Looking for all the world like exotic mushrooms growing underneath the huge pines, the statues of Asia, America, Africa and Europe take their winter rest under cover.

(photo: Skylands Botanical Garden)

You may have noticed that I haven't had much to say in the past week. I've been struggling with writing blog posts for whatever reason. I've started three different post and just abandoned them.

The weather has not been very conducive to getting out of the house. Over the weekend we had a nasty, cold, biting wind and being outside for any time past five minutes was no fun. It's hard to walk the dogs right now since there is so much salt on our street that the crystals act like little ball bearings and I'm afraid I will fall if the dogs pull hard on their leashes. We've had a couple of tiny "snows" again that just coat everything. Yesterday we had a mix of snow and rain which turned in to a gentle rain for most of the day. Even the rain could not wash away what we still have left on the ground from our snowfall of twelve inches.

Winter starts to look downright ugly about this time. The snow that is left is dirty and hard. Days without grayness are hard to come by. I'm ready for spring!

With Rick in Florida on a business trip until Thursday I am left to my own devices. I do things like watch movies I've been wanting to see again. Like Out of Africa …  I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. That opening line alone can start me to sniffling. There are so many wonderful lines in this movie that I was almost tempted to sit with a pad of paper and write them down. The soundtrack by John Barry is so suited to the sweeping vistas of the African veldt. Just beautiful. It makes me cry too. So why do I watch? Because it's worth it.

Yesterday the wind was not blowing and the temperature was decent (high 30's) and knowing that rain was moving in later that afternoon I decided to go to Skylands for a walk. I don't know why but I decided to walk the two loops that are about 3 miles versus the one lower loop that I usually take, which is only a little over a mile. Silly me.

The sky was gray and stippled when I started out.

But look! These bushes think spring is on the way! Maybe they know something we don't. I don't know what they are, do you? 

Added Later: I found out they are witch hazel bushes and always bloom in February amid the snow!

About halfway through my walk I started to see little tiny snow pellets drifting down. Hmm, I thought myself, what's that all about? It was only noon and we weren't supposed to get any precipitation until later. 

As I walked along I heard the unmistakeable thunk, thunk, thunk of a large woodpecker working away. Pileated! Sure enough, there he was high in a tree. He had a huge hole!

He didn't care that I was right underneath him at all. He could not decide whether to work on his really big hole or the two other ones on the other side of the tree that he had started. By this time the tiny little snow pellets had turned to big, fat, wet flakes. I hurriedly took a few photos of him before walking on.

Soon the flakes were coming down in sideways sheets and I was not close to the car. I walked as fast as I could with my hood up and my camera zipped into my jacket, making it look like I had a big tummy. Why oh why did I choose to walk both loops? Thank goodness I had worn a jacket with a hood!

With  no harm done I was back at the car and on my way home from my wet walk. It was good to get out but I should have gone on a different day!

(top photo: Through the Window of the Gatehouse)

Note: After I got home and got a look at this pileated woodpecker he looks odd to me. His markings are off I think. His face is very white! Too white. Strange …

Well, hello Gorgeous! Welcome to the world! The first of my amaryllis bloomed over the weekend. Usually they have about four buds to a stalk, but this one produced just two. The first bloom is enormous! This plant is from 2008/2009 and has bloomed every year.

So large in fact, that is has to have a little support. Wow.

My other two had yet to produce buds. That is, until today. The one that is only a year old has a bud poking up! Yesterday there was no sign of one, but today, there it is!

The other amaryllis (from 2007/2008) is still showing no signs of producing anything. Yet. I am hopeful.

I know some people think I over-reacted to this whole thing. So someone took a photo of yours and posted it somewhere because they were just wanting to share a cute dog photo with others.You should be flattered. Big deal. Get over it. That may be, and for a short while after the first encounter I was coming around to that idea.

But … it’s more the way the whole thing went down with the person (after being asked nicely) to take the photo down and them refusing. Said person kind of threatened me at one point and said (I’ll paraphrase here since their English was so poor and lapsed into what I think was Dutch) “you know well where it comes from, so secure it, delete it or ...”. In other words they were admitting that they took it directly from my blog.

FaceBook was very quick to remove the first photo. Thank You, FaceBook!

But … when I went back to their site to check, what did I see but two more photos taken directly from the same blog entry—posted after the other photo was removed. I left a comment again regarding taking down the photos, but when I went back in a few minutes later that person had posted the same two photos again (first time the photos had the date stamp of being posted 15 hours ago; the second time the date stamp was having been posted 8 minutes ago) and had banned me from commenting. Now they were on there twice. So in essence this person was poking fingers at me. On purpose. A pay-back I guess for reporting them to FB. Kind of like haha I know where you are and I can do whatever I like, so there. Just plain nasty.

