A FEBRUARY MORNING FOG

February 20th, a Very Foggy Morning

We woke up to pea soup fog this morning. OK, OK, watered down pea soup. Maybe it was not the worst fog I have ever seen, but it was in the top, um, 20, anyway. So far, here on the Eastern Shore, I have never seen fog that could compare to the fog in Maine.
As I have said before on this blog, I love the way fog changes the way the world looks and sounds. It puts a new perspective on things. Patterns that we don’t notice on clear days become more noticeable with the backgrounds hidden by the fog. Vincent really wanted to cut this tree down but I told him it was too beautiful to cut, I loved the way its branches were shaped. And the birds love the little berries.
This morning’s fog was a cold penetrating fog with temps just under freezing. It was chilly walking around the yard. I decided to hike up to the end of the property see how the neighbor’s barn looked.
Back home, the feeders were under attack by the poor starving masses of birds fighting each other for a spot on one feeder or the other. Have you ever seen so many birds in one clump! And check out all of them on the ground! The blur is a finch fight. Scrappy little fellows... like there isn't enough food to go around! Like the feeders don't get refilled every day. Geeez!
Papa cardinal came and took over the mixed seed feeder.
I really love having these feeders out the computer window. I must admit they are a distraction… but so much fun!
It is hard to believe I ate my lunch sitting out in the sun in a t-shirt!

THE FIRST BORN - 2007

The first daffodil of the season opened Thursday and the wind flattened it a few hours after I took this shot. So I picked it and brought it inside. Thought I would share it with you........

And this is the beginning of the cold front that brought the 42 mph winds and sent me scurrying for a jacket. sigh.

I had been resting my aching back in the adirondack chair I never got put away, eyes closed, soaking up the sun, listening the birds twitter away, listening to Punkin purring on my lap, when suddenly somebody turned off the lights! I looked up and here were all these black clouds that had been nowhere in sight 10 minutes before! This shot was taken around 2:30 PM when it rained about 30 or 40 raindrops.

A FEBRUARY MORNING

A February Morning

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning

Praise for them springing fresh from the world.

Sweet the rains new fall, sunlit from heaven

Like the first dewfall, on the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the One Light, Eden saw play.

Praise with elation, praise every morning

God's re-creation of the new day.

Remember that song by Cat Stevens? Did you know he converted to Islam and is now Yusuf Islam? I have always loved that song.

I could not help thinking of that song when I went outside this morning. February, here on the Eastern Shore, can be bitter brutally cold, or it can be a beautiful gentle reminder that spring is on the way.
The robins returned February 7th, right on schedule. Of course, we have a few robins here year round. I figure they are the robins from up around Caribou, Maine where it is below zero from September – to June. Well, OK, I exaggerate, but it does sometimes seem that way. http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=caribou+maine. Or Mt Washington - http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=MT+Washington+NH. Well, OK, maybe not that bad, but it might as well be for all the complaining that goes on.

On Sunday, we had snow! I swear I saw all 47 snow flakes come down. It was so exciting. Well, there might have been a few more – that was just out the front window.
Anyway, a nice February morning is truly a delight. I think it is the promise – the promise of daffodils – the promise of azaleas and camellias – the new garden growing in my mind – seeds begging to be planted.
The birds have changed their songs. New birds have moved back into the yard back from the winter spent in warmer climes.

The little goldfinches look so silly with their patchwork of colors as they change into their show-off breeding clothes. Territorial chattering starts about a half an hour before the sun comes up. I am so grateful that is earlier – makes it so much easier getting out of bed.
Baby digitalis have survived and are looking good.
The camellias are trying to decide if this is just another trick or dare they really start to bloom again? The old flowers, frozen almost instantly a few weeks ago, stand as a reminder to a warm January and a frigid February.
The crocus is making another attempt at blooming as the daffodils push their buds up ever higher.
Even the new blueberry plants have started to leaf out.
Punkin loves the warmer days, love sunshine and long walks thru the woods. He also loves to roll on the moss.
In another week or so, I will have to clean up the gum balls. Sigh. The trees are so beautiful and strong, why did god put those nasty gumballs on them? But Punkin will roll over in almost anything.

I have retyped this thing over a dozen times and blogger keeps rearranging it differently each time. It has taken Morning Has Broken and lumped it is one continuous paragraph, and then the next time I look at it - each line has 4 or 5 spaces between it and the next line. So far I am not impressed with the "new and improved" version that I was forced to accept the other day. How about you? It has not made it faster or easier... it has taken me an hour and a half to down load and retype and retype and retype or respace, backspace... etc! AAAAAAAAAARrrrrrghhh!

Still here - sorta.......

Still here…… sorta.

Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Who was it that said that?

To answer your questions – where are you? Why have you been away from your blog???
Well, I have been SOOOOOOoooooo busy! I am taking a class and it is including learning Arabic, and the last time I spoke any Arabic was 40 years ago and that was less than a dozen words anyway! - Just enough to tell the beggars to leave us alone or to ask the price of something, you know, the touristy thing.
My class is Islam (as part of my doctorate) and it includes learning to pray in Arabic and follow the life style of a convert to Islam. The life style is not a problem, wrapping my tongue around reciting the Qur'an is! Maybe I am just too old to “do” another language.
So I will be back soon… Inshallah! Just gotta find some time!

HERE BIRDIE!

HERE BIRDIE!
Hadji in his bedroom window watching for a customer!

Maybe they will not notice me, ya think? Obviously someone has been eating here, it was just filled yesterday.

PIGGING OUT BEFORE THE STORM

PIGGING OUT BEFORE THE STORM
Yeah, I know, these are not good shots, but they are out my dirty windows next to the computer with the only setting I can find that will not do a flash and make the shot totally ruined. But I am glad to have a picture, as poor as it is with this cheap digital camera, of the goldfinches who have been strangely missing until about a week ago. As you can see, they are on a thistle seed feeder and thistle bag. Sometimes I have as many as 12 thistle seed feeders going at one time, and all of them are covered with birds. That is a sunflower feeder on the right protected with a pie plate and held tight with clothes pins. Real high tech! But it works. If we get the snow they say we are supposed to get in a couple of hours, this seed will remain dry. That is a chickadee's butt you can see on that feeder.

While taking the finch picture, I noticed a cardinal checking out some dropped sunflower seeds under another feeder. See how high the daffodils are? They just popped up in the last week or two and are not nearly as high as the ones on the side of the house. Again, I apologize for the poor quality of thses pics but I was excited to have 10 finches together. The tree is my big redbud.