More tree stuff, and fox in a tree.....

 January 23, 2025

Excuse me just a tick, while I wax eloquent about this wonderful weather we've had over the last week, and hopefully ongoing for a while!

Beautiful clear mornings, the stars, sharp pricks of white in the sky's inky blackness. The slowly lightening sky, until the orb of day is visible, her 'crinkle' light sparkling through the bare branches of the trees at the SE corner of our clearing, the sunlight hitting the very tips of the tall spruce spires on the west side. Gradually, the sunlight creeps down until it brushes across the solar panels. By then, the whole world is bathed in glorious sunshine.

Some mornings, I throw on a coat, hat and mitts, and just go out to inhale deeply of the beautiful crisp air, and watch the pinkish sky turn to blue. This January is so much more like normal, or should I say, more like winters we have enjoyed in the past. Of course, not being dressed optimally for the weather on these early morning forays, it is so good to come back inside to the heat emanating off of this!

Wood harvesting goes on. Hubby dropped a big, beech tree that has grown along the E side of our clearing.

It was still in relative good health, although signs of the encroaching Beech Bark Fungus are there. We decided to harvest it while the wood is still fairly sound. It is a branchy beast, having grown with full sun exposure on it's W side, so a bit west side heavy. It was relatively easy to aim it's drop zone across the clearing.

We will be beavering away at clearing up sticks and twigs after getting all the usable wood, for some time to come. Apparently the ATV is not as enamoured with this weather as I am, and refused to start when required to start hauling log rounds, so the tractor was urged into action, boosted to start, then the balky hydraulics warmed with a heat gun, then a tow job to bring the ATV back to the garage....frozen carburetor. We used the tractor bucket then, to roll and pile the log rounds into, and ferry them to the pile behind the barn. Believe me, we sure didn't notice that it was cold out!

The coldest morning over this stretch was just -24C (-11F). Most days the temperature rises to the low minus teens C (12ish F). The air has stayed mostly still and calm, so there hasn't been much of a wind chill factor.

This is what we call the 'Glove Tree'.

Along one of our trails, someone in the past has temporarily put their gloves in the crotch of this tree, who knows for what reason...and forgotten them. They are now totally encased in wood.

Another human sign is the 'Sole/Soul' Tree.

The sole of a boot has been nailed on this cedar tree. We routed the Cedar Bush trail to come by it, picking the highest and driest route, as in the spring, it can be quite wet underfoot. The cedar bush is behind my garden shed, delineated by a stone fence on its east and west sides, and seems to be a place in the past, where refuse was tossed. We have found broken crockery and rusted cans poking up in one area of it. 

 Some mornings there has been a skiff of new snow, just enough to be able to see the tracks from our foxes, who have been diligently scouting the perimeter, on the hunt for vermin.

And, finally...fox in the crab apple tree.... (taken through the window..just a short jump up for him.)

Foxy, did you really think you could reach the suet feeder from here????

The Polar Vortex, trees, deer and pie....Oh my!

 January 18, 2025

We've had a lovely run of cold weather, although today the temperature is just above the freezing mark, and icicles are dripping off the front of the verandah. The Polar Vortex is apparently heading our way later this weekend, so that will firm things up. On our snowshoe walk around the bush this morning, the snow was a bit sticky. It tends to ball up under one's feet on the snowshoe webbing, when it is really mild, and you end up tapping the shoe against trees along the trail to dislodge the lumps. My old-fashioned webbed shoes are much quieter than the modern aluminum and vinyl (?) decked ones, but the modern ones don't have as much issue with sticky snow.

The bush is absolutely riddled with tracks, predominately of deer, but because we've been getting lots of little snow flurries, the tracks are mostly blurred out. One track is distinctive though, that of 'Stumpy'. That is a name we've given to a large deer, probably a buck, whose walking track is well spaced, sinks into the snow further than other deer, and each foot makes holes in the snow the size of a small tree trunk. 

This doe and her fawns show up quite regularly on the cameras..

Here, they are gathered near a salt block we've placed with a camera.
We have had some lovely cold, clear days..

and others, milder with hazy sunshine....

both of which are great for getting exercise and fresh air.

Tree harvesting continues, preparing for the 26/27 heating season. The snow is not too deep, there is only about a foot in the bush so the plough on the ATV keeps the trail drive-able. Most of the beech trees are past their best before date for firewood now, due to the Beech Bark fungus which is decimating Ontario's beech trees, so we've turned to birch, which puts out a decent heat when burned, and they are not long-lived trees. Here and there along the trail, we pick ones that are not in optimum health, and are more accessible.

Timberrrr....

 

This big poplar was more of a handful, but a bit of poplar is better for the 'shoulder' heating seasons, when not a lot of warmth is needed.

The beginnings of the pile behind the barn...

A couple of the latest 'builds' from the sewing room...

Needle books... one for regular sewing needles, and the mauve one for darners used in sewing up knitted goods.

A better solution than rattling around in a little tin box getting their points blunted. 

A bit of mindless crocheting for these dark evenings...

A Tunisian crocheted afghan to use up yarn left over from this Corner to Corner afghan I made a few years ago for our son.

As always, one needs food to keep body and soul together, particularly in the cold weather. The makin's of potato-bacon soup...All the vegetables from my garden.....

And to use up the lemons purchased for Christmas baking, (waste not...want not!) a lemon pie, cooling in the 'back porch refrigerator',

Furred and feathered...

 January 3, 2025

Finally, we have winter! The forecast for the next couple of weeks is for lovely wintery temperatures.

Yesterday we blew and shovelled our way out from under about 6 inches of wet, sticky snow that fell on New Year's Day. Waiting a day proved to be wise, as wet sticky stuff turns fluffy as temperatures drop, which they were supposed to do, and did. The snow was much easier to blow. This morning has dawned with clear skies, beautiful sunshine and a crisp breeze...-9C (16 F). Sunshine has been sorely lacking for the past couple of weeks, and with temperatures fluctuating just above and just below freezing, not ideal December weather, although Christmas morning was sunny for a couple of hours.

Rain after Christmas turned everything into an ice rink, and packed down the snow that we did have. Thankfully it didn't all disappear, and now we have a lovely new layer of snow. The snowshoes are out!                 

 Deer have been moving through the area. There are lots of tracks around the yard, most heading to wherever anything remotely edible is poking up out of the snow. They have been pawing away at the top of my parsnip patch...must be disappointing for them to encounter a mesh of hardware cloth preventing them from reaching the edibles! There are a couple of pyramidal cedars in front of the verandah, and the deer got up enough nerve, or were hungry enough, to come and sample them. We've since wrapped the tree that was getting hit the hardest, in bird seed bags for protection.

On Christmas morning, we heard honest to goodness wolf howls, not just coyote yips, as the canines are following the deer down to the deer yard. This fellow came past a trail camera.

We believe we also have a pair of foxes, as their tracks are daily scouting the yard and around the buildings. We happened to see one of them in the yard one day, and watched as it pounced, cat-like, on something he/she heard under the snow, then proceeded to crouch down and eat the catch. I'm hoping it was one of those pesky voles!

There was a flock of American goldfinches in their winter duds, around the feeders one day recently, and we've seen the Evening Grosbeaks a couple of times, but our usual visitors are Blue Jays, White-breasted Nuthatches, Hairy Woodpeckers, and my favourite little friends...Chickadees. 

The Barred Owl has visited Bird Cam, but didn't give us his best side...

 We've made up a batch of suet cakes, with sunflowers, cracked corn and millet seeds,

but have to ration them, as homemade ones disappear so much more quickly than store bought ones. One wonders what they put in them???

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!!!