New Year

Scientists warned us that global warming aka climate change would cause more extremes in our weather and that's exactly what we have got. More frequent and more extreme hurricanes. More frequent and more extreme tornadoes. More extreme cold and more extreme hot. The sad thing in my opinion is that young kids and new born babies will grow up thinking that his new weather is "normal" and it actually will be for them. The moon last night shortly after the New Year arrived. Of course I didn't stay up - this was taken on one of my nightly trips.

 We've had seemingly endless days and nights of bitter cold and lots of snow. The skies, the morning skies, are beautiful. The sky looking east over Lake Huron towards Canada on the first morning of the New Year. Clicking on photos enlarges them.

I have a favorite tree at the edge of my bluff with graceful branches which I often try to include in my shots.

I was not going to feed the birds this winter. However, the extreme cold we've had for way too many days changed my mind and the birds are back in numbers. I trudged off to TSC and collected suet feed for the woodpeckers and chickadees, sunflower oilers for them and also the goldfinches, and niger/thistle for the goldfinches and juncos. Expect to see shots of them throughout this long winter.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Goldfinches

Juncos

Purple Finches (above)

I love the purple finches because they remind me of self red canaries I bred for many years long ago. Their numbers at my feeders here are small and later on they seem to be replaced by similar looking but smaller redpolls

Cardinal

Christine gave me "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher" by Timothy Egan about the life and works of  Edward Curtis. His (Curtis) photos of some of the surviving original Americans back in the early 1900s and an accounting of their lives is amazing. Egan's book is a must read. 

Purely by accident at the same time I had started Kindle-reading "The Round House" by Louise Erdrich which is a wonderful book as well. 

Before I moved I donated more than 3/4 of my books to the Royal Oak library for their sidewalk sales. Sacks and sacks of books were delivered to them as I tried to pack for the move to a much smaller home. I also cleared out my basement of my own detritus and that of my parents and David. That stuff went to the Salvation Army; even though I don't especially like them, they mostly do good work. Unfortunately, I have started accumulating books again, like dust bunnies, they seem to multiply logarithmically.

Snow arriving (below)

A short time later.

Whiteout

I've been looking everywhere for one of my scarves I got as a gift a few years ago and cannot find it. Sooo, Walmart does have yarn and I do have time. These are really long scarves, probably more than six feet in length - each is folded twice in this shot. Reading real books or books on Kindle, watching good DVDs, knitting, drinking hot cocoa, keeping my five porches snow-cleared (but no sidewalks here - yea), and, of course, letting the dogs in, letting the dogs out, feeding the dogs, letting the dogs in, letting the dogs out, et cetera all keep me very busy.