From snow, to ice....to summer?????

April 13, 2023

This afternoon, as I write this, the temperature is 28C (82F). It has soared over the last couple of days and the snow is literally disappearing as I watch. The pond, sealed in ice a few days ago, is now full to the brim and just has a final small floating pan of ice which will be gone before nightfall tonight.

April 8

April 11

This morning

The ice storm on April 5 brought down lots of small branches and twigs, and a few fallen trees required a saw, to get them off of the road. Thankfully the temperature warmed enough to melt the ice before any appreciable wind occurred.

Over Easter weekend, the Chickadees were still looking for handouts, and one was not happy with me when I had no seeds in my hand, so hopped from hand to shoulder, to head, and proceeded to pull my hair. Ouch!

 Obviously nest making was on his/her mind! 

A lone Snow Bunting has been hanging out, and we captured this shot of it on a snowbank.

We've had an influx of Red-winged blackbirds and Grackles. The Eastern Phoebe arrived on Monday, and has staked out the barn as it's territory, singing from up on the peak of the roof. On Tuesday, a pair of Bluebirds came through, perching quietly on a tall plant trellis for a while, but moved on, probably looking for someplace that wasn't still covered in snow. Song Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, a Savannah Sparrow, Juncos and American Goldfinches in their bright yellow spring plumage are here. Yesterday we spotted the first Northern Flicker probing the sodden lawn between patches of snow. The morning bird chorus is growing, with the sparrows and robins providing more melodious sounds amid the hoarse 'chekking' of the grackles and red-wings. A friend just told me her farm is inundated with Woodcocks, so I will be out listening tonight to see if any have made it over our way.

This crocus must have been all set to bloom under the snow, because the snow just melted off this morning, and here it is!

Garlic was poking up beside snow this morning,

but this afternoon, the whole bed is encircled by melt water. I sure hope it soaks away quickly!

Today I wandered around, checking my row of small fruit trees, and sadly found out that this crab apple tree has been girdled by some vermin under cover of the snow.

My fault, as I should have protected it last fall. 

This morning, I turned over the dry, warm soil in my old cold frame and planted small rows of greens.

I'll lower the lid at night, but leave them to sink or swim on their own. I usually use that frame for hardening off seedlings, but could not resist getting my hands dirty. Next week's forecast calls for more seasonal temperatures, and that is just as well, as today is JUST TOO HOT!!!

Addendum April 14: Last night we heard the first frog peeps out of the pond! This morning there was a lone male Mallard on the melt-water pond,

and the gardens are free of snow!

 

Its time!!!!

March 31, 2023

There is nothing like a walk in the early spring woods.

Milder daytime temperatures have melted and compacted the snow down a bit, but after a cold night, walking pretty much anywhere in the bush, or across the field without snowshoes, is possible, at least until the day warms up.

The stronger sunlight is melting the cowls of snow away from tree trunks,

and sweet water is rising in the maples.

The air is crisp and clear, the sky bluer, and there is more active bird life. The woodpeckers are vigorously tapping out their spring messages, Barred owls are talking, and the Chickadees are making their 2 note, “sweet spring” song. A few Red winged blackbirds have arrived, their somewhat raucous, ”oak-a-lees”, resonating from the treetops. They are giving the greedy Blue Jays a run for the seed tray. The first Robin was spotted here a few days ago, hopping along the edge of exposed lawn beside the driveway snowbank.

The garden beds at the end of March are just vague humps in the snow, only the taller edge of the strawberry bed frame is visible.

But....planting has begun!

It is about 8 weeks until we should be able to plant outdoors, so time to get some pepper and tomato seeds into soil. Despite mapping out a strict garden plan, I always end up starting more plants than the plan calls for...but they'll fit in somewhere....or I'll share!

There have been a few blustery days recently, with strong winds, snow flurries of huge flakes, whiting out visibility; and a few nights with actual snow accumulation, but it melts off rapidly on the next sunny day. Slowly, bits of bare ground are melting out on the south and west facing banks of the pond, and melt water is flooding out over the ice, looking very blue, reflecting the sunny spring sky.

Recently, some productive time has been spent crafting a few things in my sewing room for fun.

I recently purchased a bias tape maker, and used it to make tape to encase cording, to put piping around the edge of these bags, a technique new to me. 

This bag is made from old jeans.

There are many different ways of making a fold able shopping bag, and this one appealed to me because of the little quilt sandwich the bag rolls into.

