Cedar Waxwings Strike Again!

 No sooner than I hit publish on my last post, I went through the back porch to take some trash out and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a small flock of Cedar Waxwings in our neighbor's evergreen tree! Naturally I was unequipped but ran quickly inside for a camera with a zoom lens. Folks, I was rewarded and I am passing on my good fortune to you!

Who knew that there was an abundance of berries on what I am presuming is a Juniper tree, although don't quote me on that, Those masks! Those super smooth feathers!! While I love Cardinals as much as the next person, this bird is right up there on my favorites list, especially when they show up unannounced which we will get to in due time.

I may have mentioned that Laura resigned her position with the town and as such John wanted to have a party to celebrate her retirement. Finding a date that worked for everyone was not easy, but finally it was settled for last night. Being a surprise party turned out to be more difficult then John expected, but since that was the original plan, he dropped the decorations off at our house weeks ago so we could do the decorating.  Eventually it was decided that it would work best for everyone if it was held in Jenn and Rick's new place that is anything but small and intimate. So, Bruce and I went last week to come up with a plan. They decorate for every holiday in a big way and Valentine's Day is included. We took advantage of her, well, what do you call it when it is a large area? 

Yea...large!

By the day of the party though, they were already switching to Mardi Gras. 

Indeed, I don't know about a legend, but she has been a HUGE asset to the town of Murphy and will be missed.

One day last week I joined with other folks for a walking group called, "Murphy on the Move" and as is typical, I was the slowest of anyone. I do not know why I walk, what other folks think is slow, but I do. When I mentioned that my partner had to be slow, a man spoke up and said he was also slow. Great! I've already forgotten his name, but our pace was quite similar.

Meanwhile this was part of the group leading the way.

I spoke with the lady in the burgundy after the hour walk was complete,

learning that she is an Appalachian Trail hiker and has done sections in most states. Held on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, it might prove difficult with my volunteer schedule, but we shall see. 

I am always so puzzled when I see something like this at our downtown antique store. Where, or who did it come from?

The weather has been all over the map; today is meant to rise to 62 degrees, whereas other days, the wet, cold and fog is pretty miserable.

Let's turn our focus onto beautiful days shall we? I put a different lens on my camera and did some practice shots of things you have seen many times before. 

How different Murphy must have been when the railroad still came to town. This is winter folks.

Plenty bare and brown, but it won't be too long now and this will all transform into glorious beauty. 

Meanwhile, one floor below, Bruce began work on a new project and can you guess what it was?

If you guessed a box to hold cans of gasoline and a gasoline blower, you are the winner!! 

When faced with the prospect of no power for a good long while, Bruce jumped into action, buying gas for the generator. Of course we all know we experienced nothing of the sort. but should we have, my dear Bruce was ready. Wanting to move the gas containers away from the house, he got very creative and went to work.

He painted it to match everything else out back that he has either built or refurbished and then put it in place. Shingles baby!

And here is the completed box in it's new home.

That's correct. Underneath the kayak! I took the photo above to talk about what is happening in the next day or so and that is having the huge stump ground out in order to turn this area into a small garden as it is about the only part of the yard, aside from the front, that has abundant sunshine. The grinding is costing a small fortune, but David keeps telling us to spend our money and so, on occasion, we are. 

Just think, if I am posting flower or vegetable photos, I won't be bombarding you with birds!! 

Speaking of growing things, I am not sure if I ever showed you the giant oyster mushroom I came across last month? 

Robins have been plentiful and I am so here for it. Only once a year do they show up in Orlando, which makes seeing them daily such a treat.

The same holds true with this tiny Song Sparrow.

Earlier today as I was walking along someone asked me what was I looking for as I gazed up into the upper branches of the bare trees. Tiny birds was my answer. The image above puts their size into perspective, although this one is taken in our yard. As were these two cuties.; one is a White Throated Sparrow and the other is a Dark-Eyed Junco. Here today and gone tomorrow! 

