Happy Winter Solstice

December 21, 2024

 Well, this weather is more like it! It is clear and cold at -14C (7F) this morning. The stars are twinkling in the dark velvet of the sky. Last winter was just endured with its rain and mild temperatures. This is Canada...it is supposed to be cold!! 

We have a good base of snow now, and one can see the deer migration trails, clearly grooved into it by all their hooves, in all the usual spots, as they start to migrate through to their winter yards to the south.

(Had to darken this to see the tracks cutting the snowbank and coming across the road.)
With the deer, come wolves, and we heard their long, drawn out howls one day recently.

There is a particularly verdant patch of grass by the pond here, and the deer know, and have been pawing through the snow to snack on it.

In the bush, under any large oak tree that bore fruit this year, the leaves are all scuffled up from the foraging deer eating acorns.
 The season is beginning quite a bit more normally than it did last winter. There is nothing more invigorating than donning ones woollies and heading out into the crisp air.  A new pair of mitts and a hat to celebrate!

Most of the Christmas goody baking is done, and is stored in tins in 'the other fridge'...the shelf in the unheated back porch. The Christmas pudding steamed on the wood stove for a few hours yesterday. It's a beauty, fat and sassy, full of fruit, and carrots and spuds.

The turkey will be coming out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge tomorrow. 

Earlier in the fall, a few days were warm and sunny, and hoping to avoid cooking the contents of the hot frame, I lifted the lid a smidge and propped it there, thinking to keep out the hungry deer. Well, I forgot about the hungry voles....who promptly entered through the crack, and toppled my beautiful row of carrots like little trees, all in a row...and ate the roots.... I should have lifted the lid properly and put the screen in place. Lesson learned!  I was looking forward to savouring those 'candy carrots'. Better luck next year I guess. Yesterday morning, early, when there was just enough light out to see, we watched our resident fox scouting around the garden beds and rock fences. I was cheering him on and encouraging him on the vole hunt!

Another denizen of our bush...

A fisher going by a trail camera, and how Christmassy is this? Deer in the falling snow.

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Christmas.

Header picture was taken at Combermere one morning, with hoar frost coating the trees along the Madawaska river.

Snow!! and critters...

 December 7, 2024

Snow has come! We haven't received as much as other places to the west of us, where the lake-effect snow has pretty much buried them, but I'll take what we have! 

We took a little two hour jaunt yesterday, to visit a friend, and as we drove further south and west, the skiff of snowbanks along the highway gradually grew more pronounced. Her yard was a beautiful winter wonderland.

 Some of the snow streamers coming off of the big lakes did reach her neck of the woods, where it has been snowing off and on for about a week. It was finally a glorious sunny day, but as the afternoon wore on, clouds moved in and as we left to come home, more snow was falling. 

We travelled from Renfrew county, into the very north edge of Peterborough county. On the way down we followed two log trucks pulling pup trailers of logs. Almost every time one heads out on roads around this area, one will see a loaded log truck or two.

I came across this prickly fellow one day. He was waffling about whether to climb this tree, or not. I left him in peace.

We've been hearing coyotes in the evening of late. One night they awakened us from sleep, and sounded so close. Next day, I found these tracks on the road in a skiff of new snow.

A couple of earlier shots off of Bird Cam, a black-capped chickadee and a white-breasted nuthatch.

 
Also observed in the woods, a chaga mushroom on a white birch tree.

A fisher  in front of one of the trail cameras.

and some deer shots from the 'behind the barn' camera. 

Having a bit of a tiff...

Well insulated for winter.

On the crafting front, I just have to stitch the binding on this quilted table runner, so we can dine with a festive touch.

Socks, finished and blocked, with a Fleegle Heel, and a new to me, stretchy bind-off,
 

and a bit of hand stitching...a Biscornu pin cushion, stuffed with fine steel wool and dried lavender wrapped in poly-fil. Keeps my pins sharp and smells wonderful with every poke!

Woods, weather, wildlife...and some crafting

 November 24, 2024

Blue sky and sunshine...at least for a while in the morning yesterday, before the clouds rolled in with more rain. A wind-blown maple leaf has adhered to wet beech leaves for a flash of colour. 

It has been a bit of a dreary week with several rainy, drippy days. The unusual weather continues...no frost for a few, but a small skim this morning. The weather prognosticators are calling for more seasonal weather for the coming week.

