White Winged Crossbills...

 Hi everybody....It's been ages since I last posted.... definitely haven't been doing any crafting or anything artsy...

Just been worrying and waiting like a lot of people... going about the home stuff as usual in winter around here too....it is mostly too cold to bother going outside anyway.  We just got over two weeks of -28C --30C  horrible cold... with plenty of snow around as well.  Have been doing plenty of baking too...so need to keep up with exercising ... or I will roll out of here in spring as a round ball....

One day I did go out in the -28C ..just to try to capture some pretty snow pictures at the nearby golf course.  As I walked over to a small bridge ... little cones began to fall out of the big spruce trees..... fine snow was sifting down all around me as I tried to decide just what to photograph.  I had to move out from under the trees and I did look up for a second... just in time to see little birds flitting about overhead.

That got my attention...as I do love birds and taking photos of them.  But, by then, my fingers were so cold I had to sprint back to the car to warm them up ...and ..to change lenses so I could get a closer look at the birds so high in the big trees.  They were way up there about 40 to 60 feet in the air.  But, I thought I detected some white wing bars... got pretty excited and after warming a bit, back I went.

Sure enough.... White Winged Crossbills!!  I've never seen one up close..and, never photographed one.  I took many shots and stayed until my fingers were practically frozen... I can't wear a glove on the right hand to use the camera...so they got numb!  It was a brilliant, sun filled day so it was hard to see anything on the screen and I really had no clue what I would see when I uploaded them onto the computer.

Imagine my surprise when I got several good photos of the Crossbills.  I was ecstatic.  I've been putting photos on my Flickr site and enjoying that during the months of lockdown... but, here I am to put some on here as well today.

Here is what I was attempting to photograph when the little cones began to pelt me...

Here are some photos of the White Winged Crossbills... these are all males.

They have amazing beaks that are crossed and long and pointed so they can get at the tiny seeds inside the cones.  Apparently they can eat up to 3,000 seeds per day!  They must knock off many cones in the attempts and that's why they were falling out of the trees...  The cones, not the birds..!

It is so strange to see them in the photos looking like I am straight out from them because as I mentioned...they were very high in the air.  I had to seriously crop any photo in order to tell what they were at all. 

Hope you enjoy seeing my little birds as much as I do...

I'm locked out ...sort of...........

Telus migrated.....my Google account and therefore Blogger has obviously changed in my account somehow ....  but, for some reason, I can type posts... publish posts... but not sign in... arrrgghhh.  It takes me to a page that gives me access through a temporary thing-me-jig.... arrrggghhhh!  Not what I need. 

I'll be busy trying to figure it out .... I can't comment on anybody's blog... cuz I can't get signed in....sorry!

meantime ..let's see if I can get a photo ...

    Bernie decided he need to exercise ..he was getting fat just sitting on the windowsill and waiting for kids to show up to wave at.... 

    But, even the 5 lb. weight is too heavy for him.  He says it squishes his tummy...he can't lift it... and, is demanding I find him something smaller.  

Hey, I got it.....yaaaaayyyy ....

    

Painted some more rocks....

 Not big rocks...just smaller ones.  More like pebbles I suppose really.

The tall skinny one is 2 inches tall and just over an inch across so you can sort of get an idea how smallish they are.   They are lovely smooth river rocks as they are called... having been washed to that smoothness by the water.

I've been putting several coats of Parchment watercolour paint on the base and now I've decided to do some cutesy birds.  The ladies faces are a bit too time consuming and I had been doing them mostly with watercolour pencils... a lot of work for a rock I decided... but, in reality..what else is there to do?

So far, these are my flock... only 3 guys.... but, you get the idea.

Lynn Holland from One I Made Earlier Today (her blog) is my inspiration for the birds.  Have you ever seen her Doodly Birds?  Soooo cute!  

I asked her if she minds if I do some that are based on her Doodly guys and she said go for it... so I am going to add a bit more colour and character that are reminiscent of hers.... although I am in the middle of a ladybird right now.... so after him.  Just a minute..if it is a ladybird....can it still be a "him"? ... maybe the guys are ladybugs...

I have decided to leave some rocks around in the neighbourhood as a 'Finders Keepers' type of thing.   I always wish I could hide and watch when somebody finds them... to see if they take it and are excited, or if they photo it and move it, or leave it for somebody else to find  ..or what?.... 

Anyway...just a quickie post to say hi and to show off my latest little project pieces...simple, but fun.....

   

The rocks in my yard disappeared...

I was pretty disappointed ... who would steal my painted rocks? ..  I walked up the block to check if the two girls had taken them to put with theirs ... sort of as a joke..... but, nope.  Only the two I had placed there for them.  Still there.

Then, much later in the day, I was doing some weeding and... lo and behold...I spied one about 15 feet further up from where it originally was... face down in the garden.   I was even more disappointed... because that meant somebody had thrown it there ..on purpose.  For what reason?  So, of course I searched around for the other two..... finally found one more under the shrub further away yet..up towards the house ..... didn't find the third.

But, then... the following day...I was walking out of the patio and there she was ...face down under the lilac shrub... almost inside the patio...where somebody had tossed her.  That was getting pretty close to the house...and, windows... so, I'm pretty ticked.  I just want to kick somebody in the ass.

Of course it is kids...but, which ones ....and why would they do that?  What have I ever done to them?  Nobody can ever answer those questions...and, if a person ever accuses somebody's kid.... mostly the parents will deny it was their wonderful child.  Our childhood was much different.  If anybody had ever even suggested that we had done something we shouldn't have .... we wouldn't have sat down for a week.  A different world.  Now, I look at all the kids motoring around on scooters and bikes and wonder which of them it was .... I can't really see little girls doing it.... but, who knows..so more the boys get the evil eye... hahahah......sure wish I had seen it happen.

I moved the rocks.  Nobody gets to see them in passing now.  I put them inside our patio where only we get to see them.  I could put them out during the day and bring them in at night..but, what a nuisance.

I'll just have to play with flowers and photos.... I love this one of my bleeding hearts.

...   and, the little bear buddies .... they are always up to mischief.

"Maybe we should put it back where we found it".....

Good idea boys............ not a play thing.

I've been painting rocks..

Just small ones.

It's a "thing".  People all over the world are painting rocks and putting them in their yards and gardens.  The two little girls up the block have a pretty big collection of theirs out under a big tree...it is pretty colourful
I noticed one of their little signs encouraged people to leave a rock..   Originally the signs read... "take a rock, leave a rock" ...but, I think people just took them and they changed their sign...now it reads, "please don't take our rocks... leave yours for others to enjoy".

Here is their garden of rocks...

I decided to paint them a couple of faces to put in their garden. Here are my first attempts... they are like my dolls.  Seems the only thing I can actually draw or paint is a face.  I used my watercolour pencils .... and sprayed them with several coats of a finish spray ... hopefully it will help them to remain intact.  They do have big tree for some protection from the weather ..so maybe they'll be okay.

I tried a little whimsical cat ... doesn't look like much... and, for somer reason..one night out in a storm and it was almost trashed  ........oh, well ....... 

So then I tried some wild sunflowers...... it was sort of okay... and, then, another girl.

My husband said, why don't you put some of them in our garden?  Hmmm... now why didn't I think of that?  So..I did a few more ...and, now....we have some in our yard too. 

Here they are on a large rock in our yard....I have since moved them to a darker rock..but, haven't taken a new photo yet.... 

and....one more for our garden..... a brown eyed girl....                    

But, then......... Bernie decided he had to paint some rocks too.  Although, after his choice of paintbrush size...... his first words were .... "maybe I need a bigger rock""""    yeh.....right .....good one Bernie...

Absentee blogger...

I've been absent a long time.... everything's changed.... darn it.  I'm just olde fashioned enough to want the things I'm used to using.

The guys are still on the windowsill... Bernie sometimes gets the 'blurs'... kind of like me... blurry eyes .. I know... it sounds like it should be "Bernie gets the blues".  but, no.. this is different.  His eyes get blurry watching for kids to walk past so he can wave at them. 

This is what he saw the other day.. and wondered why there was another bear just like him outside in the tree..well, it looked like he was in the tree to Bernie....

    Sometimes he gets tired of sitting there being a good boy and ..well, he gets into mischief.

Like today... when he found a cowboy hat and decided to ride Dude, our little dog that is made of pieces of tree....we got him at a farmer's market years ago.  Poor Dude... didn't have a clue what Bernie expected him to do ... sitting up there yelling "giddyup" .. "yeeehawww... let's go little bronc" ..   Dude just stood there.