It opens up the possibility of using up scraps of different fabrics, or even making mini quilt squares.

Beasts and butterflies.....

 March 6, 2023

The latest snow storm on March 3, that came up across the States, dumped about 6 to 8 inches of snow on us. It seems like that may have been Winter's last hurrah, (but we won't count on that!!) as we are now being blessed with gorgeous sunshine, just below freezing temperatures at night, and just above freezing temperatures in the day...perfect for maple sap to run. There is a different feel to the air...it is balmy and soft...the sun so warm. There are degrees of Spring, and we are in the first degrees of Spring here in the north woods. 

Wherever snow has been ploughed away, patches of bare ground are quickly appearing. Snow banks along the road are high, but the strength of that sunshine will soon have them melting down. 

Camera was held at eye level for this shot.

The first job after a snowfall, is to clear the panels, to get whatever light is available.

March 4

Clearing the lane is next, ploughed into a middle ridge, then blown off.

Photo bombing Chickadee

We have been seeing Marten tracks around the house on a daily basis, and they often appeared going across the back step, visible in any new skiff of snow. One day we actually saw the critter bounding across the garden area, coming toward the house, her face stuffed with what appeared to be leaves. On back-tracking her later, it seems she has been helping herself to leaves out of a bag stored in my garden shed. Being curious about what she was up to, we looked around carefully, and discovered a tunnel going in under the back step, heading under the back porch. After the dump of snow on March 4, the tunnel was filled in, then a little later....ta da! 

You can even see the bits of snow on the step that has come off of her paws. We think we have a female marten who is bringing in nesting material in preparation to raising her brood under our porch. Martens give birth in March-April. In the fall, Hubby had positioned thick hemlock planks around the base of the porch, so we could bank the perimeter with insulating snow, so under there is a clear, dry space. We usually remove the planks once the snow has melted away...but.....

On a recent snowshoe hike, we discovered our neighbour's property riddled with moose tracks, some very fresh. The moose had been stripping the bark off of soft maples, pushing over young poplars and browsing their buds.

Hubby is just over 6 feet, and is on snowshoes on top of 2+ feet of snow, so one can see how far the moose can reach up and bite strips of bark. It is amazing what food sustains that large animal throughout the winter.

On the needlework front, the Papillon shawl is finished. It really was so much easier to do than it looks. Basic knitting skills are all that is needed, L and R increasing, and doing wrap and turns....and being able to concentrate and count!!

 

“Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, Of cabbages and kings “

 February 21, 2023

 Thank you, Lewis Carroll

Well, not so much that, but bits and bobs of other stuff. For some reason, perhaps because of the disappointingly un-wintery winter we are experiencing, my writing mojo has fled.... The weather has gone from low +C degrees yesterday, with beautiful sunshine, melting snow and making mud appear here and there throughout the ice that is the driveway; to -11C(12F) this morning, and now we are living in a snow globe. Huge, soft flakes are mesmerizingly drifting down, obscuring the landscape....and covering up all the ice.

We've been keeping relatively busy doing various things. One project has been replacing our smaller solar panel array (circa 2006, we think.) with new, more efficient panels. Hubby has done his research, and with input from our Solar Guru, it was determined that the system could accommodate the added power from new panels. All these miserable mild cloudy days, that have been most of our winter so far, has had us using the generator more than we ever have had to before. Getting the new panels into the system has involved; getting new mounting angle iron, welding sections to get the length needed, marking and drilling the mounting holes, then cleaning and applying paint. The old panels and their mounting frame were dismantled, then the new frame was put up, and finally the new panels mounted. We just bolted the panels on this morning, it being a still, calm day. All that remains is to hook up all the wiring.

Taking them down.....

Up, and finished for now....

The usual winter birds are here, Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, and the somewhat regular visit of a female Pileated Woodpecker to the seed tray. This morning a Snow Bunting arrived, and was on the snowbank under the bird feeder, pecking at bits. That is the first early spring migrant. We expect his mates will be showing up and hanging out for a while as spring proceeds north, and patches of bare ground emerge from the snow.

Our resident fox has found himself a mate, as they were caught on camera together. Marten tracks have been regularly all around the buildings and vehicles, and right across the step by the back door. Recently, we got to see him in person, contorting himself on the hanging suet holder, trying to get at it's contents.

