Change Is Hard

February 9, 2026
by dawnkinster 8 Comments

Cold birds

It’s been cold here. Really cold. Mornings are often close to 0F if not below. (-17C)

My backyard birds need extra food to survive, and they’re eating about 40 pounds of oiler seeds a week. Not to mention the big bag of peanuts in the shell, and the 10 pounds of shelled peanuts and the 20 pound of niger seed.

I don’t think they travel far from my yard. When I’m out there filling the 6 feeders and one suet cage they chirp and flutter in nearby shrubs and trees. Maybe they’re discussing the menu. Probably more likely they’re wondering why I’m so slow.

*Waiting impatiently for his favorite feeder to be filled.*

Before I’m even back in the house they’re already swooping down to see what fresh treats I’ve left them. Sometimes I stand against the house, under the eves, and wait to see who shows up. I’ sure they know I’m there, but they can’t wait to grab a snack. If it’s not to windy and cold I’ll stand there awhile, enjoying the sound of their wings and their gentle chirping to each other.

*A titmouse on alert, looking for the biggest peanut to snag.*

During the winter months, when they’re so hungry and not busy raising a family, they seem to all get along. I have 5 pair of cardinals that will eat side by side on the railing where I spread seed in the worst weather, so that everyone can eat at the same time and no one has to wait.

In the spring and summer the cardinals will chase each other out of what they seem to feel is their own territory. You won’t find them eating together when they’re setting up households and struggling under new parent responsibilities.

The titmouse is the bravest of the birds. They’re usually the first to arrive when the feeders are newly filled. They’ll even come hop around the shrub nearest me as I pour seed on the railing. They are not afraid and they pick the biggest peanuts in shells every time. The peanuts are almost as big as their heads. They are very proud to get the prize seed before the big bluejays show up.

*A puffed up shy junco waiting for the lady to go inside.*

The chickadees are right behind the titmice, making a lot of noise to announce their arrival. They like a particular feeder and often flit back and forth between the shelter of the shrubs and the safe, caged, feeder.

*A fat little goldfinch getting frustrated at the wait for lunch.*

And I have a band of 7 bluejays that send a scout first who will announce when it’s safe. Then the rest of them swoop in, scaring, for a moment, the little birds. But soon they and the littles are all eating together.

*Mourning doves taking an apres meal nap in the empty, heated, birdbath.*

But if, suddenly, all the birds disappear it’s important to look around. Because sometimes the reason they’ve all hidden is this guy.

*Standing on one foot while warming the other on a cold morning.*

I’ve seen him attack a huge thorny barberry bush where the little birds like to hide, trying to get lunch. So far I haven’t seen him suceed at that. The little birds fly out and he’s tangled up in the thorns.

On the day I shot his image last week, it was close to zero out. He was, at first, standing on one foot and keeping the other warm up under his feathers. But he eventually put two feet firmly on the feeder hook and surveyed the yard for quite awhile before he flew off into the woods to look for an easier meal.

So there you go, some of my cold birds, most puffed up to conserve heat. This week it might get up into the 40s (4 C)…for one day anyway. I expect the birds will be sunbathing in relief.

February 6, 2026
by dawnkinster 16 Comments

Hey! Does anyone remember ME?

I think it’s been about a thousand weeks in dog years since you’ve seen anything written by me! Mom keeps saying the world is bigger than me. But seriously. Does anyone believe that?

Anyway I thought I’d bring you up to date on what I’ve been doing. Which is pretty much always the same. Beg for supper beginning at 3:00 p.m. (sooner if I think my parents aren’t wearing watches).

Continue to beg until Mom gives in at 3:50.

Ask to go out. Eat snow instead of doing my job. Ask to go in.

Ask to go out to inspect my yard. Or bark at the neighbors. Whichever comes first.

*Initiating my early morning alarm in case anyone isn’t up yet.*

Sometimes I ask to go out very early in the morning. Sometimes mom is glad because she would have missed the sunrise.

Mostly she is not glad. Did I mention barking?

*Mom calls this her artsy image, titled “Dog in Snow.”*

She also has been taking me to school. She seems to need the stimulation and mind expanding exercise. I go along to supervise.