And while generally considered a nuisance bird by many, I do love the way a European Starling shines in the bright sunshine. 

All birds are beautiful, but all are not created equally beautiful which is something I am telling you that you do not already know. You may recall that I am recording information each morning on what birds are heard by Merlin, the most fantastic bird app available. 

But, I digress. 

As well as the birds, I record the time, the temperature, and weather conditions. And why is that you ask? Because I am trying to learn more about the North Carolina birds. We have discussed before how sometimes, especially my Bird Buddy feeder, when AI is involved with birds they are not entirely accurate. Mostly they are though, but I am puzzled as to why I am seeing on the app that Cedar Waxwings are uncommon right now because, much to my delight and surprise, as I was bemoaning that fact that seeing them at Daniel and Courtney's house was probably going to be the end of my season with CW. Holy Cow,  moments later as I was walking down the next street over, by golly I saw a large flock of birds fly into a huge tree ahead of me.

Every dark dot you see was a Waxwing.

Here are but a fraction of them!

You would be so proud of me because I did not take a hundred photos of this sighting! I mostly just watched and waited to see if they would fly off en masse. Eventually I continued my walk, reluctantly I might add, but if I was to get any exercise I needed to get moving. After about forty five minutes, I could stand it no longer and made my way back to the "tree" where, much to my surprise, they were still chilling in Chad and Erin's tree. Yup, we know the folks. I sat on a little rock wall watching and waiting. After another ten minutes or so, a few of them began drifting off into a tree across the street that was much smaller.

The best part though was when a group swooped down on a holly bush and mayhem ensued.

By my count there are ten in the above photo. And then there were a few doing some gymnastic moves.

You have been a witness to the fact that I have taken so many pictures of birds that it is crazy, however, never can I remember getting one that is holding onto the branch, upside down ,and with wings spread. Now that was fun!!

And while you may be a little tired of seeing them, rest assured it won't happen for much longer. Of course, maybe I WILL stumble across some again before they leave for the year.

A girl can hope, can't she?

your friend,

Gail 

Dog Days of Winter?

I wonder if there is such a saying as dog days of winter? Unlike my husband who looks everything and anything up on Google and now AI is getting into the act, I am okay with not knowing some things. In fact, I think that I told you I have mostly avoided any news if you don't count that I knew the Olympics were starting last Friday night and what a spectacle it was! We did not see it all, but what we did see was so special that I hardly could absorb any more stimulation. Oh my! You just might recall that our twins once modeled and went to Milan for that purpose. And as it so happened, David was chosen by Giorgio Armani to be in that season's runway show. Back in Orlando Bruce and I were dying; thrilled for David, and sad for Bill. Having children is not for the faint of heart is it? Anyway the costumes, the Italian flag in the form of a runway show, the music was so brilliant. We are watching the sports at every opportunity.

Last week was quiet as far as being out and about, in part because some days were so darn cold! When last we met in this post, I wrote that snow remained on the ground and I had a few fun photos of the remaining snow and ice I wanted to share, including this stem I am holding from the big hydrangea plant. Even though we have been here for a few years now, I cannot get over how plants come back to life. Remember this when the new blooms arrive in early summer.

This was the view of town a week ago Monday, taken from our front steps.

The Cherokee Scout, our local newspaper, asked for snow photos and you-know-who delivered.

They printed the one above, as well as one of Bruce shoveling snow, however they chose to crop it and I was not thrilled with how it came out. 

Lastly, this:

Oops, I got ahead of myself. I kept getting a kick out of how the snow melted just so that this looked like a little person to me.

Do you see it, or am I crazy??

It was the absolute coldest night of the winter thus far.

Mr. Bruce, while traveling the country and building restaurants in cold climates, spent some time in single digits, but not so much for the Mrs. in this household. 

Maybe that is why he has had enough of this winter? 

So, what do I do when it is so darn cold? Cook. I was making some baked potato soup for lunch.

It must have been not long after completing my last post that we went out to lunch and ran into Mr. Vespasian there. He is now 87! 

