Wings of Winter - Part 5

The juncos are still hanging out in my juniper bushes and snacking on sunflower hearts that sit in the feeder trays or fall to the ground, but they also occasionally hit the peanut butter feeders.  

A male pileated woodpecker came in to enjoy a little peanut butter. Oddly, he chose the smaller of the two logs, rather than the one that would have given him a better place to balance with his tail.  

He's so beautifully bold against the snowy background.  His red crest almost vibrates with color!

Speaking of red, his poor, cold cardinal snuggled into the leeward side of one of my blue spruce trees.  The wind was howling and he was trying to get as much windbreak as he could!

Wings of Winter - Part 4

Mallards gather in areas with open water (there's way more of that this year than last year!). They dabble in the shallows and hang around on the shoreline ice.  

This quartet found a particularly sheltered spot.  One of the things I really noticed about this crew was the brilliant color of some of their bills.  Two were a sort of standard yellow and two were a really vibrant orange.  

These Canada geese were grazing on a hillside beside the bay where the wind scours the snow off the grass.  I particularly enjoyed the effect of the rising sun glowing on the eastern side of the pine trunks.  It was beautiful!

Of course, they found Baloo a little bit intimidating, so they flew off into the bay, but gave me a great view of the island in the background, so I wasn't too disappointed.  

Then, three more flew in from up the bay to join the group - er... gaggle.

And landed in their midst.  Baloo was pretty much transfixed by this development.    

After our nice morning walk, Baloo took a nap in his bed under the piano while I had a cup of tea and some breakfast.

Wings of Winter - Part 3

Madam red-bellied woodpecker came to enjoy a dinner of sunflower hearts.

You can tell it's the female red-bellied woodpecker because her red hood doesn't continue all the way from the back of her neck to her beak.  It takes a break at the top of her head.  

She stuck around for a long time and gave me a while to admire and photograph her.  Pretty cool.  

Spoiler Alert - March Stampeaz Invoice Image

Warning: I had to get more than a bit verbose in order to give you time to decide whether or not you wanted to continue and see the spoiler image I will be using for orders placed in March, or not.  If you're planning to order soon and want a surprise, don't continue.  If you have no plans to place an order, no spoilage will occur, since it won't matter to you.  In either case, read on at your peril!  

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't posted a lot related to Stampeaz or carving in the blog recently, so I will attempt to remedy that and intersperse some product news and carving related content among the various wanderings in nature, exploits in the kitchen and adventures with Baloo that normally appear in these online musings.  

With that in mind, I will begin with carving content and an idea I hatched this morning while puttering around the Stampeaz shop space in my basement.  I am going to post an image of this month's invoice image.  It was a set of carvings I originally did for a "Thank You Berry Much" card I wanted to send in appreciation for a lovely gift of homemade raspberry jelly I received.  (It was absolutely delicious!)   Before I washed the ink off these carvings and put them away, I thought it would be fun to use them to thank my customers berry much, too.  

While I usually print the images I send out with orders directly on the invoice or packing slip that I include with the package, this time the raspberries will be inserted into the package in a postcard-ish form.  I'm doing it this way, since smooth Bristol card stock allows me to make a cleaner print and it's a little bit easier to register the three blocks forming the picture when I can reference a corner of the page while printing.  To top off the benefits, it will also already be cut out and ready to go, just in case you put the invoice images in your logbook, instead of directly into your wastebasket!  :)

These raspberries are based on a botanical picture I found and printed in light green, red and violet to render the final image.  I like the shading the purple gives on top of the red berries, how it morphs almost to black on top of the green and stays purple for the prickers along the stems.  I hope you enjoy it!  

Wings of Winter - Part 2

The Blue Bird Contingent...

I saw this fellow and a number of his friends flitting about in Baloo's favorite field - in the middle of January.  I have no idea what they are finding to eat, but they all look healthy and happy.  

Here's a little closer picture of the same bluebird.  I tried to sneak up without frightening him off.  Of course, it may have been the big, black dog that caused him to feel threatened...  Or the funny mechanical eye that kept staring at him.  

Not a bluebird, but a blue bird, this blue jay liked snacking at the fat feeder.  My blue jay visitors don't often cling to the suet hanger, but when it gets really cold, they want the fuel for keeping warm.  

Another chilly, snow covered rascal is guarding the sunflower heart feeder.  The snow was swirling around and dusting blue feathers with white. 

Here's another photo of the same bird all fluffed up against the wind.  I liked how the snow created a sort of sparkle eye shadow effect.  Very fetching.  

Wings of Winter - Part 1

It has been warm enough this winter that seagulls are still in the area. Last year, they were long gone and the bay was well on the way to being frozen over.  I remember seeing the first gull returning around the middle of March and being surprised at its call, since I hadn't heard one in months. 

These birds are hanging around a nearby harbor where the slushy snow and ice have pushed to shore.  

It's hard to get good pictures of juncos, but I keep trying.  They don't stay still very long and they are quite shy of people, unlike chickadees!  This one is in the ornamental apple tree just outside my window.  He's awaiting his turn at the feeder.   Can you believe there are still apples?  The finches have been working on them, but most seem to be favoring the sunflower hearts and peanut butter for now.  

A Longfellow Morning

Back in November, when I took some family vacation time, Baloo and I walked out on a couple of foggy, frosty mornings.

I found myself intoning lines from Longfellow's "Evangeline" with the very feel of the forest primeval all around us, indistinct in the twilight.

The trees and even the weeds were standing like the Druids of eld, though the voices sad and prophetic primarily belonged to the cows, since there wasn't much wind.

Even the bright berries had hoary beards.  

I knew that I had memorized great sections of "The Song of Hiawatha" as a child, but it was a surprise to tease "Evangeline" out of my memory as we walked along.  I didn't recall having memorized any of it!!