Let’s hope it goes out like a meek little warm and sunny lamb. Took these late last night.

HK appears to be happy about this.

I didn’t take a photo of the serene, unspoilt white blanket in the back yard because it was criss-crossed with deer tracks (Charlotte and six of her friends were visiting last night), and my tracks from going down to brush snow off the feeders last night, and covered with enough birds to suit Alfred Hitchcock. It’s pretty, though, and we did get a little more snow after I went to bed.

Well, it’s not serene and untouched, but it’s documented.

Hop-hop-hop.

Hop-hop-hop-hop-hop-hop…

We got a lot of snow!

It took a long time to clear the patio and dig out HK. Then, P noticed that D’s car was stuck out in the street, and went over to ask if she wanted help getting it in the driveway. J isn’t home, and apparently, S broke the shovel at some point in time earlier, and just left. P and I shovelled enough to get the car in, then pushed until she got unstuck. E was having JV clear the road down to his house, so we said we’d be happy to pay for him to do down to ours. P needed to get out today to make his supply run, and we both have to work tomorrow. The guy with JV had a snowblower; he said $30, but P told him he’d give him $50. Worth it to get where we’re going. So, we’re all cleared out; Christ knows how long it will take before it occurs to the city that there’s snow on a dead end street with 9 houses on it. Maybe some time tomorrow, maybe not. Don’t care…street is clear, patio is shovelled, bird feeders clear and full, and I put out some dried mixed berries for the male and female robins we saw at the south side of the house, looking for food where there was no snow. I hope they found it.

I know it still isn’t sprang, but I’m happy this is the last day of February. Goodbye, shitty month; don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out! Five or six more weeks until the MLBs return, and about the same until I hope to see an oriole again! I may actually get their feeders washed; they’ve been sitting out on the patio since last fall. Yes, I am that lazy.

Later…
I did wash the feeders, and cleaned some “Miff is gross” stains on the carpet. P cleans up the actual vomit, but I have to get out my little steam cleaner to get rid of the stains. Then, Gross Kitteh and I took a nap, and when I got up, I repotted a bunch of houseplants that desperately needed it. The…forget the name, but it’s the one with magenta/white/green splashed leaves that’s related to Maranta…anyway, it was so potbound that I thought I’d have to cut the pot off of it, but eventually wrestled it out. My Strelitzia reginae finally got an actual pot, and what thick roots Bird of Paradise has! Now, none of my cache pots fit, so I’ll have to think about solutions to make everything look nice. Mealy bugs were starting to attack the light pink Syngonium that was my first Parview plant, so I gave it a shower with insecticidal soap, and also repotted it because its roots had grown down into the gravel I had at the bottom of the cache pot. Fuck mealy bugs…little bastards killed my string of pearls plant, and I’ll never forget or forgive.

I also received 20 orange crocosmia today, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to just stuff them in Dixie cups the way I did the ‘Lucifer’ because they have leaves. I’m too afraid to open the plastic bag to see for sure. I don’t know that I even have 20 small pots (maybe?), but I certainly don’t have room for 20 small pots indoors! Stupid bitch…if you’re selling rooted plants instead of bulbs/corms, then say so. Also, don’t automatically add everyone who buys something from you on ebay to your goddamned Circles. I don’t know you, I bought something from you once, and you’re the same as the cashiers at any random store…and they didn’t add me to their stupid Circles!

I got the crocosmia Montbretia into the little cups, but it wasn’t easy. She sent 21 bulbs, plus there were two cups worth of leaves with enough root attached that I thought they might grow. They’re currently stacked atop the other little cups by the window.

Sprang better get here soon; my larkspur is developing actual leaves and won’t wait for long!

I keep telling them it’s another six or seven weeks before they can go in the ground, but larkspur doesn’t listen well at all!

Nothing from anyone else except the bee balm that arrived with some green…and one brave little Dutchman’s breeches. He’s cute.

I was thinking about getting a headphone jack button thingie; you plug it into the jack, and set it to do one of a set of available actions. I thought I’d try the camera to see whether I could reach to use it as a photo shutter, taking pictures one-handed. It was too awkward, but something near the volume buttons would be perfect. I opened the camera app to see whether I could set custom buttons. Lo and behold, there is such a setting…and the default for the volume buttons is “take picture”. I’ve had this phone since the end of September, and I’ve looked in the camera settings many times. Obviously not closely enough because I could have been using that feature all along; it’s on by default. Duh!

One suet feeder is starling-proof by design, and now I’ve figured out how to keep them from perching atop the tail prop feeder. One more to go…the one on the tree. It’s used a lot by my desirable birds, so I don’t want to just take it down. Anyway I don’t think starlings can perch on top of this one now, at least.

