All these tracks in the snow are beginning to look like the maze at Hampton Court.
Mostly made by deer, that have obviously been fighting. It’s a tough world for them right now.
You’re not supposed to feed wildlife, but when things are so desperate, a little grain isn’t a lot to offer.
Getting old and definitely creaky, but I’m not dead yet. I battled up to the apple tree with some corn. which for some reason Grant felt deserved recording.
From my patio to the tree was fine, but I came to the conclusion the Polar explorers of the early 20th century were completely barmy!
It was a splendidly beautiful day yesterday, which ended in a short but lovely evening:
We should have got in the car, at sunset to find a south west view of the “Christmas Star”, as for the foreseeable future, it seems the sky will be overcast. Drat. I would love to see Jupiter and Saturn in conjunction. They say that with binoculars, you can see some of Jupiter’s moons.
Celestial events have always appealed to me.
It’s the mystery of the Universe, I suppose.
In college as part of my science requirement, I took astronomy. Those days were difficult, working and commuting and trying to keep up with my studies, so I tended not to absorb as much as I should.
One thing from astronomy stuck, however, a little sentence which enables me, to this day, to remember the line-up of the planets, from the Sun:
Students May Very Easily Master Astronomy, Just Stay Up Nights Practicing. (The A is for Asteroids)
It’s one of those bits of information that stuck. Here’s another: Floccinaucinihilipilification.
What? It means an estimation of something as worthless. Kind of like the word itself, as I’ve never seen it or heard it used. Who would? It’s the longest, non-technical word in the English language. An American friend of my parents told me about it, somewhere back in the early 60’s. My mind is a reservoir of useless information, in fact a floccinaucinihilipilification!
Aren’t you glad you came here?
Today, for the first time since the snow, squirrels were out searching for food. Grant cleared some paths, but they didn’t have an easy time:
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The man announced this morning that he was “irritable”. I asked why and he said “I’m irritable.”
He gets that way when the moon is full, but as you can see from the above photo, that isn’t its current state.
We are entitled to such moments, God knows, and it’s good to get a warning, so I stripped my bed and fought instead with Hal, the washer-dryer combo.
I’ve been told, sometimes, that I like shortcuts. I prefer to think of it as trying to do too many things at once.
Among my sheets I found two and a half pairs of missing socks. I had them and several other things in my hand, on my way to another room, as I fed soap and softener into the machine. (Why make two trips?) This resulted in a fountain of softener that went everywhere but in the machine.
When he returned from the latest shoveling, I related this to Grant and he seemed to have cheered up, whether from digging snow once more or from my mishap, I can’t say.
He advised he intended to make curry. We had been debating the wisdom of this, having discovered yesterday that our current propane gas reading is somewhere south of zero.
Oops. I could swear we only had the tank filled two weeks ago. How time flies. Actually, though, I am annoyed, since the website clearly says that a reading of 30% will trigger an automatic delivery. But I know if I ask about that there will be some reason it’s still my fault. More lessons of life in the country.
No, we aren’t going to freeze, or starve.We have oil as well and a microwave.
How many things can I be expected to remember? Especially with so much useless info stuck in my brain.
As well as the snowbirds, we were visited by a couple of hungry starlings that perched on the suet feeder.
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They had to compete with two woodpeckers:
and a tiny chickadee.
At least they didn’t have to compete with his lot:
They were very concerned over the state of their breakfast buffet. I had to provide extra catering:
Little woodpecker decided he had a better chance fending off the sparrows,
..while a large woodpecker queued in the waiting room, along with the doves:
And snowbirds just frolicked in the snow, as they do.
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Patches has passed the entirety of this spectacular event in the only way she knows how:
It’s a hard life.
…..and it’s snowing again…..
So … I’ve learned a new word from you today (but don’t think I will use it regularly 😉). Love the photo’s of the snow birds.
Marvellous photos. Well done for (not) feeding the wildlife!