A Dozen Doves…
…beneath the feeder, assuming position not long after a similar number of squirrels took their departure.
Another unusual sight—the sun, and bright blue sky. And the thermometer may have briefly touched the freezing point.
…beneath the feeder, assuming position not long after a similar number of squirrels took their departure.
Another unusual sight—the sun, and bright blue sky. And the thermometer may have briefly touched the freezing point.
Hardly time for anything besides feeding the birds…
…as well as walking the dog and hobnobbing with cows.
Becca 7 remote birthday party, delayed Christmas gift exchange, hike, and tailgate— all at Holy Hill, the basilica in the Kettle Moraine.
…pretty much inert. Overcast, steady barometer,
little air movement, temp invariable just below freezing. Ice dams building up, so roof raking deemed necessary.
I can’t remember if there is such a thing as a sun.
…to do any real blogging.
Very impressed by Biden’s speech. I think he is the right man for the moment.
…in America, but possibly transformative.
Glued to the TV, unwilling even to take a bathroom break.
…which actually is dinner in.
Our special restaurant in Milton has daily luncheon specials which are actually more like dinners, and today we picked up a couple. As the song goes…”covid time, and the cooking is easy.”
We do think Natalie’s Restaurant will survive the pandemic.
Otherwise, I think I may have mentioned that I’ve been working on a project to establish an arboretum in the park across the street. As you might expect when the project involves a bureaucracy, things are moving slowly. So, to keep participants feeling connected and and engaged, I have been distributing a Sunday tree-related pep message every week. For months.
Now, I’m thinking that whenever I’m short on content for this bloody daily blog I might flip one of them up onto the screen. Trouble is, these weekly pep posts are PDFs which don’t quite embed in Squarespace. That means I have to create a button that when clicked on, will take you to where you want to go.
Let’s see if this works:
What with the frost, snow, clouds, and fog—all color has been erased from the landscape.
…around Lake Geneva. A low-adventure, COVID-style outing for the as-yet un-vaccinated.
Lake mostly open water. Crowd in Lake Geneva town, many sensible folks but even more morons. We had takeout from Culver’s (who seem to be taking all precautions) and lunched in the car overlooking Geneva Bay. (Pax likes Culver’s possibly more than we do.)
On the way home listened to the tape of Trump and the Georgia secretary of state—blatant criminal sedition. Republicans should be forcing Tump to resign rather than trying to stage a self-promoting coup.
Side note: with all the snow on the ground, we now have solid proof that deer are visiting the backyard bird feeder regularly. We are also pretty sure that “As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,” they did not, when met with an obstacle, come from the sky. That’s the beauty of footprints.
Too much snow, ice and slush to even consider an outdoor ride.
…approximately, of birdseed per day. In just this one feeder. Hungry birds, especially on days like this with freezing rain, sleet, and then 4 inches of snow.
Birds have high metabolism, and need a lot of food, especially in winter. If I ate like a bird—say the Golden Crowned Kinglet, which weighs about one quarter of an ounce—I would have to scarf down something like 27 large pizzas every day.
Today—cardinals, jays, juncos, nuthatches, chickadees, downy woodpecker, red breasted woodpecker, finches, doves, and a variety of sparrows (which I still can’t differentiate). BUT, not a single squirrel. It is my hypothesis that the deep snow discourages the squirrels, who would be sitting ducks trying to wade through it. My guess is that they are holed up waiting for better weather.
Like me.
…at least we hope.
After a fun online game of Scribblio with the Janowiecs—15 bean soup, pigs in a blanket, pickled herring, and THEN cherry pie.
It tested the mettle of every snow-moving device in the stable.
The big snowblower seemed incapable of punching through the sticky, easily compacted stuff, so our morning clearing effort was a long and arduous mix of machine and manual labor. (The new shovel performed admirably, btw.) Troubleshooting later, I discovered that the front rotor on the blower had thrown a bolt, and was thus barely functioning. (But that’s all fixed and we are ready for the next bit of weather.)
This evening, a two-hour Zoom chat with the Spaldings in Colorado. They are hunkered down on their mountain top, and are being even more careful than we are. They, like us, are hoping to make it through to vaccine time, but are somewhat chapfallen by the incompetent rollout.
…implies snow in the evening.
The snow was a long time coming, but eventually I got to test the new shovel. It seems quite capable and ready for what’s forecast.
Theme in blue and white.
Bought a snow shovel today, bringing the total poised in the garage to five. No excuse for such extravagance really, but for years I have been admiring the device welded by my neighbor across the street—and now I have one just like it. “A shovel for every situation,” has long been my motto—and, by gum, snow is in the forecast.
…went ice boating. Some of us wimped out.
Bri joined a fleet of about 18 other Nites for racing on Puckaway. I walked along the shore of unfrozen Lake Geneva with Steve, the Chair of the Walworth County Democratic Party, recently resigned. Pax came with us as we tried to figure out what to do next.
Good walk and good talk, but not quite the same as rounding the windward mark on two runners.
To the well to tank up on water for coffee.
Low single digits last night, low double digits tonight.
A few more Christmas-related things today, followed by naps. And for dinner tonight—prime rib and Yorkshire pudding.
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At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts on the fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and at Bob Cratchit’s elbow stood the family display of glass. Two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle.
These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed:
‘A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!’ Which all the family re-echoed.
‘God bless us every one!’ said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
…before Christmas, and a party was had (carefully). (Thanks to everyone for photos.)