No pictures and I’m too lazy to get them out of the fridge, but I put more columbine, some echinacea (purple), some digitalis and some butterfly weed in to cold-stratify. My windowsill collection has also grown by 20 Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ bulbs that I hope won’t rot in barely damp potting soil.

The roots I planted last week got a spray of water, and the larkspur, at least, seems thus far forgiving of being stuffed into little paper cups because it’s starting to poke up little green heads.

I spent much of the morning tending feeders; we got 1cm of ice last night, so I had to go free up the feeding stations. I brought the sox in and washed them, then repaired broken seams and refilled them. I also spent lots of time checking for fucking starlings at the suet feeder on the tree.

A chickadee found the tail prop feeder, but it’s too close to the house for woodpeckers (unfortunately not for starlings, though they don’t seem comfortable). I’ll move it when the ground is thawed enough. The cage feeder also got discovered by a Carolina wren I named Einstein. Had to take the (crappy) picture with super-zoom, so I’ll add it later. I didn’t want to get too close and scare him; he was the first to figure out how to get to the suet inside the cage. Starlings won’t fit into that one!

Also planted my clementine seeds (one already sprouted, one not) and hemmed two shirts for B before I’d consumed two glasses of wine. If you count a nap and shooting at starlings, I’ve had a productive day!

P.S. Bought 20 orange crocosmia bulbs/corms, too. No fancy named variety that won’t survive without being brought inside for winter; just orange crocosmia. Hope MLBs like them as well as the ‘Lucifer’!

Random tahrd Ol’ Kitteh.

Each one holds two suet cakes. One has a tail prop that makes it difficult for any bird that can’t cling to a vertical surface and balance with its tail (i.e. non-woodpecker types), and the other has a cage outside that allows only small birds to enter (e.g. nuthatch, small woodpecker, Carolina wren, chickadee). I doubt any feeder is completely starling and grackle proof, but I’m damned well not going to make it easy for the greedy bastards! I’ll still fill one of the suet feeders on the trees, but the other is going to be modified before I put anything in it because it’s just a waste; it all goes to the starlings. A curse upon those who imported the hateful, unwelcome starling!

P.S. No picture, but I also got a hanging tray feeder when I went to Buchheit earlier this week for suet. My birds are costing a lot of money, but their job is to be alive and make me happy, and they do it well!

Well, it didn’t waste any time. I planted it  on the 9th after work, and on the 15th at 2:30-ish, it looked like this.

A few didn’t sprout (at least not yet), but what I initially mistook for mould is actually tiny, furry roots, and miniscule,  pale green leaves-to-be. Hope it does as well outside in spring!

Light snow tonight and for the next few days. Temperatures in the low to mid-20s. My sentiments:

We had planned to go to the Herb and Garden show in Mt V, but decided it was too cold and crappy. The sun came out later, but it’s very cold and very windy, and the place I want to be is Parview. P hitched up the team and went into town for supplies; we’re cooking together tonight. He’s making two magnificent (and magnificently expensive!!) Omaha Steaks Reserve-something T-bones, and I’m making portobello marsala to serve over noodles. Soft Red for me, cold beer for him. Much better than going out; we’ll eat at the table I refinished and made a new tabletop for, under the swag light I bought and installed.

Anyway, I found my lone, crazy hyacinth when I was cleaning the birds’ water dishes. I wish I’d got around to planting more last fall, but fall is depressing, and I didn’t, so I have just one purple hyacinth that’s nuts enough to be peeking out when it’s freezing cold on February 14th. Welcome, little green dude…I covered you up a little better in case we get an ice storm, and I hope you’ll bloom. I don’t bother about most of the “usual suspects” in flowerbeds, but I do love hyacinths!

I finally got around to making the olive green yarn into a scarf. It’s super-chunky, but also super-soft, so it needed to be an infinity scarf. I just double crocheted it with a size…I forget…maybe 15mm hook. Took three tries to get it started the way I wanted it, but it didn’t take long to finish, and it used both skeins nicely with maybe 24″ left over. The colour is a little brighter than the picture looks, but it’s nice.

Private Reserve steaks. 60 bucks each…they have a serial number, FFS!

Best way to cook…with a near-empty glass and an as-yet-unopened bottle.

Dinner is served!

My co-chef.

I had to pot two milkweed in each, and “ten” was not the way I’d describe the wild tangle of light pink bee balm roots, but they’re at least in potting soil. Whether it’ll stay cool enough in here or not, or whether they’ll just rot, I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot!