I have just read Red's post. Where he lives he has stepped out to take sunny photographs in a temperature of minus 42C. If I could remember a) where my camera is and b)how to transfer camera to blog and if I could stop the pins and needles in my hands then I could step out and take sunny photographs here too in a temperature of plus 3C - when my carer came in at 7am this morning it was - to quote her bl***y cold.
But I shall look on the bright side because - let's face it- a cold day with a beautiful apricot dawn (how fantastic the rooks looked as they chose the strip of deep apricot to fly over on their way to feeding grounds) and a temperature of plus 3C is far better than our usual cold, damp, foggy morning when the sun chooses to stay in bed all day.
What can I see as I sit here multi-layered (even in an 'old lady' shawl) next to a radiator at 10.18am? Well there are primroses out - pale yellow ones and a couple of red ones. I think I can see a clump of snowdrops right at the top of the garden but that might be wishful thinking. But my Viburnum is covered in pink blossom and I have plenty of Helleborus Niger (Christmas Rose) in bloom. And plenty of Spring bulbs are oh well on the way with inch long green shoots poking through. Oh and a blackbird is singing atop the hawthorn tree next door and 'my' resident wren is quietly working its way along the dry stone wall at the top.
What people miss when they are not interested in Nature. Sometimes my son and I have competition to see who can get the most answers correct on 'University Challenge'. He always wins. I think my usual average is about five - the odd poetry, the odd music, the odd geography in the old sense(ie when I was at school Geography meant Atlas)but mostly birds, wild flowers. Usually the University Students are pathetic - rarely able to name a blackbird or a starling. (I suspect, like the young people I see from my window they are too busy scrolling rather than strolling). I expect they would say the same about me not being able to answer anything on Quantum Physics (what is it?)
Which brings me to a puzzle. For weeks there has been a bird hanging around looking rather sorry for himself. He is Jackdaw size, he walks rather than hops, he traverses my lawn poking his beak into the grass and getting grubs. Jackdaws are black. He is part black and part dark brown. No specific parts - just here and there. He stretches his wings a lot as he stands there and at first I though perhaps he had injured a wing and couldn't fly. Then he suddenly flew off (rather awkwardly) and the next time I saw him he was in the hawthorne tree next door. When he is on my front lawn folk often stand and look at him - presumably trying to identify him. We do very occasionally get a blackbird with a white wing feather (haven't seen him lately). Are some birds perhaps of questionable sex like we humans? Often the mostly drab females of birds have indiscriminate feathers (eg Mrs Blackbird who is more or less brown).
Almost 11am now so off to make a hot choc and get a two-finger kit kat from the tin as I pass it (as I am on my 'last legs' might even get 2 - after all that is only an ordinary kit kat size isn't it.)
.JPG)
44 comments:
You enjoy all the kit kats you like.
The has come to visit you.
The bird has come to visit you.
I cannot imagine experiencing minus 42C. That would certainly require more than one kit kat.
Oops, I hit publish
midsentence by accident.
Living beside a lake in America I see very different scenes through my windows .Thank you
for starting my day with such beauty,Mary
I love the idea of "Strolling not scrolling"!!
I have noticed an absence of blackbirds around here this winter. Normally they sing to each other right through the night in winter and summer. It is about +1 to -1 at the moment and very sunny too.
Christmas Roses are beautiful aren't they, it sounds like you have some lovely early colour in your garden. While I have lots of Winter Pansies and some Primroses, there is no sign yet of my usual early Snowdrops ... I wonder has something eaten the bulbs like it did last year with my Tete a Tete Daffodils?
I wonder what sort your mystery bird is, your usual identification skills are good, so if he has you fooled he must have lots of folk fooled. You will have to let us know if you find out.
If the bird were neatly bottom half black, top half brown, it would be a brown-headed cowbird here. They're parasitic birds, meaning they push eggs out of other birds' nests, and lay theirs in place. Then off they go, with no child-rearing duties! We have seen sparrows raising these much-larger-than-themselves babies! We awoke to minus 12 degrees Fahrenheit here, in Illinois, with a feels-like temp from the wind-chill of minus 32. It is truly brutal weather, and dangerous. Most people know to stay in unless absolutely necessary. We sure do. My mother used to say that chocolate is a food group. She loved hers so well. Enjoy the KitKats!
Spring seems far nearer in your parts than here in the South of Germany, Pat.
