Selfie Sunday – Snow Fun!

Hi everyone. It’s Millie and Walter here. We finally got a decent amount of snow and were able to enjoy some time playing in the yard. The temperature wasn’t too cold so that it, plus wind chill, wasn’t so bad either. In our opinion it was close to perfect winter weather.

I love getting snow on my face.

We had fun chasing each other and sniffing under the snow for critters. 

What’s Millie doing over there?

We hope you all had a fun day and were able to get out a bit and explore in the cold or warmth of wherever you live.

We’re joining The Cat on My Head for their Selfie Sunday blog hop. You should check out the hop to see some of the other selfies. Thanks for stopping by.

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Nature Friday – Backyard Birds

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. Earlier this week I happened upon a scene in our backyard that amazed me. I had just walked into the kitchen to get a drink when I noticed a tremendous amount of bird activity in a small tree that was full of berries.

American Robin

There was a large flock of birds taking turns eating berries from the Common Buckthorn tree. The flock was made up mostly of American Robins and European Starlings.

European Starling

Charlie managed to get the back door from the garage opened without scaring the birds away so I got my long lens mounted to a tripod (it helps to keep it steady and with taking videos) and stood in the doorway taking pictures for about an hour. 

Northern Mockingbird

It’s unusual to see so many robins around this time of year but up until now our weather has been fairly mild so that might be why they’ve stuck around. The mockingbird has been a resident of our yard this winter and he (or she…there were actually two around) was not happy with this huge flock of robins and starlings eating all the berries he was trying to keep for himself.

American Robin with a full belly

I don’t know when the flock first showed up but after an hour of taking pictures in burst mode I had about 850 images to cull through and some videos I will show you later. The buckthorn was completely stripped of all its berries in the end too. By the way I was still thirsty as I completely forgot the reason I went to the kitchen in the first place!

It was a great opportunity to take some beautiful portraits of the American Robin, European Starlings and the Northern Mockingbird. When these birds are around in the summer it can be more difficult to catch a picture of them as they are often hiding in the foliage.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these birds this week. I promise to come back and show you more of the action from the day.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Wordless Wednesday – A Walk in the Park

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. We got out of the house today and went to our town hall park for a walk.

I love walking at this park.
Me too!

It’s nice that they plow the main loop around the park and there are trails through the woods too.

Hey! I think I see our car.

Come on, dad! You don’t want to get left behind.

We had lots of fun on our walk. Walter left plenty of messages behind to let everyone else know we were there. BOL!

We’re joining Comedy Plus for their Wordless Wednesday blog hop.

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Nature Friday – Long-Tailed Ducks at Webster Park

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. About a week ago we had a rare somewhat sunny day so Charlie and I headed to our favorite place to do some nature photography, Lake Ontario at Webster Park. I reported in my last nature Friday post that the parking lot had been closed but this time it was open! It was nice to get out and enjoy what has become a very rare sunny day. We had gone about 60 days with complete cloud cover and since last Saturday it’s been mostly cloudy every day again.

Female Long-Tailed Duck

By the time we arrived at the park it was later in the morning so there were no opportunities for any sunrise pictures but we were lucky enough to find some Long-Tailed ducks in the water. 

Male Long-Tailed Duck

The water was quite choppy which made photographing the ducks very challenging as they bobbed up and down on the waves. There were two males and one female in the area. The female stayed near the mouth of a creek that drains into Lake Ontario where the waves were crashing as the water rushed out. There was quite a bit of debris like sticks and small logs in the water there too. Long-Tailed ducks are diving ducks that spend the most time underwater compared to other diving ducks and the female was demonstrating that very well.

Female Long-Tailed duck getting ready to dive.

Dive!

Submerged!

I don’t know what she found under the water as I never saw her bring anything up. She was diving so frequently that I wasn’t sure I got any decent pictures of her until I got home. Since I had the camera set to shoot slow speed burst I was happy to see I captured one of her dives. It was quite a challenge photographing the female as she would only spend a few seconds on the surface before diving again and you were never quite sure where she would come up next. By the time I had her in my viewfinder she was diving again!

