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

Preparing For the Worst

I have taken lots of bird photographs of late because they have shown up big, and as you well know, I can't help myself. In spite of the twenty mph winds yesterday afternoon, along with the thermometer reading about 28, while going to get the mail I saw scads of birds in a ratty looking tree/bush right across the street. Hoping for the best, I marched inside, grabbed my camera with the longest zoom and marched right back outside again. I probably should have had gloves on because baby, it was cold outside! 

Nonetheless, when a flock of birds shows up, I'm your girl.

These are Cedar Waxwings feasting on really tiny berries. With any luck you will be seeing them again now that I have had such a good opportunity. For the last few weeks I have tried and tried to get good shots, but they have been so high up in the trees it has been impossible to show off their beauty. 

With any luck they will come back for seconds this afternoon!

Last week was a strange one for us as we experienced what it is like to prepare for a winter weather event. After I wrote my blog post we went to the grocery store and there were a lot of people there on a Tuesday afternoon which seemed strange until I realized that they were buying for the upcoming storm which was billed as catastrophic. It was fierce for some places, but we were spared pretty much all of it if you don't count the extreme cold. Anyway, Bruce retrieved all sorts of things from our camping gear to prepare us for whatever came our way. The generator we brought here started on the third pull which is really saying something because it had not been started for many years. Gotta love a Honda. 

Meanwhile I am in bird heaven. Each morning, around 8:00, I set my phone to record the bird sounds and some days there have been as many as 17 different birds, including a bird that I rarely see, and I do mean rarely that showed up in Sandy's yard across the street.

This would be a Northern Flicker should you be wondering. One thing that has struck me when I write the names down, and really shouldn't I have noticed this before? Almost every bird seems to have a first and a last name and sometimes they even used their middle name! Think Northern Cardinal.

Northern Mockingbird! 

Eastern Phoebe!

All these pretty birds were in our yard which makes taking their picture so easy!

Because of all the drama associated with the impending doom from the storm, the week dragged on. One day it was supposed to hit on Friday, the next Saturday, and the severity of it kept changing. Sound familiar to the Floridians reading this? Inches of snow, then it was ice, then it was rain......

One evening we spent some time at the wine shop just to get out, even though nothing had really happened. That being said, the sky was filled with big fat clouds just after dark with a sliver of a moon visible.

Mind you it was cold, but it was to get colder and I am here to testify that at least the weather folks got that right.

Saturday morning a fairly new downtown place posted on Facebook that they would be open until 2pm with the storm now predicted to arrive around 5:00; an out of the way place that I figured could use our business, so after some chores, we went over. After having a chat with the folks who are opening a new market, we went in and found two folks at the bar.

I just loved the cute little coasters although it looks as if this one could use some glue to tidy it up. Anyway, the couple was delightful, were in town to attend a class at the folk school, and were staying across the street from us at Sandy's bed and breakfast!! Their home base is Nashville and the woman kept receiving photos from her co-workers of the massive snow storm they were missing in Nashville. When she told me that she worked at Ann Patchett's bookstore there, I was freaking out. If that name does not ring a bell that is understandable, but for this fan girl, she is one of my favorite authors. Anyway, they were very interesting and it was a good way to pass a few hours.

So what IS the bottom line? We got rain and it went on for about 24 hours and then the sun came out, weakly, but it did come out. I took off for a walk. I do so love the fog in the mountains!

I neglected to mention that church was actually canceled because of all the uncertainty. That, my friends, is a very rare occurrence in their 102 year history. Walking down the main drag towards the river, the puddles were minimal.

My mission was to see how high the river was and indeed it had risen. The clouds were so good!

More importantly after some pretty gloomy weather it was great to see blue. 

As it was getting later, my walk was not terribly long, but it was good to get out. I took the back way home and watched the sky take on a bruised look, although there was a wee bit of red in the sky, it was hard to know what was going to happen next.

I'd gone up early to read in bed, and when Bruce came up he said his phone was telling him that there was a one percent chance of snow overnight. 

Here's what that looks like.

While I am on the subject of snow, I came across this photo of our family when we lived in Buffalo, NY. Can you even imagine?

Nancy is in my Mom's arms, Carol is beside her on the right, Maureen to the left, Pat and Gail, far right. Lisa comes into the picture a few years later after we moved to Orlando. I do not mind the cold at all, but the amount of clothes that pile up is definitely something I am still getting accustomed to.

Back to Murphy, all morning long the flurries came down.

The wind whipped it every which way and when I say it was cold, I am not exaggerating one bit. The temperature never rose above freezing!

The good news was that the sun came out, melted everything that was not in the shade and everyone's spirits lifted! 

Bruce went to the basement and braving the cold which when he is working on something, barely notices. He wanted to plug some gaps that he did not like to look at and were responsible for letting in a lot of cold air. 

I love this picture ! It is so crazy. He is in the crawl space and climbed through that opening to get there!! It all looks neat and tidy which won't surprise you in the least. 

Meanwhile I was finishing this upstairs, 

and making bread on the middle floor, aka known as the kitchen!

I would give the bread a C grade, little taste and nothing to recommend it, but I would give the loaf of zucchini bread from our neighbor Becky, an A.

If possible, it is even colder today with the heater running like mad all morning long. 

Bruce had parked the car in a position so that if we had snow he could drive straight down the driveway, thus much was in the shade. When we were off to do a few errands around 10:00 this morning, the windshield looked like this.

It was quite the challenge getting the ice off the windshield but the temperature has soared to 30 degrees so maybe tomorrow it will be 40?

Nope, if the forecast is to be taken seriously, we will have to wait until next week. In the meantime winter is a good time to catch up on things which in my case, involves reading more novels! And who knows, after talking to my sister who takes more exercising classes than anyone I know, maybe I will try drum fit at the senior center. After all, this is a year for trying new things. 

Just don't think I will be giving up my birds anytime soon!

Hope your day is full of joy!

your friend,

Gail