Chickadees~~~

click on photos to enlarge

So, how many Chickadees do You see?

 This photo was taken as I am standing eye level to the snowbank in our yard....I'm 5'3" tall, if that gives you an idea of how much snow that's piling up...this is the weekend the little boys and their Dad plan to dig a snow tunnel.

 As everything is either brown or white around us, the transparency of the icicles hanging from the soffits is rather pretty., if ice can be pretty.

 Click on the photos to get a closer look at the length of some of these icicles.  The longest one in front of the door is nearly 4 ft. long.

 The ice is piling up on the roof edges, adding a great deal of stress.  When we have a day above 32F degrees, it piles higher so Bill has to get on the roof, shovel what snow and ice has accumulated so we don't end up with roof damage.

 More double trouble, two stories high.

 The excess weight of the ice may be cool to look at but very dangerous to be under......

 when it all comes sliding down.  The force and weight could kill if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The storage shed with the metal roof already has a curl starting.

Look out below!!!!

 The rainbow around the moon indicates more scattered snowshowers with rays of sunlight throughout the day.

Maybe it also means the days are starting to warm....fingers crossed~

 But, in the meantime, it makes for a spectacular show of

Midnight Ice.

Our patience will pay off in the end.  For now, we will continue to fill our remaining winter days with thoughts of our garden plans.  Mine are ambitious at the moment but once my muscles get involve, I will relax into planting my garden as,

per usual.

Stay warm if you're cold and

cool off if you're warm.  I can always send you 

snow and ice.

So~~~how many Chickadees did you see?

BlessYourHeart

Putting Up With It

It's the bright GREEN grass that I want to see.

 I would rather be in my training ground of a garden,

learning to live with the future in mind.

 Instead, we have been bombarded with more of that stuff floating from the sky to the earth, covering us more than knee deep.

 Last weekend, this weekend, today~~~~~

you can see by the kids on the snowbanks,

Sam on his sled below, the guys standing in the foreground,

that it's getting plenty deep., oh, but fun.

 Sam again, playing in the corral...

 and Nate, both loving that we do have snow on the ground this winter.

These two are my nephews, Sam belongs to Mel and Nate to Cher.

They hang around quite a bit~~~oh the stories~~~another time.

 And more cousins, Sy, Sean, Noah and Ben, sliding down the snowbank and watching out for the snowmobiles, wondering if they are going to get a short ride around the field~~~nope, too cold.

Just another taste of our long winter fun and weather.

Thanks for putting up with it like we have to.

Blessings

1912 Old Barn

This old barn was born in 1912.  It stands across the way from us, waiting for some attention.  Our neighbor is in his 80's and can no longer do the upkeep himself.  We have been thinking of asking him if he wants it's boards replaced and it's skin resurfaced with a facelift....paint.

 Thankfully, only one piece of tin has flown off the lean-to.  That's an easy fix, as well as the door that leans.  But the paint....well, back when it was last done, some 50 yrs. ago,  it was done with a metal paint.  Most of it has worn away.  As much as we all love the look of worn barn boards, a new coat of paint will only lengthen the life of this beauty.

This gorgeous old barn with a huge hayloft, hasn't had any animals in it for the past 28 yrs. when our neighbor's dad was still alive and still raised his donkey and a couple of Shetland ponies.  Our daughter would spend hours visiting over the fence with Old Ted since she was only 8 yrs. old until the day she left for college.

 They would even visit from the dining room window while Old Ted would eat his lunch.  His tiny wife, Eva, would want to shoo her away so he could finish eating but he insisted on leaving the window open so they could continue their visits.  I think my daughter was a bit of a pest...and no wonder she never showed up for her own lunch~~~

We still pass this same old barn as we pass through the edge of the farm on the trail back to our cabin.  The 1912 barn has been photographed so many times by so many folks as they passed by on the highway between us.  Especially in the fall, when the leaves were colored all around the farm.  That has changed since Young Ted, ( our 80 yr. old neighbor who still lives there) was a logger in his day.  Before he retired his chainsaw, however, he cut every marketable tree on his property behind the barn, so the colorful photo opportunities no longer exist.  Only our forest is untouched of it's beautiful trees.  He offered to cut them but we told him that HE is welcome to walk our property and pick berries, anytime,. but his CHAINSAW is not welcome....it remains our joke everytime he offers to help Bill cut some downed trees.

Thank You for stopping by.

I appreciate your visits each and every time.