Another day, on returning from a snowshoe hike, our attention was drawn to tracks visible up on the roof. Yes...Marty had scaled the end of the woodpile in the house woodshed, hopped up on the little roof over the back step, on up, over the back porch roof, and onto the house roof, going as far up as the ridgepole. Guess he wanted to see the view from up there!

The mild temperatures, interspersed with days of snow has kept the snowshoe trails firm with those odd skiffs of new snow padding them and making for quiet walking.The foxes use the trails regularly, their precise little canine tracks trotting along on all of the trails. Recently the coons have awakened and ventured out, their little five-fingered hand prints very distinct in the sun-softened snow. A moose has been checking out the line trail between us and our neighbour to the north, its tracks earlier were deep, well spaced punctures down through the snow, and are now big ovals, melted out then snowed in, dimples in the snow.

Recently I got the urge for a bit of baking, other than the regular bread and muffins, and tried a braided sweet egg bread, with rum-soaked currents kneaded in, after which each strand was rolled in cinnamon before braiding. It makes nice toast.

Another morning was spent making pierogi with the fun help of “Hunky Bill's Pierogi Maker”, something our son gave me for Christmas a long time ago. After trying several recipes for the dough, I've found one with a whole 500ml carton of sour cream mixed in, that makes a nice pliable dough. After covering the HBPM with a sheet of dough, the filling is pressed gently into each pocket, then a second sheet of dough is spread over the top and compressed with some vigorous pinning, which presses through to separate the pierogi.

The filling was potato, roasted garlic and cream cheese. 

Seed orders have been prepared and sent, and notice has been received that the first one will be in the mail this Thursday.

January eh.....

January  25, 2023

This un-January-like January, drags on. The temperature hanging too close to the freezing mark for my liking. Never much above and never much below. The older folks around say they have never experienced as mild a January as this, in their lives. There has not been a need to don the warm woollies for hiking, a light quilted jacket being sufficient. The gray days march on, interspersed once and a while with a glimmer of sun, usually too late in the day to have much effect on the solar panels. We did have two glorious, full sun days, punctuating the sunless ones.

Almost every day, there has been a new skiff of snow, sometimes just a dusting, sometimes enough to shovel. The dribs and drabs of snow are slowly adding up, and cushioning our snowshoe trails, making for pleasant, quiet walking, just a soft 'crump' with each step. There has been little to no wind, so the snow is also sticking prettily on all the boughs and branches, outlining them in white.

The fresh snow dusts in any animal tracks that have been made overnight, muffling them and making it difficult to discern who made what, although this rabbit track is fresh and easy to see, its big feet spread out into snowshoes.

This is a shot of a grouse's overnight accommodation. You can see where it plummeted into the fluffy snow, spent the night in it's snow cave, then wandered out come morning, leaving a little deposit behind.

Our resident Marten has been all over, sticking it's inquisitive nose into every tangle of brush it comes across. The resident fox scouts around the yard and buildings at night, here and there it's tracks come and go from a hole it has dug in the snow, having pounced and dug after some unfortunate critter. The upheaval it has made, mars the smooth expanse of snow stretching across our clearing.  

Every morning, the 4 to 6 Blue Jays are waiting for their ration, big puffy gray-blue lumps, sitting up in the branches of the crab apple tree by the tray feeder. Apparently we have traded the 18 to 20 jays we've had in previous years, for a surfeit of Hairy Woodpeckers. There are at least 4 hanging around, one or two visible at the feeders whenever I look out. They take turns, with some noisy altercations, on the hanging peanut feeder, which the Chickadees are also enjoying, as they pick up the bits the woodpeckers dislodge onto the snow beneath. A female Pileated woodpecker has been on the tray feeder a few times, and there are always fresh holes drilled into the standing dead beech trees in the bush. Those dead trees would also explain the increased number of Hairys this year.

The overwintering pepper plant has put out another fruit, and a couple more tiny ones are forming.

The one amaryllis bulb I potted up and brought in before Christmas, has bloomed, a cheerful spot of colour.

the last of a clump of 3 blooms

I'm working through processing my beautiful pie pumpkins into two cup portions, and recently re-stocked the pie shell supply for the freezer. (Love Aunt Molly's rolling pin.)

So, January plods on, February being the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. I live in hope that we will still get some lovely cold winter weather. There is a snow storm on the radar for overnight into tomorrow morning, so this may not get posted for a bit, depending on road conditions after the storm, for our trip to the library!

                         Addendum: Morning, January 26. Yeah!

 

Waiting for the sun......

