Showing posts with label cold weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cold weather. Show all posts

Thursday, March 11, 2021

White Winged Crossbills...

 Hi everybody....It's been ages since I last posted.... definitely haven't been doing any crafting or anything artsy...

Just been worrying and waiting like a lot of people... going about the home stuff as usual in winter around here too....it is mostly too cold to bother going outside anyway.  We just got over two weeks of -28C --30C  horrible cold... with plenty of snow around as well.  Have been doing plenty of baking too...so need to keep up with exercising ... or I will roll out of here in spring as a round ball....

One day I did go out in the -28C ..just to try to capture some pretty snow pictures at the nearby golf course.  As I walked over to a small bridge ... little cones began to fall out of the big spruce trees..... fine snow was sifting down all around me as I tried to decide just what to photograph.  I had to move out from under the trees and I did look up for a second... just in time to see little birds flitting about overhead.

That got my attention...as I do love birds and taking photos of them.  But, by then, my fingers were so cold I had to sprint back to the car to warm them up ...and ..to change lenses so I could get a closer look at the birds so high in the big trees.  They were way up there about 40 to 60 feet in the air.  But, I thought I detected some white wing bars... got pretty excited and after warming a bit, back I went.

Sure enough.... White Winged Crossbills!!  I've never seen one up close..and, never photographed one.  I took many shots and stayed until my fingers were practically frozen... I can't wear a glove on the right hand to use the camera...so they got numb!  It was a brilliant, sun filled day so it was hard to see anything on the screen and I really had no clue what I would see when I uploaded them onto the computer.

Imagine my surprise when I got several good photos of the Crossbills.  I was ecstatic.  I've been putting photos on my Flickr site and enjoying that during the months of lockdown... but, here I am to put some on here as well today.

Here is what I was attempting to photograph when the little cones began to pelt me...











Here are some photos of the White Winged Crossbills... these are all males.

















They have amazing beaks that are crossed and long and pointed so they can get at the tiny seeds inside the cones.  Apparently they can eat up to 3,000 seeds per day!  They must knock off many cones in the attempts and that's why they were falling out of the trees...  The cones, not the birds..!




It is so strange to see them in the photos looking like I am straight out from them because as I mentioned...they were very high in the air.  I had to seriously crop any photo in order to tell what they were at all. 










Hope you enjoy seeing my little birds as much as I do...

Friday, November 18, 2011

Break out those flannelette 'jammies!

Brrrr......  I hope you have them if you have weather like ours in your winter!  I love mine.  My 'jammies that is ...not my bitter cold weather.

After having such a lovely long and unusually warm fall, the thermometer has plummeted like a stone ..  and, this morning...it is -16C... but, the weather channel says it feels more like -24 C because of the breeze.  It is snowing lightly....just a few dainty flakes swirling around and up and down...like a flurry of tiny, light feathers..... not much on the ground really. .. just enough to make it miserable on some of the roads.  A good time to stay home.  Which I seem to be doing a lot of the past month, with the exception of my physio and massage visits.  Still working on my wonky elbow.  It is still preventing me from doing much with my hands too..... so.... I've been trying to do some tidying, cleaning ...(mostly using my left hand it seems) ...and... baking...with the help of my trusty stand mixer.

Eggnog has been in stores for weeks already if you can believe it.  Eggnog loaf....mmmm.....















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Apparently, the pronator muscle in particular is so tight it is tearing away from the bony knob (called an epicondyle) on the inner part of my elbow area.  My physio is using several 'modalities' as they like to call them... to work on it.  Everything from "dry needling" to magnetic massage, to ultra sound and interferential current.... and some heat packing and manipulation along with some neck and shoulder realignment ..... There has been some slight relief and the pronator is somewhat softer now...but, honestly.... I am shocked that it is taking so long to show any sign of improvement.  I was hoping that just not whacking any golf balls would help...but, after almost a month of not hitting anything it was not better at all....so I had to break down and start some treatment.  As slowly as anything seems to be healing, I am more than disappointed to say the least.  And..it has taken its toll on my sense of humour.  My motivation just seemed to disappear right along with my sense of humour, as well as my hope for immediate relief from the pain, and my feeling of usefulness.  I'm sure all my baking and cooking is just to prove to myself that I am not just a total slob sitting around... that I am actually worth something to someone, even if only to me.

This week, I am beginning to think about cleaning my crafting room...as it has become a repository for just about everything I didn't know what to do with or couldn't be bothered with during golf season and nice weather......... and now...acckkk!!  Where to begin!?

I think I need to purge.  Big.Time!  Perhaps it's time I even decided on what I am NOT going to bother with over the next 300 years and toss all of the stuff associated with those hobbies, crafts and endeavours.  Yep.  It's time.

Maybe I will have a give-away of various packets of "stuff" ... and somebody who will actually get some use from it can leave comments and I will happily send it to them.  That's the ticket.  I will get busy and package up 'things'... .tidy my room and get back to dolls and bears.... which in reality, will probably be the only two things I ever actually do in the hobby department......

My Christmas cactus is blooming...it loves this time of year.  Usually it blooms about American Thanksgiving time....that must be coming up soon....  and my other one may bloom for Christmas...I have no idea why, but somebody told me one time that there are different cacti and some do bloom for this time of year.  Here he is.... with a new little ornie that I found in my travels lately....















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AND::   As much as I want to win this little guy for myself.....I would like to send you to Cat's blog to have a chance to win one of her little sweeties.  Maybe a bit of karma will work in my favour if I share?.... heh heh.....