100 happy days :: day 38

a perfect little nest from last year, found blown down onto the ground after our recent windy days.
why is it that finding a nest seems like such a treasure?

legography lately

i've been making an effort to get outdoors with a few minifigs in my pocket and camera in hand. i carry around an old pillow that we use on the garden furniture and use it to kneel in the wet grass. the cats often tag along and since they can't really see any sense in what i'm doing, they think i'm there to play with them. they often blunder through my shots, messing with the focus and knocking over the minifigs that i just got all set up.

i was trying to get a shot of the rather oddly stunted snowdrops through her magnifying glass, but instead caught a bit of her reflection. i love how sometimes you don't see such things at the moment of the photo, but only when you get it downloaded and on the big screen.

this forest maiden looks so tough that i'm pretty sure she'd be willing to take out that sweet little deer. i love the deer's reflection, tho'. with the coming theme of reflections for our local art group's spring exhibition, i'm going for reflections quite a lot lately. but there's also an excess of water in which one can find them. *sigh* i will be glad when this grey january is over.

the unicorns are my favorite members of the latest series of minifigs. i borrowed one of unikitty's blue horns just so there would be a difference between them. i like it. and i love the cute expression on their faces.

they had to go for a little paddle as well. everyone is getting in that boat these days. i fear i dropped one of the paddles somewhere on my walk, so i only have one now. oh well, we'll have to make do.

this morning, there were the most amazing beard frost formations around the garden. it seems these bits of sticks were giving off moisture and it froze in hair-like formations as the temps cooled. they were very cool, but very delicate and gone when i got home, so they didn't last long.

twiggy reindeer

inspired by about four different pins on pinterest, a suggestion from the ever-fabulous lisa, and a lot of sticks that blew down in our recent storm, i decided to make some little twiggy reindeer. we're holding a christmas hygge event at the library in december and have promised to make nature-inspired crafts with the kids (and adults for that matter) who come. i thought i'd try this out to see if they're a good solution for the event. i think they are, tho' i have yet to solve the glue gun issue - i think you can see my glue a little too much, but regular glue didn't really work so well, as it takes too long to dry and be stuck and let's face it, i lack the patience for that. maybe i just need to be more careful with the glue gun and not use too much.

all you need to make them are some fetching twigs, a branch with plenty of y-shaped bits for the legs, some little bitty pine (or aspen) cones, bits of ribbon or string and felt and a glue gun.

foxy

she wanted to take out our last remaining chicken (she didn't succeed, that chicken is one smart cookie and it's a myth that they can't fly), but still, we fell a little in love with her anyway.

happy weekend, one and all.

broody hens

you couldn't tell it by looking outside, where snow is softly falling as we "speak," but there are signs of spring around here. this morning, these three little fellas (they'd better be girls) greeted me when i peeked in to check on their mama, who has been nesting in an odd spot away from the coop. i wasn't sure when she began, but thought she must be getting close. there are two more eggs in the nest, but i think they're duds. i wish i could reach them to take them out of there, but she's found such a weird place, i can only reach her with my camera lens. it's funny, if you google how to handle letting your chickens hatch out their eggs, you'll be led to believe it's impossible. we have definitely learned otherwise. last year, we started with 12 chickens and now we've got 30 (33 if you count these new ones). nature is pretty cool.

and this little hen, with the fetching straw on her head, is also in an odd spot away from the coop in another building. she was off her nest when i checked this morning and i found out she's working on hatching out TWENTY eggs. she must have had some help laying those, as i sincerely doubt she did it herself.  those other hens are clever, getting her to do all the work.

late this afternoon when i was feeding the horses, i found another hen hunkered down out in the horse barn. that's what you get when you have free range chickens, you never know where you'll find them.

last year, the broody hens drove me nuts, as it stopped the egg laying, but i'm getting up to ten a day right now and we can't keep up anyway (i've been giving eggs to everyone who comes by and took some to my friends at the library as well), so i'm just charmed by it. hens are so funny - they have a wide vocabulary and i just get a big kick out of them. so much more so than i ever thought i would. and these broody hens and their little chicks make me think spring must be on its way. right?

a walk in the woods

i'm finally surfacing after a week-long battle with the flu. it was a mean one - i've not been knocked down by a flu like this in years. i didn't even turn on my computer tuesday, wednesday, thursday and most of friday, so you know it was bad. i mostly laid in bed reading harry potter. i was even too weak to sit upright and knit or watch t.v. i didn't even get out the iPad and the netflix, as that seemed like too much trouble. poor husband didn't get a nice anniversary dinner and i still owe him a birthday cake. but perhaps this coming week i'll remedy that.

our winter is quite mild and to clear my head of the last of the lingering germs, husband and i went for a walk on this very still, just above freezing day. the air was cold and crisp and fresh in my lungs and felt like just what i needed. our snow is gone, leaving the world a bit grey, but if you look closely, there are bits of magic here and there.

i hope to keep glimpsing them in the week ahead as i slowly surface from my flu.

a failure to complain

what we have going on here on this gorgeous, sunny saturday is a complete and utter failure to complain. there can be no complaining about anything when the day is full of sunshine and...

riding lessons

this time on milton

tho' i'm not keen on how he carries his tail

however, this is about not complaining

and it's not like he's OUR horse, he's a lesson horse

tulips & apple blossoms from the garden

doesn't the shockingly dirty window behind give a nice monet-like effect?

a walk in the woods

husband capturing me capturing macros of little woodland worlds

it's good to have two cameras

wonderful surprises from another hemisphere

thank you so much molly for the unexpected treat!!

i'm already inspired!!

and now, to top it off, we're making posh burgers on the grill (like #8 here).

it's pretty much been a perfect day.

hope your day was/is perfect too!

it's fantastic

it's been sunny. it's been still. trees of all sorts are in full bloom. as the sun sets, the still air is heavy with the scent of blossoms. it's like the whole plant world is overtly having sex. and it's positively glorious. i hope spring is springing where you are...

and to my south african friends, i love fall just as much, so i hope it's glorious too! it's just not overtly having sex like spring is...sorry about that. :-)

spring, glorious spring

this is why i'm not writing a real blog post today...

that's my dinner potatoes grilling on that grill in the middle of that table. and i've just put steaks on...so i've gotta run. they're filet mignons...

the eyes have it

once you start looking, you find that eyeballs are everywhere...

by the side of the road

on the beach

on the birch trees

and sometimes they even follow you home.