No sign of flowers or green shoots out just yet, apart from "winter jasmine" and hellebores. But we, too, can already hear the beautiful song of a blackbird in the morning or early evening; not yet the full concert, but some birds seem to start early every year.
At -42C I would NEVER leave the house, I'd freeze instantly! We've been having an entire week where the thermometer did not get above 0C, the lowest in my area was -8C one morning. Today, it is slightly warmer; -4C this morning and now -1C, and it is snowing as we speak, and has done so for about 2 hours straight now. Big, slow tumbling flakes like something you'd see in a performance of "Frau Holle", the fairytale where the old lady airs her feather bedding and it snows on Earth. Always fascinated me as a little kid, that story from the Brothers Grimm's collection.
Enjoy those kit-kats, dear Pat!
We are 20 below not bad for here but with strong winds making it feel like 37 below with risk of frostbite. Snow is forecast. I liked hearing of your signs of spring. The Kit Kats sound good I used to like the penguin bars. Jean in Winnipeg.
A small correction Pat, Jackdaws are two-tone black and grey, not just black. As for your mystery bird, I can't identify it from your decription.
We have clear blue skies and sunshine here but a strong N. wind has kept the temp. at a maximum 2 degrees,it is as your carer said, bloody cold!
Spent two hours this morning doing a monthly bird count on the reserve and boy, it was arctic.
I'm in Illinois and it is very cold here as commenter Karla mentioned above. Lots of snow covering the ground and it is actually quite pretty since I don't have to go anywhere.
I love your descriptions in this post about the lovely nature you enjoy around you.
Thank you Derek. I get them every day on my lawn - enjoy watching them but have never noticed them twotoned - shall look more carefully in the morning - I always thank them for keeping down leather jacket grubs in my lawn. Don't know whether that is what they are but whatever it is they are gobbling up at least poking their beaks in lets a bit of freh air in.
Karla We have the cuckoo here - it plays the same tricks - lays an egg in another bird's nest and then leaves. We say: The cuckoo comes in April, The cockoo sings in May. In the middle of June he changes his tune and in July flies away.
In S. CO this morning: 1° going up to 4° for the day! Bitter, bitter cold!!
I hope you had two tin kit kats.
one of your previous comments reminded me of a poem by Ogden Nash
Cuckoos lead Bohemian lives,
They fail as husbands and as wives,
Therefore they cynically disparage
Everybody else's marriage.
Love that Hart -thanks for showing an Ogden Nash I didn't know to me. He usually managed to hit the nail on the head in a clever way didn't he.
Sounds like a scruffy hen weave
You paint a lovely picture of your garden, showing early blooms and blooms to come. It is hard to keep warm in weather that is below zero. We are at 29 degrees so not as cold as many. I can see large buds on many of my flowering trees but the Spring bulbs are still sleeping and very much underground. We must stay warm the best we can and know eventually Spring will bring warmth to us all.
I enjoy your word pictures of nature you view from your window.
Hi Pat, It is 56 F here in Georgia USA. Our families in Indiana and Michigan are reporting snow and very cold, but some sun. Sun makes it feel warmer, I think. My "two-cents" on the KitKat question is "go for it!!!" much love, Jackie
We had some green shoots from the spring bulbs but since yesterday it has snowed on and off and now there are about 12 cm (5 inch?) of wonderful fluffy snow. I love shovelling snow, it is my only winter sport. No more skiing for me! I only hope the temperatures stay below zero so that the snow doesn´t turn into slush.
Our primroses and yellow primulas are still braving the weather..so called spring flowers!!
Your garden sounds lovely. Not sure what the black bird is, but I can say that juvenile blackbirds are also brown like the hen blackbird.
It is getting decidedly cold here and we may be on the edge of the snow soon
Thank you for your lovely description of your morning. I wonder if Red is in Canada where temperatures on the prairies are just as he reports. I am feeding our wild birds in the hope their metabolism will keep them warm. I only have to go out for a brief 5 minutes to top up the feeder but that is enough cold for me. When I worked in extended care my favourite SRN was very relaxed about treats. She was kind and thoughtful and it showed.
Your description of the dawn and the view out your window is so beautiful and soothing! You do have a way with words my dear friend. We have deep snow on the ground with more falling and 1 degree F here. It will be some time before we see any flowers or anything green break through the ground so your wonderful descriptions are enjoyed and appreciated!
I am delighted your have winter flowers in sheltered parts of your garden that you can enjoy!
Here in Mid-Atlantic Virginia, we awoke to sleet followed by and inch or so of snow and now that has stopped but it's to be -5*C overnight. Flannel sheets and a quilt or two are appreciated.