He's a kewl dude...

Bears are still sitting in our windowsill and others all along the block have joined in ... and some change the bears and bunnies every few days.... I try to make ours more interesting every so often as well.

Radcliffe was admiring some sunglasses the other day....so I gave him a pair to wear.... he thought he was pretty cool.....  so did the kids who walk by and wave and point and have a giggle....

Hope everybody is safe and healthy....

World wide bear hunt...

They've noticed us 'bear people' on the National Post ...woohooo...

For a few weeks now, bear people have been putting bears in their windows to entertain others who walk past.  I've see so many people walking I can't believe they all live on my block.

They must be bored to tears... or having absolutely not one more thing to do in the house.  I decided to do it after one of the girls on a teddy bear group showed her big red bear in a window...half hidden by curtains.

Tigger, Bernie and Floppy were the first three... well, first let me back track a bit...

There was an episode the first few days that Mr. BumbleVee was working from home ... and poor little Bernie thought it was going to be non stop fun having his Daddy home ... he yukked things up a bit too much from too close to the newly organized 'office area'.. and this happened.... (erm.....it had already happened to me a bit earlier)......

So, little Bernie and I had a chat and I encouraged him to find some other pastimes and ..he did.  He wanted to sit on the windowsill and wave at kids....















But, then it got colder and even snowed.... they were bored......... so Bernie hung out with me at the computer and saw a little bear with a party hat.  That did it.  He insisted that we make one for him.
so, we made a cone out of coloured paper and put two 'scrunchies' on the top for a pom pom and taped it to his head.  He was a bit concerned about the tape on his forehead area and thought it might flatten his fur.  I told him that he already has sort of 'flattish' fur, but assured him I would brush up his fur each night when I take them out of the window.

So, he made a little sign and got back on the windowsill...... looking out for people and waving.... even the Dads are waving back at us....

The neighbour across the street joined in... even though she usually thinks I'm a nut job....

Then Elmo and Radcliffe hopped up there too...and, there were plenty of bears on the sill...which is too narrow for their bums, but I balanced them on books..except Radcliffe; he can do the splits.

Then, it got colder ................ and then............................it snowed some more.  They are not happy bears.........

You can check out the article here...

Bear Hunting

Don't protest if you can't spell

It makes you look like the idiots you are. 

And, those of you who aren't even Canadians....bugger off home.   

We've got enough problems of our own.

And, now, our stupid Prime Minister has said we will have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050... hahahaha.........I sure hope nobody ever has to fart in that year....

... and, what about all those cows? .......

""In a 2006 United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization report, it claims that the livestock sector, most of which are cows, "generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport." According to a Danish study, the average cow produces enough methane per year to do the same greenhouse damage as four tons of carbon dioxide. So is this significantly contributing to global warming?""

Get a grip on reality folks..... we still have to live, breathe, eat and oh, yeh... fart... and drive cars, fly in planes and sail on ships and wear clothes and every single one of us carries a phone .. except me...   last of the luddites.... eat food that is more and more frequently packaged in plastics produced in plastic greenhouses and ...well, the list goes on and on. ad nauseam and ad infinitum... We obviously can't survive without anything that isn't partly oil and gas product or derivatives.... 

Periwinkle

This is Peri.... short for Periwinkle.  Because of the colour of her outfit mostly... and, because I really like the sound of the word.  Mom used to tell us about 'winkles' when she talked about English things.  She was from there, but us kids had never been....

Imagine being able to collect and eat winkles from the nearby beaches... what fun that would be if a person liked to eat 'shell-y' kinds of things.

Anyway... I have not been doing much blogging...and, not doing anything crafty at all.  I'm having real problems with my eyes and can't see much up close to do anything of any importance anymore.  Even reading is a bust.  I have no idea if it is permanent...but I'm working on it.... at some point I'll need cataract surgery, but first must get the pressure readings from the glaucoma under control.  Bummer.

So, thought I would show you a paper clay doll I did back in the day... as I was moving dolls in the curio last weekend when we changed things around in the hobby room/ office/music room....

Here she is .. paper clay over fabric and the eyes are acrylic paint as are the lips... face colour too...

pretty blue eyes...

Two little angels

I haven't been doing any crafting or making my own lately ... so I decided to show you a couple of things I bought years ago at craft fairs.

Two little angels... each totally different and yet pretty cute...

