to go outside. And I still freeze anyway. A nice gentle breeze, warm sunshine, birds singing, chipmunks sitting on my lap
or crawling into my pockets looking for peanuts. Such nice thoughts. Though sometimes when one of those chipmunks crawls up my back it makes me wonder if it really is a chipmunk. Or one of those giant spiders that live under my deck. AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! So much for my nice dream. Sigh.
Another dream…
Is to spend a day by one of my favorite lakes. Listening to the water gently lapping against the shore. Loons calling from across the lake. Fish jumping. Gulls crying. Ducks swimming by, mother and a dozen or more little ones. Song sparrow singing. Maybe for my birthday this year. Right. Every year I say that. Every year it doesn’t work out. Sigh.
Birds were busy…
Today. A lot of common redpolls.
And that hoary redpoll which I have been trying to get a pic of for some time now. He always hides when I go out with my camera. Speaking of hiding, one bird is getting way too brave. While I was out there this morning taking pics of pine grosbeaks, suddenly they fly off. And who should land on the feeder, right while I am standing out there?! That big beast of a bird, a raven!
Such nerve. So I clicked a pic and then promptly sent him on his way. Amazing. Right in front of me. He’s not exactly on my favorite list. Why? Because he is mean. Scares everything else away. And he will just sit on the feeder even if there is no food. The little birds are just too scared to come around when he is there. So I run out and scare him away. Sigh. I wouldn’t mind so much if he just took the food and left right away. I think he delights in scaring the other birds. He’s big, with a four foot wingspan. And ravens are not scared of anything really. Which make is hard to scare him away. Oh well. Another pic for my collection of birds.
I think…
I should go back to dreaming of warm summer days. They seem to be so far away right now. We’re not even close to spring yet. Maybe another six weeks. More stuff has been added on my site so please look around. More coming tomorrow. Hopefully. Unless there are technical difficulties again. Sigh. Some winter pics will be added to my gallery tomorrow as well.
I hope you all will have a great remainder to your week and I will see you again Friday, God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
© 2019 Steve McLeod
Happy Family Day!
Good morning all! I imagine most of you have never heard of Family Day, but it is a holiday here in Ontario and some other provinces as well, though they don’t all refer to it as Family Day. I must admit to being a bit confused by this particular holiday. I admit I’m single, no kids, therefore no family. Maybe that is why I’m confused. Of course, I do get confused rather easily anyway. However, it just seems a bit odd that there needs to be a holiday to remind people that they need to spend time with their family. I mean, shouldn’t that just be kind of automatic? You know, more than once a year sort of thing. Or maybe I’m just missing something. But I guess it’s like Valentine’s Day. I mean, do people really need to be reminded? Honestly? Hard to believe. But maybe it’s because I’m single. Some things I just don’t understand.
Actually…
There are a lot of things I don’t understand. Like blue Monday. Well, okay, that I understand. It certainly started out that way for me today. But things started to get better when Muffin jumped on my lap and curled up purring away. Hard to stay down when there is a cat purring on your lap!
And then…
Since it wasn’t too cold out today and the sun was sort of shining, there was some clouds around too, I decided to go out and try to get some pics of my birds.
When I went outside there was 4 deer out back here looking for seeds dropped by the pine siskins. Those little critters go through the sunflower seeds looking for ones that are already shelled and they toss the ones they don’t want. Sigh. Still, with their small beaks I guess it is understandable. They have a terrible time breaking open those seeds. They can’t peck it open like the chickadees, they just don’t have the right kind of bill for that.
Birds…
Are sometimes cooperative, and sometimes not. Sigh.
But I did get some nice pics anyway which I am sharing today. Yesterday things went even better. It was a bit milder too which made it easier on my fingers than today. Plus there were more birds around. While I was standing there taking pics one of the pine siskins looked over at me and then came hopping over and jumped on my camera! He looked it over real good and then stood right on top looking at me. So I talked to him for a bit and then he went back over to the feeder. Just a couple minutes later a female redpoll looked at me and came hopping over and jumped onto the camera, doing exactly what the siskin did. Guess they were trying to figure out what I was up to. It would have made such a great picture. Sigh. A little hard to do though. I just love the antics of these birds, it’s just great! They can be quite comical at times.
I would like to show a pic of Mama deer and I, but that one will have to stay private unfortunately.
I could hardly believe…
What I was seeing. It was LB, my very nasty little squirrel that chased all the other squirrels away from here. There he was yesterday and today…with another squirrel! He actually found a mate. Hard to believe. Love got to him after all. Well, their kind of love anyway. They were running around, jumping through the snow, having lots of fun together! Amazing things happen sometimes. It was nice to see though. Maybe now he will settle down and be normal.
Here I sit…
Enjoying a nice hot cup of mint tea. No, I didn’t make this myself, it’s bought from the store stuff. Fresh, grow it yourself mint, is best though. And it can be dried like the raspberry leaves to keep through the winter. Still, this isn’t bad.
Howling…
At the moon. Or something. A dog was howling last night. All night. I know. I was awake enough and heard it. Sigh. Must admit it was getting a bit irritating. I don’t think it enjoyed being left outside. I didn’t enjoy it much either. And I wasn’t outside. Sigh. But the moon is looking nice right now. Just wish my pics had turned out better. But it had cooled off quite a bit and I was a shivering a little. Oh well. Maybe next time. If it was always easy there would be no challenge and that would get boring. Just makes us try harder. Or it should.
Yes, I know…
Next time we will be on another adventurous adventure! Okay, bad grammar. That’s normal for me though. I think. Yes I do. Sometimes. Though it usually makes my head hurt. Which reminds me. Oh, wait, it’s time to quit for another day. Sorry it wasn’t very exciting today, my brain just isn’t working too good. Come to think of it, that’s kind of normal too. Sigh.
Don’t forget to check through the rest of the stuff on my site, you just might find something else you like! Anyway, enjoy the next few days and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
© 2019 Steve McLeod
Steve`s Country 