Business Is Up At The Feeders

As the sun was rising yesterday morning this
is what I was looking through at the kitchen window.



The icicles were growing so long that I could
not even take pictures of the birds feeding from the
feeders because of the ice.
So it was time to go out and knock down some ice from
the eaves and gutters before it started causing ice to dam
back under the roof and cause problems or bring down
the gutters from the weight.
With another snow storm on our front doors steps
which I did not even want to think about, I took broom
in hand and knock down all that I could reach. Since
we live in partial two story I could not reach them all
but with the sunshine yesterday a lot of ice slide off, taking
down one of the lower widow boxes in the process so I
had to go out and rescue it. I was just glad in the great
slid it missed breaking one of the windows.



Now at noon it is snowing like crazy and the roads
are getting terrible. My Mom just informed me that
she called the Ohio Dept. of Transportation to tell them
to get on the ball and get on the roads because she has
grand-kids coming home from work this afternoon. LOL!
Whatever! She is more gutsy than me. I did not remind
her that just because it was bad upon this hill did not
always mean all the roads in the valley were bad too.
Twenty minutes later they were going by plowing.
Which is just about as long as it would take them to
get from town to here, so Mom it worked.





With the snow falling the feeders are getting lots
of action. The birds seem to come to the new metal feeder
as the older plastic feeder gets lower on seed.
The reason being the new metal one is a little slippery
for them and the snow was making it even more slippery.
As sad as this sounds watching sliding birds is a little
fun to see. LOL! Not so much fun for them.




But they are gorging at it anyway today like there will
be none for tomorrow.
Reminder to self: add birdseed to the shopping list.




This winter I have not yet saw any
new variety of birds. It has been the old faithful
one such as the many Cardinals, Junco's ,Sparrows,
Goldfinches, Titmice, Woodpeckers and Nuthatches.



By the way if you hear angry shouts it will have been
me because Blogger is causing me fits today just
trying to get this finished and intact. Seems others
are having problems too.




Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and
a snow free one.





One last thing has anyone else lost Blotanical
all together. My logo disappeared and the website
is not responding????

Just Beneath The Surface

Or out freezing your t-hinder off in the morning
when the thermometer is reading 5 degrees and
the wind chill is below zero.
Nothing will wake you up any faster making the old
sleepy eyes pop open.
What a rush. LOL!





" Hope "

As I went to open the blinds this morning all the signs
of a very cold night were written all over the windows.
Jack Frost had been busy working with his paint brush
while we slept.





The patterns made the windows look like lace

curtains were fastened to them.

Then when the sun begin to rise and shine through
the window panes the patterns were decorated with
clear crystal quartz.

After seeing the pictures the caption I would give
to them if they needed one would be 'Hope'.
Just beneath the stark cold surface of life,
hope shines through to brighten our lives.

After breakfast I ventured out to refill the bird
feeders and to check on the water in the bird bath.
I keep a small heater in it to provide water for
them throughout the winter.
It was just about empty so the birds have been using
it and by the tracks so are the raccoons and stray
cats. I hope they can stay clear of one another

and they all make it through this winter.





While doing these chores I could not help but to
once again go back in to get the camera.
The sun shining upon the snow was an array of
diamonds and colored prisms.
I tried to catch the colored specks of red and blues
but my camera just would not pick them up plain
enough to show up on the pictures but the glistening
snow came through.




The lavender plant seems to be taking all of the cold
thus far with the sparkling snow around it.





Jack Frost
"Someone painted pictures on my
Windowpane last night --
Willow trees with trailing boughs
And flowers, frosty white,

And lovely crystal butterflies;
But when the morning sun
Touched them with its golden beams,
They vanished one by one."

- Helen Bayley Davis -





Gardening Gone Wild is sponsoring a January
picture contest and the title is "Winter's
Beauty" chosen by Alan Detrick, who will be this
months judge. What a fun way to start off the New
Year and give us garden and camera enthusiasts
an escape from the cabin fever of winter and
looking into the beauty of a winter day instead.
Everyone get those beautiful Winter pictures
entered in.
I think I will enter ' Hope ' into the contest
to look for hope into this New Year ahead and
toward the hope of a new Spring.
It certainly will not be the best picture because I
have seen more beautiful ones already entered
but it will be fun to participate.
Good Luck to all the entries and....

