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This winter we have not been using the regular bird feeder since the bear came by and bent its pole in half last summer. This is not an altogether happy thought: neither the bear, nor the lack of the feeder.
We have been throwing seeds out under the bushes and on the lawn and getting whole flocks of Juncos, lots of chickadees, various finches and today we were blessed by a Pine Grosbeak. I borrowed the picture. He is a bit bigger than the finches and with a heavy grosbeak beak.
We've never seen one here before. I've seen them across the valley in West Creston and my girlfriend about a mile down the road had some earlier this year but here on our hilltop, this is the first we've seen.
Winter progresses. Ours has been milder than many years and open for the most part. Even though we've had it easy we are very ready for spring and planting things. I was SO very tempted to pull the grass off the spot my snow drops grow the other day but fortunately caution prevailed as it has gone back to freezing hard again. Usually the snowdrops are under a big drift of snow off the roof but this year we don't have that.
James has been keeping busy in the shop and studio. He has built himself a 16 inch band saw, mostly of wood, inspired by a YouTube video.
This week he was creating a wooden sculpture for the Contemporary Sculpture Show that will run at the Temp Gallery on Main street from Feb 18 through the next week as part of our month long Spirit Fest.
I plan to show a grouping of my tea cozies.
My class progresses and I am getting more of a handle on our business but sitting "thinking" from 9:00 - 3:30 5 days a week is a big change after all these years. It takes a different kind of stamina than working with ones hands.
James and I are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary today by watching the Super Bowl. I like both teams that are playing and it should be a good game.
James McDowell - Pears
22 x 14 - oil on canvas - $200.00
Another great market day and sold all but one of the 39 loaves and all but a few cookies and muffins which seem to get consumed in between. I thought I had retired from the Farmers Market but we do enjoy the people. It means I am baking 3 days a week and cooler weather will only be a treat.
Fall is in the air. I hate to have to break this bit of news.
The dragon flies are dancing all along the road from our place to Hwy 21 and the starlings, who were split up and raising families earlier are now flocking together.
There were over a dozen swallows swooping along in front of us this evening as we drove home and lining up along the wires.
We need a nice l-o-n-g fall to give things in the garden, stunted by our long cold spring, a chance to mature.
Some unsettling news is that there has been the problem of grizzlies digging big holes into our local dump. The refuse is buried nightly but then the critters were digging caves into it so "they" have fenced the dump - and the airport because the elk were getting on the runway.
Our property buts up against the golf course and across the road from it is the dump so it isn't very far away as the bear ambles.
Earlier this summer we had a bear amble through a couple nights and it bent the pipe my bird feeder was on down at a 45 degree angle. Now "they" have closed all the hiking trails near the Airport and dump because of grizzly bear activity: there is a large sow with her nearly adult sized cubs. This is not happy news.
I would like her to take her young-uns back up in the mountains away from us on the valley floor. Unfortunately, because the dump activity went on for a couple years, these bears are habituated to human food.
