Now this was a pool party!
The Sparrows soon recovered their sense of humour yesterday, once they took back their territory from the squirrels.
These little birds adore having a bath.
Watching them always lifts my heart.
It’s quite the best medicine.
The Starlings had also moved on, to the front of the house.
Before they noticed me I managed a couple of shots.
The different setting rather appealed to me.
The delegation of Doves retired to debate the issue.
Whatever it was.
They are not saying.
“We’ll issue a bulletin.”
“In due course.”
“For heaven’s sake,” said Willow
“What’s so interesting about them?”
Muffin came to add her demand. I’m not quite sure what for.
It used to be Lucy who rounded me up every morning, following me around chattering until I sat at my desk.
Has she conceded round-up duties as well as her chair?
Or has it to do with her having joined the “Walker’s Club”?
Perhaps she has become secretly enamored of His Nibbs.
He is a very handsome boy, after all.
You will never be able to figure out a cat’s mind. I have wasted far too much time fretting and beating myself up over what I imagined were hurt feline feelings.
Perhaps I should have done this.
Perhaps I should have done that.
Perhaps you should not place human feelings on a cat.
Word Press is trying my patience. Not an uncommon occurrence.
No doubt it’s just that I am not keeping pace with changes.
However that’s not why I have been squinting for the past hour wondering what has happened to my eyesight now.
It’s because the sun came out and with so much snow still about, the glare is quite startling!
Last night the temperature barely fell below freezing and today has become Spring-like which seems to be the ongoing trend.
Yesterday morning’s bitter cold was too much even for intrepid Toby who contented himself staring out the window and hugging a radiator.
Dee Dee had to show off: “What’s the matter Toby?”
“Nothin!”, he said. “Have fun freezing your butt!”
But she didn’t. She came back like a shot.
.
Thinking that the frosty garage windows would look as they did in the first set of photographs, I almost didn’t go to check, but then remembered what I said about all the variables. And this time I used my iPhone:
There are very many more…
…each one quite exquisite
Why, I don’t know, but this one makes me think of jellyfish.
How are there so many variations?
Over the course of a single Winter,
…how many gazillion such ephemeral images occur?
It occurred to me to wonder in what way such designs might vary in the Southern Hemisphere.
After all, water runs the opposite way down a plug hole. Not the same thing? I suppose.
Is there any point in pondering such inconsequential questions?
Unknown phenomena likely all seem pointless to investigate, but they are the basis of science.
Apart from their beauty, what fascinates me about frost patterns is that although they are on a flat surface, the images appear so multi-dimensional and change according to their proximity to the viewer, a bit like a hologram.
Looking at these astonishing shapes is a little like looking at the night sky which always makes me feel so small, but not in a bad way.
We are the tiniest speck in an infinite process. No matter how we may struggle, we are part of a common destiny.
For me, this is comforting.
It is amazing, isn’t it, what you can get out of a humble garage window?
Nature really is the best artist. I just googled “the study of ice patterns on glass” and I may be gone some time………….!
You and William Blake.
Auguries of Innocence
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage
…
and more:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43650/auguries-of-innocence
Wonderful poem.
Thank you, Carolyn, for the beautiful pictures!
Joanna
I can’t believe the birds are actually sitting in the water bowl in this cold weather (but I suppose they need to have a bath too … oh yes, and you said it’s almost spring-like 😉). Oh, I love-love your frosty window photos … you’re right, no two look the same! Where we live, I don’t see such patterns on our windows during the winter – I guess it’s not cold enough. But I will have a look out for them this coming winter, just in case …
Never attribute human feelings to a cat. They live by their own feline rules. I am posting about feeding birds tomorrow, but it’s a very different experience to yours.
Best wishes, Pete.
By the way, if your windows are that frosty, you need some much better double-glazing! (The photos are lovely though. )
It’s just the garage that doesn’t pretend to be heated.
Spent some time yesterday staring in awe at a massive murmuration of starlings right near where I parked my car. When they eventually roosted and I went back to my car it was literally covered in poo! How did they miss one another, but still hit my car?
A commentary, I think, not on you but of us as a species? I envy you seeing those murmurations. We don’t have huge flocks like that here. I could happily watch birds all day.