Ode to Winter....

Upon looking up 'ode to winter' I did find some poems, but
nothing that could tell the story of MY 'ode to winter' so I
decided to write my own..
Hope you enjoy it.

As the sun makes shadows on things unknown
two deer appear to lend beauty of their own...

On the top of a stone wall stands a man-made sight....

And here, a Playhouse frozen silent by a darkening winter night...

Visitors enticed by their sense of smell...

Under cover of dark sample what's in the well...

As the sunlight floods the early morn....

A furry head pops up to finish the left over corn....

The Chickadee calls out in the cold morning air...

And all of nature rejoices, for winter's deep dying groan
Will be but in a moment....
Soon replaced by the winds of Spring with a song of her own..

But for now let's look at the rest of the winter scenes and enjoy

Deer stand out so well in the white background of snow

On this bright day of snow and sunshine I was blessed
to see many White-tail Deer and was privileged to
get their pictures.

This one looks like a young male... attitude on his face..

But this one must be a female.. look at those long lovely lashes
and beautiful almond shaped eyes..

Although we long for Spring.. winter lingers on

and on

close up

or far away ..God's beauty is everywhere

Let's take one last look at the snow coming down

blowing howling wind and white all around

This week the first sign of Spring in the air...at least for me
The return of these birds to the tree where I work.

Yep! The Kestrels return. Some of you already knew..
The very first picture of them ... more to come...

To God Be The Glory ~~ Great Things He Hath Done

Bird Conversations and more...........

The snow is melting away and Spring is coming so I thought
I had better get these 'snow' pictures posted so I can move on
to sunnier days.

Bird Conversations...
you've seen them here before
I can't resist putting words into the mouths of these
loyal visitors. It just seems right to me.

A face - off at the early morning feeder

Hey! Mocker Don't freak I'm only here for the seeds

Well yeah Lovey just don't come over here

Ok.. I promise

Peace Lovey? .. Peace Mocker!

This here grape... It's MINE...

Hey Red, Is that you over there?


Then, we have the Blue Jays cleaning up what the deer
have left .. covered by snow

Hey look I'm gliding

Oops..

Did you know you have corn on your butt?

"The Flasher"

Snow covered branches sure do bring the birds in..
A lovely winter scene to us bird watchers.

Stay tuned... Coming soon... You'll never guess who's back
and getting ready to nest.

To God be The Glory ~~ Great Things He Hath Done

In Broad Daylight......

and to my dismay.... right there in the mid morning

beside the porch in the snow was a skunk.

A few days before I had thrown out some food and it was
covered with snow..

apparently he could smell it and was digging down deep
to get a bite of whatever it was

I was sitting up on the counter with the window up and
snapping pictures.. He didn't even notice me.. So I
threw out some jalapeno cheetos which just happened to
be on the counter beside me. . . ahhh not that I was eating
them or anything

He made a beeline for one and sniffed it.. I was holding my
breath.. they are quite spicy and hot

not to my skunk friend. He gobbled one right up

Holding it in his pink little hand and chomping away

I look up to see a squirrel resting on a snow covered branch

One eye peeked at me as I watched Mr. Skunk.

More to come in the backyard... stay tuned..

To God be The Glory ~~ Great Things He Hath Done

Double Trouble......

I have been feeding deer in the backyard so I am constantly

looking out to see if any have shown up.

I wasn't surprised to see the opossum on top of

the feeder, but I did a double take to see TWO!

Two cute little faces were looking back at me
cute being the operative word...some would not say 'cute'

We'll Sing in the Sunshine.........

As I leave my lane the snow is still up to the bottom of the stop sign....

the drive way is still not bare.... BUT the sun IS shining
and I am excited to see it.

Going back to 1964.. the year I graduated High School I
remember that old old song... "We'll sing in the sunshine

We'll laugh everyday"

I had to laugh at this Blue Jay digging his head into the
snow...

He must have been eating it or drinking from it
is all I could figure

The sunshine makes us all delirious

Mr. Cardinal is brilliant in the sunshine

Mr. Dark eyed Junco looks like he's about to ski with
his skinny straight legs

A white throated Sparrow searches on the snow for spilled
seeds from the feeder

Finding a bare spot from where I have shoveled another
male Cardinal looks for food

We can even see his shadow on the ground

The female Cardinal casting her shadow in the sunshine

I start singing my song again as sun continues to brightly shine

And when a year has ended,
And I have gone away,
You'll often speak about me,
And this is what you'll say:

We sang in the sunshine,
You know we laughed everyday,

To God be The Glory ~~ Great Things He Hath Done

Sled Riding... a forgotten past time by some

For all those kids out there in front of the computer

or the XBox or your fingers all a twitter tweeting
and twitching with indoor communication....or texting.....
on your Iphone...
Wake Up!!! get out of the house.. Look what
you are missing..

There is a very steep hill just above my house and when it
snows... and snows as it has this February the sled riding
is excellent.

My granddaughter and daddy came to give it a try..
Walking up the hill is hard...but the anticipation of the
"ride" down is alluring

When you see the face of an 8 year old..having fun

You know the walk was worth ....

every second of the 'ride'

Sometimes you go into a briar bush and crash... but
daddy is there to help you out

Soon... comes the hard part.. getting too tired to walk
the hill .. then daddy has to pull... and I hear him saying
"I know I used to but you're a big girl now"
but he did anyway.

It made for one happy grand daughter...

I thought we were on the downside of winter....but this
morning this is what I saw out the computer room window

The Northeast was hit again over night with snow
and high winds... drifting and power outages...

We only got about 3 inches...but the wind is brutal and
the blowing snow looks like a blizzard out there.

I think it will be awhile before I can sit in my garden and
smell the flowers....

To God be the Glory ~~ Great Things He Hath Done