Love is

Painting something in colors you hate for someone you love. Pink and purple are two of my very least favorite colors. 

However, they are all that and a bucket of rice for Peggy.

So...we went to Wally World and bought five and a half tubes more shocking pink paint than was needed and one of purple to paint this coat hook for her. It is something we bought so long ago that we can't remember where we got it but it is perfect for what is needed.

Peg is a very good girl about hanging up her coat, but she can't reach the pegs in the pantry. On Christmas Eve or thereabouts this will be installed down at her height so that will no longer be a problem. Can't wait.

Cooper's Hawk

Not exactly a welcome visitor to the feeders, but we seem to have them every winter. This is an immature bird and by the size I would guess perhaps a female...but that is indeed just a guess.

Nice of her to pose for a few photos on top of the shelf feeder Mappy built me.

Chill and Still

Baby, it's cold outside.............sorry, I couldn't resist.

It is though. 12 degrees and clear as a choir out there. Venus looks like a shining diamond, although the tiny moon shard set a long time ago. It had wandered well west by late dog-walking last night and was long gone by dawn-ish daybreak.

The air is barely moving. Up from the river floats quack quack quack.......Some hen duck is protesting her fate, or the weather, or just calling to her flockmates in the dark. I know it's a hen because they are the noisy ones in the puddle duck world. The boys are pretty quiet.

Whether it's a Mallard or an American Black Duck is a bit beyond me.

If it seems I have had little to say lately...well, despite the calendar claiming that it's still fall, it's winter. Usually the winter doldrums fall upon me in November so I am grateful that the gloom is late this year.....probably because I get outdoors every day for at least a little while.

However, the short days bring their inevitable result sooner or later...no doubt in a few weeks the winter weary among us will become more loquacious, but for now....this is as good as it gets.

The Things You See

Sunrise

Baby it's cold Outside edition.

Sunset.......

Icons

Of the North

Of the Sea

Of the landfill 

Of dawn in Winter

The Things you See

The Frost is on the ......

Slumpkins......

Duck, Duck, Goose

The Optimistic Gourmand

How do I eat thee?

Let me count the ways

I love thee from thy barbels to thy tail fin

My beak can reach when fins are out of sight

For the ends of being are all about good taste

Get in my belly!

I shall but love thee better after swallowing.....

Cheer Up Though

The weather is fine for birding even when it's not so fine.

The Things you See

Snow clogged soybean fields, not looking good for harvest any time soon

At least this corn is in....

It's still November

There appear to be a lot of new horses in the Amish world this month. This driver
is braced this way because this pair nearly leapt out into the road seconds before this
and then they wanted to take off down the hill. A few weeks on that manure spreader and they will have a whole different outlook

I think of it as the mirror month of March...opposite ends of winter but so alike in fluctuating ambiance and frequent changeability. However, March is closing in on spring and the good days can only get better.

It is well above my pay grade to tease the rarities out of flocks like this
unless they are close enough
and the light is good enough
to get decent photos to look at later

With November you know that the nice days are just teasers, lulling us into a false sense of comfort and joy, while the weather gears up for lots more misery.

November is not my favorite month atall, but the drive to get outdoors and look for birds has rendered the iffy weather and short, gloomy, days a lot more bearable.....

The nigh horse in this pair is pretty hawky too. Didn't much like
the look of us.
Which I suppose is understandable, dangerous characters that we are.