One morning, on heading out, Hubby spotted a cow moose down beside the east end of the barn and called me. We watched her waffling about which way she was going, constantly looking back from the direction from which she'd come, a clue that perhaps she had a calf coming behind. Hubby grabbed the camera and started down toward the barn...the moose disappeared back behind the barn. He was able to get down on the west side in time to ascertain that there was another cow moose and a bull in the bush, coming up the trail behind the barn. They didn't stay long once they saw him, and I, watching from the back step saw the original cow head off into the bush as well.  So..we knew there'd be pics on the trail camera behind the barn.

This is a fuzzy shot of the bull that Hubby managed to take before the trio headed off. (click on the pic to get a slightly better view.)

A trail camera captured this neat shot...wonder if she is giving us a message??

I recently dug up one of my parsnips...what a snarly mess of roots! It was hard to clean, but so tender and delicious.

Although the bush is relatively quiet and serene, as if nature is patiently awaiting the blanket of snow, critters are still about and active. The woodpeckers are certainly enjoying the surfeit of food in the dead beech trees. A Pileated Woodpecker's excavation at the base of a dead beech.

On the crafting front....A pair of socks, off the needles and blocked, ready for gifting...

Another pair, still on the needles, 

An interesting band of pattern up the front of the foot, and ribbing with a twist every fourth row up the back of the leg. Just something to add some interest to the knitting.

Recently, I've been bitten by the bug of hand stitching, and although the tops of these hexies were put together with scraps, on the machine, the rest is hand stitched, making a decorative little bowl, and a place to put the little cross stitch done years ago.

And, of course, there has to be a critter somewhere in the mix!!!

The most colourful

November 17, 2024

 things in the woods today, other than me..

Yes, it is nearing the end of the two week rifle hunt for white tailed deer in Central Ontario. If one wants to wander the woods, they'd best wear blaze orange for safety. 

 This frozen mushroom was just lying in the middle of the trail, dropped from somewhere, by whom??

Here and there, protruding rocks are clothed in green moss.

Now I can see the fluttering flagging tape I tied near the spots where the morels grow in spring.

This oak leaf, alone and brilliant.

The colourful sheet of leaves that Mother Nature dropped, has now faded into a myriad of tan, brown and beige colours.

Even under the Hemlocks, there are enough deciduous trees to put a layer of leaves across the soil.

Hopefully she will soon be adding the white duvet of snow over the landscape.

The healthy size of the thorns on these Hawthorne bushes dotting old farm fields, makes one wonder why they evolved to this size, and what was nature protecting the bushes from?

Milkweed pods have dried and fluffed. Just touching these cause the little parachutes to float off on the faintest breeze.

This is a Eastern White Cedar log laying beside a trail, gleaming white in the sunshine.

A red squirrel has been shredding the bark while harvesting it to line his winter quarters. 

 The temperatures have been unusually mild over the last two weeks with just a couple of nippy days. We've only dropped the window on the Hot Frame for a couple of the cooler nights, and I still have lettuce growing under an old window in one of the raised beds. We have still not had a hard, killing frost, so I am able to harvest parsley and sage, although the deer have nibbled most of the parsley down to bare stems. There seems to be more, or bolder, deer around this year. We are discussing more serious measures for next spring, to protect the gardens.

"The last rose of summer...."

November 2, 2024

Well, not a rose exactly....

But a few blooms I picked, expecting frost...but we still haven't had a killing frost. Snow, yes...twice. 

 On the morning of October 28, there was a white dusting all over. It melted off by noon, but it was the first snow.

  

 

On the 29th, things had melted and dried, and the leaves were perfect for a 'rustling' walk.

The last few days of October were very warm, and early in the morning of Oct. 31, the temperature was 17C.(63F) We had coffee on the verandah and watched the dawn light grow through the leafless branches.

Yesterday, the temperature dropped as the day progressed,  and this morning there is a skiff of snow. The fire was lit, after a couple days of not even needing it.

There are still a few spots of pretty colour here and there in the bush.

A flock of wild turkeys has been hanging out around here. We have seen them several times here and there around the yard...The trail camera behind the barn captured them foraging. There is an apple tree there, with some fruit remaining, and also some oak trees with acorns, so food for them. 

Apparently this one also wanted to be on 'Bird Cam'....We think the small flock is an hen with this spring's poults. You can see the spur on this one's leg.

In  between the ups and downs in the weather, I got to spend some time doing a bit of crafting. The pieces for this bag have been languishing on my table since early spring.

Pieces of old jeans and some pretty fabric from a thrift store made this draw-string project bag, with pockets all around.

The little fabric box holds clips contained, while doing future projects; the fabric bits and pieces matching the pin cushions I made previously.