I have to tell you I felt violated. Just like when I had my wallet lifted from my purse in Paris. It’s not like the photos were on Flickr or Tumblr, they were on my blog. They entered my personal space. And they did it not once, but twice.

Finally with the help of Carolyn leaving multiple comments to remove the photos, he did, before FaceBook could remove them. Thank you, Carolyn for your tenacious terrier work!

Again, I know this kind of thing probably happens all the time in these days of “free sharing” but this one felt more like a violation in the way it was done. Like someone came into my home and robbed me and then thumbed their nose at me.

Did I overeact? Maybe. You decide. Either way, it’s over now. At least I hope so.

Thank you for listening.

(photo: Things Aren’t Always Black & White) half-wet tree; Skylands

Not only my own meltdown-rant of yesterday, but quite literally. Everything is melting, including our lovely layer of ice from Monday’s ice storm. After being below freezing for a week, our temperatures popped up to nearly 50 degrees yesterday and today we’re supposed to encounter thunderstorms. Whoa .. thunder and lightning in January??

Finding that my photo had been posted on FaceBook without my knowledge or permission and the fact that the person was asked to remove it and would not, really got me riled up. A good friend did a search for me on that image and found that it was also posted to Pinterest and had been “pinned” a bunch of times. So, not much I can do about that. How many other ones have been pilfered? Makes one wonder.

After some help from the same friend for whom copyright infringement has been an issue, I figured out how to file a complaint against the person through FaceBook. After they told me to stop leaving them comments (I was not harassing, just responding to what they said to me.) or they would report me as SPAM, I left them a comment saying simply that I had reported them for copyright infringement : good luck. This morning when I checked, the person had deleted all their comments back to me, leaving only my one-sided conversation. The photo is still there.

{Off that topic!!}

Too cool myself off from my annoying FaceBook encounter I drove to Skylands for a walk. I needed to get out and about after being so cloistered in the frigid temps of last week. Plus, I find that there is nothing like a walk with the camera to turn my mood around. It wasn’t sunny and the sky was gray, and even though it was near 50 it didn’t feel like it. I still had on a scarf, jacket and fingerless gloves. At least my fingers weren’t freezing like my last walk.

I do love this bottom loop walk with the woods on both sides. As I walked along I had to stop several times just to sniff the air as a pungent scent assailed my olfactory senses. No, wait, ‘sniff’ is not quite right. I inhaled the pungent scent through my nose, pulling it in deeply, taking every aspect of it in and still I could not define it. It was not an autumn scent like the damp, rotting leaves that are left uncovered on the ground now that the snow has melted. It was not a non-scent like winter. No, it was something else that I can’t quite put my finger on. More like an awakening scent. Like spring. It smelled wonderful.

I passed quite a few people out walking enjoying the warmer air. Some with dogs, some with cameras, and some jogging. Everyone nodded and smiled as they went by. One man who was toting a camera asked if I was getting any good shots. I smiled, shrugged and said it was hard to say.

The pileated woodpecker did not make an appearance this time and his pond (it’s real name is Duck Pond but I am going to call it Pileated Pond) was starting to melt but nothing photo-worthy. There was,  however, a woman kneeling by the pond’s edge taking photos. I assumed she was taking photos of the ice or leaves caught in the ice? Whatever it was it had her full attention. When I drove by on my way out after my walk about 45 minutes later she was still there, still hunched over, snapping away. I was thinking she’s going to have a lot of photos that all look alike when she gets home, but she was enjoying herself and that’s all that matters in the end. I do hope she ended up with some shots she really liked.

The little pond on the other side of the loop from Pileated Pond (or it’s more like a swamp actually) was more interesting with its melting reflections.

Almost back to the parking lot I veered off the road and risked life and a few limbs on the slippery mud incline that led down to the stream which is still mostly covered in ice.

I also came across this little waterfall frozen in time as it cascaded over a fallen log.

My mood was much improved after my little walk.

Back on the home front, my little snow squirrel was having a meltdown of its own. I’m amazed that there is anything still left of him! After today/tonight’s expected torrent of rain I’m sure he’ll finally be gone.

(photos:)
‘Pooled’ Cover
Icicle Rock
Swamped Reflections x 3
Brown & White Stream
Frozen Cascade x 2
Snow Squirrel Meltdown