Meanwhile the boys were just hanging out, riding the waves.

The boys spent some of their time preening.

I thought it was funny that while the female was working so hard diving the boys were making themselves more beautiful. In all the time I was watching them I didn’t see the males dive once. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing these ducks on Lake Ontario at Webster Park this week.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Wordy Wednesday – A Final Christmas Card Count

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. Christmas was a few weeks ago but we waited until after New Year’s Day to see if we had any late arriving cards before we did our final tally.

These are all the cards we received.

The last card to arrive was from our uncle Paul who lives in Connecticut which is about 350 miles away. It took 4 weeks for it to make it to our house!

Check the postmark! This was mailed on December 11th and arrived on January 7th.

The card enclosed in this late arriving envelope was so appropriate for this year. You can see it on the far right ribbon. It’s a dark gray color and on the cover it just says “WTF”! BOL! Our uncle has a great sense of humor.

We haven’t been very happy with the postal service in this country lately. Our mom mailed a package to her mom on December 14th and it finally arrived yesterday over 4 weeks since it was mailed. She mailed another package to the same town on the same day and it arrived 2 weeks ago! 

Here’s what I have to say about our postal service lately. A great big raspberry!

We’re very thankful to all our friends and family that sent us cards, both snail mail and email.

Hey Millie, aren’t all our cards pretty?
I love seeing so many cards on our wall.

As usual we crushed our parents in the card count again this year.

The final card count is:

Millie & Walter

19 Snail Mail cards

14 e-cards

Total Card Count – 33

Mom & Dad

13 cards

Thanks for helping us beat our parents again this year.

We want to finish this post with a picture of just our cards so everyone that sent us one can try to find theirs (we even printed out all the email cards). Just click on the image to biggify it so you can see your card.

Look at all those beautiful cards.

We also want to thank our readers and friends that sent cards to The Ladiez of Beaglebratz Manor and their mom. All reports are that you helped to make their Christmas a little happier. 

We’re joining Comedy Plus for their Wordless Wednesday blog hop.

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Fruit Garden CAL Update

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. I’m thankful that I have crochet to help distract me from scenes like what we saw in our nations capitol yesterday. This was going to be a Hooking on Hump day post but I couldn’t concentrate on writing it yesterday.

I’ve completed three more types of squares since I first showed you this project.

Columbine Square

My previous post showed the beginnings of this flower but not the completed columbine square. Each square has gotten a bit more difficult and requires a lot of work behind the flower part to create leaves and the background.

Clementine Square

The clementine also required you to do some surface crochet to add a little dimension and color to the flower. It doesn’t show very well but it’s there (the burgundy on the outside of the orange circle is one).

Purple Aster Square

I think the purple aster square is my favorite so far and probably because it has plenty of purple in it. Those of you that crochet might notice that almost every round until you get out to the background is a different color. That results in plenty of yarn tails that have to be sewn in! I’ve been doing the sewing after every few rounds because if not they can get tangled in your work.

Hollyhock Flower

I’m currently working on the hollyhock square and have completed the main flower and I’m now working on the outer leaves. I addition to working on the squares the designer has us working on a larger motif in sections. 

Acanthus motif

The acanthus will eventually be a rectangular shape with a few more leaves and some background to it. Except for the clementine we only need to make four of each of the squares but we have to make eight of these acanthus. I’m glad the designer spaced out the work for this one as it’s very a intimidating design. Her instructions are very clear and there are videos included to help you understand the process.

Completed Squares

I’m enjoying working on this project (except maybe for all those ends we have to weave in) and can’t wait to complete it. When I finish the hollyhock squares I can join all the motifs for the inner section and then add the inner border. I expect to show you that next time. If you are interested in finding more information on this blanket you can find it on the Janie Crow website.

Crochet is a wonderful stress relieving hobby and I’m glad I have it to help me on days like yesterday. I also am thankful for the ladies that join me on Zoom meetings weekly to craft together. Since we can’t meet in person like we used to do we now gather on Zoom and I’m thankful to have them join me.

I’m are joining Brian for the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!

 

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