Hugs!
Could your brown and black blackbird be an immature blackbird? Our garden blackbirds, on the Welsh coast, have been singing in the mornings for some weeks and the male birds keep bothering the females when they come to feed.
I think you should definitely have two Kitkats Pat, the extra sugar will keep you warm! It has been a glorious day here, though very cold. Not the great freeze some journalists forecast but normal temperature for January I would have thought.
Bulbs pushing up like mad in the gardens here, and some early daffodils showing buds. A couple of snowdrops (I had lovely drifts of them in my garden) but the primroses are not showing yet, on the bank across the road. It is rather exposed there. Your garden must be looking lovely and full of more delights to come.
There are several mature trees dotted about where I live, and I love seeing the bare branches against the sky occasionally lit with gold when there is a colourful sunset.
The bird group I lead had some younger people. As people grow older they gravitate to interests in nature. I even had a few children show up with parents. Some college students in natural sciences are quite interested in nature. Anyway nothing wrong with shawls.
If it's a Siberian Jay I would keep very quiet about it.
I love the idea that you can look out your window and see flowers. It is single digits here and will be for the foreseeable future. No flawers st all.😭 Debby.
My sister's partner has had -46 in Astana, Kazakstan. I can't bear to think about it!
I wonder if your mystery bird may be a Jay x
Red lives about 300Km north of where I live so we probably get the same weather with a degree or two either way. We went out for the first time in six days today. It had actually warmed up to -18C but we are supposed to get snow for the next couple of days.
Golly, that's seriously freezing! An extra KitCat is definitely called for!
We're in the middle of summer here in New Zealand, and the parents have all gone back to work, leaving grandparents like us to care for the children before school starts for the year at the end of the month. Fortunately we have two delightful, well behaved darlings. We took them on a 45 minute drive out into the hills to a wonderful Wildlife Reserve where they have the animals and birds free and undisturbed, in huge aviaries and enclosures we walk through. They are big into conservation and breeding native endangered species. We spent the whole day there, the children played in the river (very cold, in spite of midsummer!) and swung out over the water on old-fashioned rope swings! Harking back to a simpler time - and no screens! I'm tired after a very full day. I'll sleep tonight. I take lots of photos of the animals and birds - and huge trout and EELS!! - they interact with. Then their parents can talk with them about what the did more easily. The signage is is excellent, with good photos of the animals in each area, which helps with development of the children's species recognition.
Now it's our dinner time, and in the garden I can hear lots of birds, as we live over the road from an enormous Sanctuary, and particularly the Tui, noisy birds with a mixture of tuneful calls and extraordinary grunts, beeps and coughs. If you've interesting in something different, do a google search - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlw5eYq0KxE gave me a result easily. Keep warm Pat, and the rest of you Northern hemisphere people!
We're still enjoying our well-buttered Crumpets with afternoon tea, but there's a big pack of Kit Kats waiting in the wings.
Cro - I wouodn't have put you in the Kit Kat fanatics groups - I am afraid I am really addicted.
Virginia Thank you for the link - I shall go and look after answering comments - it might makeme feel a bit more Springlike.
Janice - I suppose one gets used to the weather wherever one lives. I have been north of the Arctic Circle several times but always on or around midsummer. Still needed a warm coat!
Anon. I doubt it is a jay becaue they are really quite colourful - also I have only ever seen a jay once and that was in woodland and I live on an estate. I think it is probably a bird with sone sor of variation from the norm - I think possibly a jackdaw.
Tasker are we speaking KGB here?
Heather - agree about bare branches - deciduous trees are always beautiful and one can see the birds more easily.
Ruta - I think too big for a blackbird. I notice the blackbird males are beginning to flirt shall we say!
To the rest of you whose comments I have read - can't answer any more - pins and needles has set in on both hands - a side effect of my illnesss I understand. Medicine? Shall try a couple of Kit Kats!
Shall I tell you the secret of Kit Kats? They are like smarties, you can draw the pleasure of chocolate out over a long period of time;)
You know, I don't think I will EVER see a Kit Kat without thinking of you!
Yes Thelma you can suck the choc off and then enjoy the biscuit.
I would quite like to be remembered by a kit kat anon.
Thanks everyone
I meant you'd have every twitcher in the country trampling your through garden.
A little late to the party Pat.... could it be a cow bird? Do you have those?
I read everybody's comments and agreed with every single one of them !
Post a Comment