Oxygen

Blue Ice

The wind hoots like a Great Horned Owl, hoooo......hooooo....hoooooooo.....howling through the Honey Locust tree just before the break of day. It's cold out here, the ice like glass between the places where the boss has sanded. I am grateful for that I can tell you. Wouldn't be walking without it...and driving down the driveway....oh, my, such peril, without the benefit of grit and rock salt.

Not much fun in darkness with dogs...hurry up boys, fingers getting brittle here...

The Mulberry trees that feed the Mulberry Express in summer must feel the same way, as they rattle and clack in the heavy draft a'blowing. 

One of them is creaking ominously. Finn, let's take care of this business somewhere else, eh?

Still dead dark at 6 AM, not even a glow in the East, the dregs of Orion fading in the West. He can fade into spring anytime he wants to!

A domestic Greylag goose that used to hang out with the Canada Geese
Down by the river. I miss her!

Birding's been barren lately, of anything of much interest. A Hairy Woodpecker on the suet feeder, for a FOY, that's first of year, and a strange little goose down on the river, and that's about it, except for Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks. We see plenty of them.

The goose was DD, diagnosed domestic, by the experts. I knew the head wasn't right for a Snow Goose, but what an odd little bird to find with the Mallards on the ice down there. Funny how you find a few domestic geese and hybrids hanging out with the wild ones. I've seen two of the domestic Greylag sort, and now this one, said to be a Swan Goose.

Anyhow, props to Becky for finding a cold medicine that works. We have tried about everything and even some home remedies, (and a hearty thank you to those who sent the recipe!) which helped for a while, but didn't last long enough.

This stuff....oh, my, I had just about forgotten how it felt to breathe. Oxygen, it is terribly underrated these days! I like it!

A picture Becky took of me when I wasn't looking
Or at least not in her direction