micro-climate…

02 Sunday Mar 2025

Posted by sulis303 in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blanket, blessed, book, chair, cooperative, cushions, deck, family, feeder, garden, micro-climate, moments, nature, reading, weather, widow

spent a delightful hour on the deck in the sunshine…

last evening my housemate dug out one of the deck chairs from under the tarp so there would be a place to sit when the weather is cooperative…

I found a set of cushions in the garage and brought out my Assiniboine Park blanket…

pulled over a small table and put my current book on it…

I did have my winter jacket on, but the sun on my face as I was reading was wonderful;-)…

there is still lots of snow in the garden, but the deck is always its own little micro-climate…

I even filled up a few bird feeders…

hummingbirds…

22 Saturday Jun 2024

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big girl pants, blessed, family, feeder, fluttering, happy, hummingbirds, moments, nature, sound, treat, weather, widow, wings

we’ve been watching the hummingbird feeder since we arrived and on Tuesday, when we were at the table eating our supper we spotted the first one… having their meal too;-)…

Wednesday, while we were eating lunch, two of them had a little confrontation over who got to eat first…

Friday, while I was on the lower deck reading in the sun, one came right up to me before flying off… once you’ve heard a hummingbird, you always recognize the sound of their wings fluttering, lol…

what a treat;-)…

blower…

22 Sunday Oct 2023

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big girl pants, blessed, blower, feeder, garden, grandson, irrigation, leaves, moments, nature, prep, pump, put to bed, stacked, time, weather, widow

spent the morning in the garden…

we blew out the irrigation system, and put the caps in a clear bag on the side of the fridge so I can see them and remember where they are come spring, lol…

we stacked lawn furniture and got it ready for the tarp which will go over it in the next week or so…

we used the leaf blower to move many of the elm leaves into the flower beds so bugs and other things have a place to over-winter…

we moved flower pots under the deck and into the shed… and took apart the hammock stand to go in there as well…

two umbrellas came down, but because it had rained not long before we started our work, they went into the garage open to dry before making their way to the shelves…

we hooked up one of the bird feeders so I can get to it from the deck once the snow starts…

the pump came out of the bathtub pond and made it into the house, was cleaned and is ready for storage…

phew…

hummy…

18 Monday Sep 2023

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big girl pants, birds, blessed, feeder, flowers, friends, garden, hummingbird, hummy, moments, nature, purple, salt, sugar, syrup, widow

I’ve spotted the hummingbird a number of times in the garden over the last few weeks… I have basically given up trying to get a photo, lol…

last Sunday I was in the living room on the phone with my daughter and looked out the window to see the hummy shoot by…

that made me go out to the garage to find the hummingbird feeder, bring it into the house, make syrup and fill the feeder… took it out and hung it in the garden near the purple flowers it seemed to like…

I sat out for awhile to watch for it, but nothing…

the next day, my buddies were here and when one tasted her coffee she spit it out… apparently I had put salt in the sugar bowl… which had also been what I used to make the syrup for the feeder… no wonder nobody showed up to drink from it…

brought the feeder back in, made real syrup, and put it outside…

maybe the hummingbird will come back, but it looks like it may have headed south;-(…

feathered…

10 Friday Dec 2021

Posted by sulis303 in life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, birds, blessed, feathered, feeder, happy, house finch, moments, nature, reading, sunshine, treat, widow

had a delightful afternoon reading and watching my feathered friends at the window feeder…

I was reminded of the quote on yesterday’s Christmas card:

“The joy of retirement comes in those everyday pursuits that embrace the joy of life.” ~ Byron Pulsifer

having the time and space to just sit and watch the birds, and read in between their visits, was and is a real gift…

and the beauty of the House Finch couple made me happy…

plastic…

03 Wednesday Nov 2021

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big girl pants, bird feeder, birds, blessed, feeder, moments, nature, plastic, widow

I’ve been having fun watching the birds coming to the window feeder in the living room…

so far there have been chickadees, house finches, nuthatches, and blue jays… I had hoped to be able to take photos but the plastic distorts the pictures…

now I just sit and enjoy them;-)…

I’ve had to go out and wash the glass as they have made a mess of the window…

they make quite a noise as they decide which seed is the one they need and then sometimes open it right there by tapping it on the edge of the drawer…

they have also knocked out the little drawer that sits in the feeder… eventually I taped it down and so far it hasn’t fallen out again…

slinky…

12 Thursday Aug 2021

Posted by sulis303 in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather

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big girl pants, blessed, feeder, garden, happy, moments, nature, slinky, weather, widow

on Monday the slinky arrived in the mail…

we’d been looking for a while and apparently everyone has been buying them as there were none available nearby…

this one was ordered on Thursday and turned up just four days later…

once the rain stopped I put it on the bird feeder pole…

I didn’t pin the bottom down as I read that this wasn’t required…

we will see if it keeps the squirrels from getting to the feeder…

stripes…

23 Friday Oct 2020

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big girl pants, birds, birdseed, blessed, feeder, food, garden, identify, moments, nature, stripes, watching, weather, widow

had fun going through my various bird books and apps because I saw a very interesting bird on the deck yesterday… it was a touch bigger than a sparrow but with stripes on its front with a black dot on its chest… couldn’t find it in any of the books…

there was a house finch there too and I haven’t seen any of them for quite a while…

at one point I saw three chickadees at a feeder in the front yard at the same time… rare to see more than one…

was going from the front to the back throughout the day checking on the guests…

didn’t get any pictures except this one when I headed to the front yard to fill the feeders…

brought the pail of seeds into the kitchen to make filling the feeders easier…

Merlin…

27 Thursday Aug 2020

Posted by sulis303 in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, birds, blessed, feeder, garden, Merlin, moments, nature, pond, water lily, widow

well, what a day yesterday was… spent the majority of it in the garden, watching the water lily and all the birds flitting about the space… maybe they are starting to head south, sigh…

first to the feeder came the Downy Woodpecker… it was there for a while before flying off… believe that is the first one I’ve seen this summer…