The first, I sit on a shelf or table where her little 'legs' can dangle.  The legs are made of narrow gold ribbon with bells on the end of each. ..it is glued to the inside of a small clay plant pot that has been pained gold.  Her head is a large wooden bead onto which a bit of yarn has been glued and also some eyes and lips painted.  On the back... a bit of tulle gathered to look like some wings and a gold string for a hanger or for a halo if you don't hang it.  Her arms are small pieces of pipe cleaners.

The other one is a stitched and stuffed fabric head.. attached onto the top of a room deodorizer.. like Glade brand... just eyes painted on... some curly rayon 'hair'... I'm sure you could also use any yarn.  Some fabric stitched wings on the back of a little piece of gathered fabric for her dress.  Her arms are just a piece of ribbon with one soft knot in the centre and a star glued on.. ends tucked into little poufs of fabric sleeves.
                                       



Both cute and yet, totally different ...

Perfect Symphony - Cover by Justin J. Moore & Paul Moore - (Originally b...

This is my little New Year's gift to you... seeing as I wasn't around for Christmas.... didn't even get to post pretty photos of my decorations... just busy doing nothing and not blogging......click on Youtube to watch it there ...larger... or click on large screen version and turn up your volume.

My nephew and his Dad doing a cover of an Ed Sheeran number ...

A decoration and a tart to go with..... enjoy!!

Okay...this is annoying....

...but probably only to me...

I bought this cute little plate... with gold trim and gold printing...couldn't resist.

But, nobody remembered to put it to the side, or to the top, or towards the bottom of the plate.   How are you supposed to see the printing if your cake is smack dab on top of it?

Bummer...  I'll only be able to use tiny petit fours..maybe there are petit twos...or chocolates or something on it if I want to show off the saying or get any laughs from it.

Rock pilfering squirrels

Why do they do it?  I can't find anything scientific on it... only anecdotal evidence really... have you seen it?

They run into the yard... poke around in our decorator rock in the garden areas..select a rock .. sometimes they lick it a few times... get it situated in their mouths and run off with it.  They sometimes only go as far as the lawn... and, bury it.  Then, come back for another.  Last spring we found dozens of them in the lawn when we had it power raked.  We spent a lot of time plucking them out before running our own mower over the grass ...

Sometimes they take them across the street into neighbouring yards.  Apparently they are 'scatter hoarders'... meaning they put things all over the place for future.. what? with rocks? .. who knows ..

Often I find a quite large one on the sidewalk or out in the middle of the road... too big to get very far and they drop it and leave it I guess... most of the rocks in the yard are about 2 inches and bigger... we still have some that are from a previous batch of only smaller ones ..one to two inches .....but those are disappearing quickly ...  they try poking around for those and then..just pick up a larger one and go with it... it's crazy... the one he has here is about 1.5 inches by about 1 inch.... the photo is a little dark, but click on it to enlarge and you can see it better.

Heart of a leaf..

This one is for you Shashi..

It was as big as my hand with fingers totally spread out.... fell from our Columnar Aspen.

The leaves are still green even after several pretty cold days and two major snowfalls.  No leaves have fallen from the crabapple tree at all yet... all have just stayed green, dried out and curled a bit..but still like they are glued onto the branches.   The early cold must have something to do with that.

Yesterday we had high winds and some of the aspens leaves floated down... and one or two did blow off the other crab in the front yard... today...the backyard is more or less littered with aspen leaves... time to rake.

When I found this big guy I couldn't resist.... I had seen a heart cut out of a leaf somewhere in bloggy-ville...so I made one too.

I should have photographed something beside it...for perspective... it was about 7 inches across...

Heated water for the birds..

It's supposed to be drinking water.... but one cold snowy day...yes this early in the year darn it...  .... one guy discovered it was heated and decided he would like a bath.
Two others followed suit, and then all of a sudden there were so many that they were jumping up and down on the wall and the board holding the container ...  all clamouring to get in and have a splash!
It was sparrow bedlam!
I ran for my camera and this is what I saw... the colour is not great as the sun was shining brightly and  you notice the blueish tint of the UV protection in the window glass plus they are a bit dark...

I cropped the second one quite a bit so you can see the funny guy with the wild hair ... like he all of a sudden wondered why he would partake in such shenanigans or was shocked to realize he was bathing in his own drinking water ...  or something....