Happy Winter Gardening Everyone!

Maybe ----

Maybe if I took down the signs it would
all just go away ---

Update: The sun is shining so bright today, with warm winds coming
in overnight. It is already melting the ice from trees and power lines.
It is raining ice now and my tree limbs and plants are trying to spring back.
It is amazing to watch my bird feeders that hang from the Maple tree limb
rise back into the air that were practically dragging on the ground.
We got our phones back on last night and just about 6,000 in this area
are still waiting for their electricity. With 50 trees down across the highway
and lines in the section of Ash Cave area alone I see how lucky we were here
to have electricity out for only 5 to 6 hours.

Now if we can get the Ground Hog to cooperate tomorrow :-)

I know, I know Spring will come when it comes.

Trees of Glass

Do My Eyes Deceive Me !!!

Could that really be the Sun coming up to finally shine
through all of the ice, snow and clouds of the storm we
have been dealing with since Wednesday?
Will you stay around long enough to melt some ice?
You sure are a welcome sight!

It looks like it may stay for a while to make a the
ice glitter like a million diamonds through the trees.
I love Blue Skies !!

Lilac Bush Vs. Ice Storm 2009

And the Winner Is!
In this instance the Ice Storm of January 2009.






My 45 year old, ten foot high Lilac bush has been bent,
bruised and broken. I have two of them on the bank near
the highway, this one has been severely damaged and its
twin out the bank is bending dangerously over the bank into
the ditch.I am holding my breath that it will not break off
also and that I will just be able to trim back the bent limbs
when the ice melts.



We have been upgraded from a level 3 emergency area to a level 2.
We are still without phones but they tell us they will have service back by
this evening. The news reports stated this morning that 98% of Hocking
county was without electricity so I think that means that our road is the
only part that does have electricity. Thank goodness we have a different
electric provider in this section of the county because all those under another
provider are doing without. Our electric company trims trees all year long
as the weather permits them and it has made all of the difference in this ice
storm.

Other than being hard on trees and plants, and causing all the difficulties
that comes with such a storm it is so beautiful to see. If the sun ever comes
out it will be like millions of diamonds and jewels glittering upon everything.

I could not resist taking a lot of pictures even without the sunshine to light
up the landscape.






Poor Rhodies






Crape Myrtle












And I just cannot help myself, if there is a Cardinal in sight while I have
a camera in hand I have to take the picture.

Return to the Ice Age

Ohio and the Hocking Hill's came almost to a stand still
overnight and today. Here in Hocking County we got
3/4 of an inch of ice on top of the 4 inches of snow already
on the ground, with an additional 2 inches of snow on top
of all of the mix. We may have had more or less than the
states to which it was heading but it was enough for our
little county. We were under a level 3 snow emergency,
which means no one is allowed on the roads except
emergency vehicles.

The electricity blink on and off all night as the rain
an ice accumulated. I finally got up this morning to the
sound of cracking branches and trees. It was yet dark outside
and it sounded like the whole woods behind the house
was crashing down all around us. I just knew when it got
daylight there would be trees everywhere. But when it
got daylight I discovered that it was just limbs falling.
With the ice covering everything including the ground the
falling of limbs made quite a racket.
Eventually the electricity did go off from limbs and trees
across the lines, along with the telephone. We were lucky and
the electric was back on in five hours but we are still without
phones.
I did get a few pictures but it was before the 3/4 inch was
coating everything. I was afraid to venture out after that with
limbs and trees falling all around the house.
A trip to clean the ice from the satellite dish and the disintegrating
sounds of my forty-six year old, ten foot, lilac bush falling
behind me was enough to scare me to stay indoors for fear of
getting flattened. {My poor Lilac bush :( } The clean up will take
a long time of all of the limbs and trees that are down.
I will try to get more
later when it is safer and sunny so the ice shows up better.


















And with the ice and snow covering everything the birds
were flocking to the feeders to eat more than usual. Poor things trying to
stand up on the frozen ice on the ground, some sliding around
comically. It amazes me how they can cling to the frozen branches
of the trees.

































The Towhee's were back.