Every day he spends time at Chevelles, sitting at the bar and enjoying conversation with his posse. He's got a three beer limit and then he goes back to his apartment which is about two blocks away.  He told us he still drives by the house most days, probably to make sure that we are taking good care of it. 

In that last post I also mentioned that I had some thrilling, at least to me, Cedar Waxwing photos to share, but the snow storm took precedent. Well nothing as dramatic as a snowstorm occurred this last week, so let's get back to those birds!

They are in the process of stripping all of the berries off the plants, seemingly with no concept of personal space!

If I had to guess there were at least twenty of them and nearly that many American Robins chowing down.

And while I do like the Robins, it is the Waxwings that I could not get enough of. I wonder how in the world this one was injured? 

Robins and Cedar Waxwings often chum around together, sharing food sources.

I took these last week and I have not seen any since! :(

Sandy has her birdbath on the ground and they were taking advantage of the water source.

It was absolutely freezing that day, but in that type of situation, I just grin and LOVE it!

This morning was lovely when I went for a walk. In a small town, the courthouse oftentimes dominates the skyline.

The birds were enjoying the "balmy" weather and I am only slightly kidding. Today it is meant to be nearly 60 degrees, making everyone happy. I was but a block from the house when a pair of Cardinals made an appearance. 

The Northern Cardinal is the state bird of NC and maybe that is why I see so many of them? I find it so fascinating because in Orlando I rarely saw more than one pair, let alone multiple pairs in one place. The same holds true for Blue Jays although it is rare for me to be able to get a good photograph of one. That is, until today.

And lest you think I only take pictures of birds, here is one I took on another day.

My eyes are always on the lookout for photo opportunities and with so much practice, I am pretty good at spotting things others overlook. Like in the scene below for example. What do you see?

Here is what I saw and thankfully with a zoom lens I can show it to you as well.

Meet a tiny little Song Sparrow.  

The fellow below, a Northern Flicker, is a type of woodpecker that digs in the dirt for food. My equipment and skills will never allow me to get a good flight shot, but should you be interested, look it up! The gold color lining the lower feathers opens up to some gold magic that is beautiful!

See it right near the tail? He had a heyday digging in that dirt while I was watching.

Bruce hung up the little "Card Trick" experiment that I made to decorate my sewing room.

Our pastor Wil was on a month long leave for spiritual renewal and we welcomed him back last Sunday.

Somehow we managed without him, but we most definitely missed him and his family very much.

One day last week we played pickleball in the gym in Andrews. Here is what that space looks like.

It is wonderful for the super cold days and if one is not playing, there is a walking track above.

Are you tired of birds yet? I sure hope not because here is a pretty Brown Thrasher that I spotted this morning.

 Reading this little piece earlier in the week, I realize that while it not for everyone, it works for me. 

"Somewhere out there, someone is listening to birds instead of the news and the world feels kinder there."

Okay, on a serious note, last Thursday at Soul Table, while I was making Suzanne's name tag I noticed she did not look herself and I asked after her, and also about Rob, who generally comes with her. She told me that Rob died on Tuesday. This is the third ST regular to have died in the last six months and while I know our guests are generally old and not always in the best of health, it still shocks me, especially Rob who was always nicely dressed and looked to be fit as a fiddle. Boo hoo!!

Lastly, before Murphy came to national attention with Braden Rumfelt's American Idol audition,  apparently there was Granny. Oftentimes while having lunch, we read the newspaper and because it is so small, we read most everything. "Hand me the section with the obituaries please," she said to her husband. OH MY WORD! I am reading about Evelyn Louzine Wilson and mostly thinking I have never heard of that name before. The further I read though, I was so surprised when I came across the part where it said that in her 80's she became something of a YouTube celebrity. Indeed she did, and although I had heard of her somehow, I did not know that she lived around here. Thousands watched those videos and if you are curious, click on this link. 

And that is the news from our home in a little mountain town. I hope you enjoyed our visit.

your friend,

Gail