As usual... click on any photo to see it larger and get a better view... ..there is really nothing 'common' about the Common House Sparrow.. they are a lot of entertainment.

hahaha.... look at that little wild haired guy...!   Hang on.  Maybe that's a little lady and she is concerned now because there I am with the camera... showing her to the world in 'not-quite-her-best' form......oh 'dear .... that could be it........

Linking to Stewart's Paying Ready Attention Gallery.... for Wild Bird Wednesday.  Click on the badge below to go directly there to see other birds...  perhaps you have a bird photo of your own to add to the group?

Smelling the flowers

This is our little dog, Dude.  I found him at a country fair in Armstrong, B. C., many years ago.  I love that little guy.

He doesn't eat much, doesn't have to go outside and doesn't shed.

He is plenty of entertainment and affords plenty of photo ops...

I put him up on the table while vacuuming and he was seen sniffing the carnations.

He said ```

"Take some time to smell the flowers"

Oh, alright, I didn't actually hear him say anything....that could mean I'm totally bonkers... when in actuality, I'm only half way there.....
but, if he could have....he definitely would have done so.  I know he would.

What to eat on a big snow day.

This guy appeared and I thought he had something stuck on or in his beak.  It was long and pointy... I was wondering and worrying already...

Then, it disappeared and he grabbed a long lilac seed pod ...hahahah....he was eating them off the snow covered bush.

I've never seen them eating these seeds in the past, but usually I trim them off about now and there would be none on the tree in a week or two... but, our seed feeders would also be out there and that is all I ever see them eat at our house.

Maybe from now on I should just leave the dead lilac seeds on the bushes.  Ignore what they say in horticulture mags.... ... and trim them in late winter or very early spring instead.  Trimming in fall is supposed to encourage more blooms... but, they get plenty .. so who cares?  Maybe my birdies need them on bad snow days.

You will have to click on him to get a better idea of what he looks like up close.  I lightened the photo a bit.  The bright snow and sun were playing havoc with things.

Linking to Stewart at Paying Ready Attention.

Freak early snowfall..

Well, in this part of Canada, nothing weather related is freakish I suppose.  And, we did have one back in 2014 on September 8, so not even as early as that one.  It plays havoc with the trees, of course, with plenty of broken branches due to all the leaves still being present on most trees.

The past few days of continuous snowfall has left us with 11 inches at our house in the south of the city.... the sprinkler guys emailed to say they would be waiting a few days to come to blow out the underground sprinklers... gee, ya think?  hahaha... I wrote back to say I wasn't digging out anything for them, so they better wait at least several days.  By the weekend it is supposed to get back to +16C ....we'll see if it gets that good.

This was earlier ..
                                                                                   
















And, this...... is the freaky bit ......what the heck is that?  a snow goblin??

From a distance and on the camera view screen it sort of looked like a dog's head...but up close?
Yikes @!

Be careful what you wish for....

After seeing a Blue Jay one day I mentioned that I would like to see a baby jay ....   darn it.  Wish I had never said it out loud.

Two days later I saw this poor little tyke.  All alone in my backyard.  I don't even know how I noticed him because he was not moving...just sitting there very quietly... probably as instructed.  Or as instinct dictated.
Please click on the photo to see his cute little face up close....

He had no tail really...and, very little in the way of wings... he was too small to fly ..must have fallen and somehow glided or flapped a bit to make it into our yard from a nest nearby...

I then heard an adult Blue Jay and saw what I decided was his Mom on the telephone wires nearby ..calling and waiting til I got the heck out of there.. then she flew down.

He more or less stayed on the blocks near the house and close to some tall grass... but, then..as the day progressed, he got a bit more animated and began to hop around all over the yard.  Over to the chairs, out near the shed..... I was panicked and was worse than his mother... dashing from window to window, worrying about some predator getting him.  I had to be ready to rush out and shoo away Mr. Karma, the prowling neighbourhood cat.  She flew back and forth for hours checking on him and bringing him food and finding little things to feed him from the garden.  She was very attentive and caring.  It was so sweet and yet I felt so sorry for her.

But, then I went to do the treadmill.... and ...when I looked, later in the day... they were gone.  I didn't know whether to be happy or sad.  He must have hopped out into the alleyway under the fence... oh, I sure hope they both went to a kind neighbour yard...... I didn't really see any Blue Jay activity after that.

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday.