Woodpeckers, that is! Remember I talked about how we had hairy woodpeckers now in addition to the downys and that they were considerably larger? The other day I was lucky enough to catch both the downys and the hairys on separate suet feeders at the same time. I think the difference is obvious. Here you have a female downy on one feeder, a male hairy on the other, and a male downy sitting on the clothesline.

And the beautiful Red-Bellied Woodpecker visits quite a bit too. (Don’t blame me, I didn’t name him!) Look at the gorgeous red head!

I am also it would seem, a bird rescuer. Many times the birds fly into our sliding glass doors on the back of the house and are stunned and cannot get up. I go out with gloves on, pick them up and hold them until they recover enough to stand by themselves. It’s rewarding to go from a bird that is lying on its back with its legs straight in the air to one that flies away. Yesterday it was a little chickadee. Keeping them warm is key so they recover from the concussive shock. I’ve done this many times with a 100% success rate!

The day before yesterday when passing Green Turtle Pond I noticed that my favorite ice formations were back. When I returned from my errands I grabbed the camera and walked down in the 17 degree weather to try and capture them.

Ice globes as I call them, are simply ice that has formed around the bottom of cattails, but I always find them fascinating. The could be little glass vases too, or paperweights. Each one it’s own work of art.

I liked the reflections in these two photos.

There has to be a little wind involved as well for them to form, so the conditions have to be just right. And we’ve had both wind and below-freezing temperatures for the past few days. Perfect!

However in the process of getting these photos I had to walk over a slippery ice-coated rock. My foot slipped and my boot (I was wearing my leather UGGS at the time .. ugh!) went through the ice and my bottom hit pretty hard. I was trying to hold the camera up at the same time, so it wasn’t a pretty fall.

My noisy fall startled a flock of turkeys and they took flight across the lake.

I’m still not sure if the photos were worth the bruise on my bottom, but there you have them!

As Bella predicted, I am now going to bore you with the flip side of the photos that I took on our walk this weekend: not dogs!

The sun is so low in the sky this time of year. It helped to enhance the already somewhat creepy mood that hangs over Jungle Habitat where exotic animals used to roam.

With all our rain and moderate temperatures fungi still flourish. These were still soft and pliable, so they were new.

The moss likes the moisture too.

We have many kinds of parasitic vines here. They wrap around trees and take them prisoner. I find them eerie.

We might not have snow but at least for the past few days we’ve had colder temps that allow some frost.

And some ice to form in leaf-filled shallow puddles.

hi everybody! it’s me: bella! remember when i used to blog alot when i was a puppy? my new year’s resolution is to take over mom’s blog more like i used to. i used to do really bad things but now that i am grown-up i am a really good girl. well … most of the time. mom says i am still her problem child. just look how i came to the door the other day and wanted to come inside. would you let me in? i even added a new freckle to my nose.

mom had to get some hot water in a watering can and pour it over my legs. sheesh. i didn’t like that very much. it was more fun getting in the mud in the first place.

yesterday we went for a long walk. we all got in the truck and drove for a little bit. when we got out i knew exactly where we were. hurrah! jungle habitat! at first i ran and ran. on the trail; off the trail. run, run, run. i stay close to mom and dad though and hailey and alex are more laid-back than i am. here i am with hailey (who is moving in this pic) and big brother alex in front.

i jumped in the water a bunch of times. i like jungle habitat because there is always water. i get wet. i get dirty. and of course, i get things caught in my skirts. mom and dad are forever pulling branches out of my fur. but on this walk i really topped it all. i earned a new name on this walk: bramble butt. take a look.

ouch! there are lots of wild rose bushes at one point in the walk and i think i found them all. i didn’t want to move with those things in my butt, so mom and dad had to pull them out one by one. i don’t know if i learned anything by this prickly situation. probably not.

at the end of the walk there is a really nice water place where we always like to get a drink. of course i have to do more than just get a drink. dad took this really cool picture of me and alex in the stream.

and here i am dashing through the woods … wet. can you see the water flying off me?

i had lots of fun. i slept most of the day after we got back. i can’t wait to go back there again! mom took some other pictures there too but they are just old nature photos. i’m sure she’ll bore you with them soon.

The week in-between Christmas and New Year’s is always an odd one. Rick used to get the whole week off back when he worked for HP/Agilent but it was mostly because they were trying to be cheap and it was without pay. I always loved having him home, watching movies and playing video games that we’d gotten for Christmas. This week he is working but shorter days.

This week also, without fail, includes my birthday which was yesterday. Having a birthday at this time of year is not always easy or fun. Everything comes at once. But, after all these years I am used to it. I never get stinted for gifts on my birthday. My Mom made sure of that, and my dear husband is the same way. I got an iPad 2! I’ve had an iPad for about a year and a half now and just love it. I’ve been drooling over the “2” since they came out. It has features that the first one didn’t have. And just look at it’s super cute folding cover!

Also for my birthday my two neighbors pretty much kidnapped me and took me out to lunch. I didn’t even know where we were going! The restaurant was great and one I had never been to before. We sat and shared a glass of wine and all our food choices were excellent. On top of buying my lunch they also gave me gifts! What a treat! Part of my gift from neighbor Aileen was this sweet package of fresh eggs from her chickens. The blue-green ones are from her new araucana chickens that just started laying. Almost too pretty to eat!

It hardly seems possible that just one week ago I picked my sister and her hubby up at the train station. Time flies by, doesn’t it? We had a good Christmas. We ate and tried out some new and quite delicious recipes. We drank (but not too much). We played video games and my sister beat us all at bowling with a grand score of 195. We all enjoyed each other’s company.

Also in-between is our weather. Winter has yet to arrive in our part of the country. Just the other day we had nearly two inches of rain. Again. Enough with the rain! It hasn’t really been cold enough to freeze the ground either so everything comes up muddy. Today I think it’s supposed to struggle to get above freezing which will be a welcome change to our 40’s and 50’s. C’mon Mother Nature! I have a new coat that I’m dying to wear and it needs to be cold!

By the way, remember this fox? Neighbor Kim pointed out to me yesterday at lunch that she thinks it was not in fact a fox but a coyote. She said there was an article in the paper about how many coyotes were around now and how to identify them. The more I thought about it and the more I looked at the photos again, I realized she was right. It just might be a coyote. I’m just not used to seeing them around here although we did have one a a few years ago. To see it, follow this link.  Tell me what you think!

Anyway, no real news to impart here, just wanted to catch up.