January 5, 2023

The world is totally white again this morning. All the tree branches are lined with sticky snow. The 'rain-slush-yuck' was falling heavily last night, as we could hear it plopping and shushing down on the roof over our heads. On trying to clear the back step this morning, it is a granular, icy mess. We'll need sun to clear the panels, as this won't come off easily.

The Christmas storm landed here, lots of snow, but not too much wind. Our son made it north mostly in front of the storm, but did hit some heavier going on the more northerly part of his route. Other guests from further away, stayed safely home, so it was just we three for a cozy, snowy Christmas.

The lovely Christmas snow on top of the December 16th dumping,

Morning of December 17

added up to close to two feet of snow, and made for a beautiful hike around, breaking trails on a sunny Christmas day. (header was taken Christmas Day). Sadly, the weather changed, rain and warmth came and the snow settled alarmingly, showing bare ground wherever we had labourously shoveled, ploughed and blew the snow away. The temperature has been hanging around the freezing mark, day time just above, and night time just below, for a lot longer than one would expect in January, and the long range does not show much change. The skies have been gray, the couple of sunny days at Christmas were the last full sun days we've had in this unusually long stretch of dreary weather. The moon, heading now toward a full Wolf Moon, has not been seen through the heavy cloud cover, although the diffused moonlight through the clouds, is enough light to see out across the clearing and discern objects and the bush edge at night. Last night I observed a large black thing sitting up on the tray feeder across the drive from the house, easily visible from the bed room window. After a few moments of motionlessness, it spread it's wings and drifted down and off to the south...a Barred owl. Over the Christmas period, on tramping out the trail to the compost bins one morning, I discovered this.

Although it was daylight when the photo was taken, I had to darken it considerably to show the details. Some hapless critter had been snacking in the compost bin, headed out across the field, where there is no cover...and the owl got it, it's track ending in big wing prints etched in the snow. We know we have a breeding pair around, as we hear them regularly, and a couple of years ago, on a walk through the swamp trail, we discovered two young owls hanging out in the trees there.

A Marten has been coming and going under the back step and porch. Probably it has discovered good hunting there, and that is OK with us. 

A female Pileated woodpecker has been showing up on the tray feeder where we have been putting cracked corn, and the Chickadees are a constant delight...(from earlier in December)

The trail cameras have been showing deer moving through, heading down to their winter yard. One buck got up close to a camera. He looks rather thin and bony, perhaps as a result of the rut.

The sun is apparently going to make an appearance on the weekend, and we are looking forward to that! 

How one thing leads to another....

 December 11, 2022

Presently, I am cleaning the oven.

One recent evening, I popped an apple pie into the oven, and, horrors, forgot to put a pan under to catch the drips. Not bad at the time, pie came out, I saw the mess, but darn it was late. A job for tomorrow.

Last night, (its dark in my small oven, with no light), popped in the clay pizza pan to preheat because it was pizza night. Here I am prepping the toppings, (I harvested the three small peppers off of my indoor pepper plant and used them).....and that awful burning smell arose. NO! I hate, hate, hate a stinky oven. It totally destroys the pleasure of the good aroma of stuff baking in there. Well, I smeared the smoking mess around a bit in the hot oven, trying to get at least some of it out...

This morning, a great day, the snow is falling, the ground is whitening, yeah, yeah yeah! Motivation for Christmas baking, but darn, I have to clean that oven!!! So, here I am, waiting...... I should use a baking soda paste, but I want to bake, so have cheated and am using up the last smidge in a spray bottle of Easy-off. Gloves, mask and window open.

As well as trudging along on the Papilon shawl, (I'm on the 7th and last page of the pattern) I've done a bit of sewing. There is always a pile of stuff that needs mending, and I make myself work through that before I do any of the fun stuff. Somehow, just recently, I've been hooked into replacing a zipper and fixing a pocket on a neighbour's favourite hunting coat. I have until next November....!!!

So, I made a little quilt sandwich, and fashioned a pouch for my NEW Kobolibre2!

Yes, I've given in. A lot of books I'd like to read are in electronic format. Our library is small, and yes, they can get books in on loan, but it takes a while, and if there is something I'd like to read, I'd rather strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. It will be an adjustment, because to me, there is nothing as good as holding a real book in one's hands. 

Another small project is a Japanese knot bag. I've cut it out, but that is as far as I've gone yet. 

So, the waiting continues...Hope the motivation remains! And YES, the snow is falling, falling, falling!!!