BlessYa

The Floss-Silk Tree

I turn the page of my daily 

Finding GOD in the GARDEN Calendar, and today

it tells me about being useful.

this and all photos in this entry are from the internet

 The Floss-Silk tree grows in Brazil and Argentina mainly, besides other more tropical regions.  The tree is loaded with magnolia-type blooms that turn into huge pods, or the fruit of the tree.  When ripe, the fruits burst open to reveal a silky floss used to stuff upholstery  like cushions and pillows.  The fluff reminds me of the seeds within a Milkweed pod.

 Beware, however, as the trunk of the Floss-Silk Tree is studded with sharp thorns that fall off as the tree ages.

We, or at least I, should hope to be like these trees, full of usefulness, becoming softer and more approachable as time passes.

So, as the Good Book reads:

Stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you.  You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people.  

Philippians 2:14-15 NLT

 (New Living Translation of the Bible)

It's a hard act to follow but I will do my best.  God commands it of me.

BlessYa

I Wonder

OK, I'm guilty.  I am guilty of cravings just like the rest of you, especially if you are sick and tired of the cold and the snow, so much snow and cold.

 I came across these photos of last spring's trip to a succulent and semp garden in a town to the northwest of me.  My sister Mel and I have visited it several times and never come home empty-handed.

 Seeing these photos again, makes me wonder how my own little garden of succulents and semps are surviving the winter.  I was not worried at first, as we started out to have a pretty mild winter.  But, then the bitter cold came before the snows.  That concerns me.  It froze deep so, did my tender plants survive the winters turmoil...or not.  Only spring thaw will tell me for sure.  I have hope all is well.  I saw a rabbit nibbling on the Mother of Thyme yesterday, twice.  This plant however, is not a tenderfoot.  It has survived worse and will again.

 I love all the whimsical ideas that run through my head when I visit here at the Big Brooke Gardens in Cable, WI.  You really must visit if you get a chance to.  You will not be disappointed.

 See, even ideas on the roof of the faux outhouse.

 Joy running down the turtles back, colors of joy, like his patchwork shell.

 Succulents everywhere, either to view or buy.  Click on any photo for a closer look at what you may have missed.

 Someday, I want this, and this, and this and that....someday.

 I hope you enjoyed the short tour.

Me?  I'm going to stay a while yet.

There is so much to see, and touch, and smell, and 

Ohhh, the eye candy everywhere.

Have a beautiful weekend.

I will be over here, 

dreaming.

BlessYourHeart

Melt

Iced Sunsets, 

 to the point, 

nothing fake about it~

 ~warmed by the sun~

praying it melts soon!

Blessings

White on White on White

Yes, we got more of the white stuff gifted from the sky.

 It started to snow yesterday, and snow and snow and sideways blow~

 We woke to piles of it, covering every little branch~

 Boughing the branches to the ground with heavy, wet snow

That hours earlier had been rain drenched with much needed moisture.  This is never a good combination for travel.  

 The weight of the snow nearly crushed my Bridal Wreath shrub.  

When the snow finally melts, this resilient shrub will rise to the occasion.

You would never know that it had lay flat on the ground at one time this winter...my Bridal Wreath is 33 yrs. old this summer.

 Normally I would have taken a ride down the country roads just for pictures but the plows are busy clearing so much heavy snow and I  can take more photos later.

 This snowed crow was not happy with the wind dumping cold blankets on his shoulders every branch he landed on...but it was free entertainment for me, laughing and listening to him scold.

 Even the fences around the apples and the gardens were visibly covered.

 Icicles are forming as the day is warming and the winds are picking up, dumping snow down Bill's back as he pushes snow into huge piles with his Lil Blue tractor...sorry, Jack, no photo of my big boy on his big toy.

 We have had a fairly mild winter for our northern country and we really can use the moisture the snow is providing,

it is beautiful to look at and makes the world around us seem 

all clean again, but, I'm sure you all are just as ready as I, to see it all

play it's ' disappearing act.'

 My Hydrangea have also boughed under the pressure. 

 The Black Cherry branches seem to be drinking up in appreciation.

 The snowflakes were blowing directly out of the east rather than the usual west, and sideways rather than drifting straight downward, 

piling up rather quickly, sticking to everything in sight.

 so now, there is shoveling to do...lots and lots of

shoveling.  The blade of the tractor could barely move this heavy snowfall so ' lifting ' a scoop of snow with the snow shovel would be a real workout!!!

Not for the faint of heart.

Normally I would love to be out there shoveling.

I enjoy it and breathing the cold air but today, I appreciate being

' grounded.'

Instead, I will keep the coffee hot and cook a hot meal for the ones doing the manual labor today., my guys.

Stay where you are if it's warm air you are enjoying.

Be grateful there is not a shovel that fits your hand on a day like today.

Take photos of something other that so much ' white '...

Send them on, 

on to us northerners, as we wait for an early spring.

I thank you in advance.

and

BlessYourHeart