*I got extra treats to sit on this little stool that matched my leash.*

We took a short little class where I got lots of treats. I liked the treats part.

*I can do this, mom, if you just stay out of the way.*

We are back to doing Rally classes now that the holidays are over. Mom forgot to go the first week. She turned into a slacker without a schedule while we were out of school.

While we were there mom noticed the pretty photo opportunity, left from the last trial the week before. I wasn’t entered because mom says we are not ready.

*It’s a winter wonderland! Just like our backyard!*

I don’t know, mom, when are we going to be ready? I ask to go down to my basement every day and sometimes we do, just to practice our obedience. And get treats.

*This one is easy, mom, just don’t turn too close to the cone. Leave room for me!*

Mom says sometimes she thinks we’re ready and then I do something silly and she rethinks. There’s another trial in March. She thinks maybe she should try again.

*I think I’ve got it mom. You just have to trust me.*

But…will I be willing to work without treats in the ring? Mom’s been working on that…but she says I’m not reliable yet. Geeze mom, I’m only 3. Have you ever met a reliable 3 year old anything?

Other than school we’ve been playing in the snow. It snows all the time. The snow banks are bigger than me! Even the snow in my back yard is up to my shoulders.

I told mom I wasn’t going to run around and chase snowballs when the snow was that deep. Other dogs’ parents dig them a trail in the backyard to run around on. I suggested that to my mom. She looked at me and then we went inside.

I guess that’s not happening.

So let’s see…school….snow….supper. Yep, those are the three most important things going on in my life right now. The 3 S’s.

*And naps. Sleep, starting with S of course, is important!*

I hope you are all enjoying your winter. Mom says we could do with some sunshine so I reminded her of this day when the sun came out. She had forgotten. Sometimes the sun comes out here.

*I remember there was this one day when the sun came out…*

Hey! That’s another important S!

Talk later,

Your snow-girl, supper-hog and super all around ray of sunshine, Penny.

February 5, 2026
by dawnkinster 16 Comments

Happy Birthday, Sister!

A lifetime learner, a kind heart, a creative artist, a talented musician and a special person.

Wordless Wednesday – Happy Birthday Dad (oops it’s tomorrow!)

February 3, 2026 by dawnkinster 21 Comments

February 2, 2026
by dawnkinster 21 Comments

Numbering

This morning I’m numbering the measures of the music we’re playing at our next concert. Which happens to be Friday, March 13th in case you need to put it in your calendar.

It’s our dinner fundraiser, where you pay to attend but we give you food and a silent auction in addition to a full concert. As soon as tickets are available I’ll let you know. Last year (our first) we sold out, so don’t delay!

For your listening pleasure this year we’ll be doing show tunes. And that’s why numbering measures is giving me fits. Because as I’m counting along my mind starts to wander into the music. Then I start to hum and then I tend to mis-number the measures which defeats the whole purpose.

The first two pieces, Les Mis and Grease each had 216 measures! What are the odds of that?

I completed about half the music this morning, until my eyes were going bad and I was secretly glad when a certain fuzzy short member of the family poked me in the leg asking to go outside.

*I might need a haircut too, mom. But only after I go outside, OK?*

Good timing, my girl. Good timing.

January 29, 2026
by dawnkinster 27 Comments

Winter goldfinch and books

In January, 2014 I was trying to read The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. All I can remember about the book without looking at my notes is that there is a young boy who somehow is in possession of something important and it all revolves around a piece of art.

*Winter goldfinches turn green with lingering hints of yellow, the hope for summer’s return.*

But looking back at Goodreads, reading my ‘review’ (I honestly never think of my notes as any kind of review) I remember more.

*The stink-eye from the bird in the middle says he doesn’t appreciate being photographed.*

A thirteen year old boy and his mother are visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art when a bomb explodes, killing his mother. In the chaos someone directs the boy to steal an important piece of art, titled The Goldfinch.

*Something startles them and they fly for safety.*

The story goes on from there, on and on for about 800 pages. My review noted the often beautiful writing but the hopelessness of wading through so many pages of it. I was determined, it says in my review, not to let the book beat me.

And now, after all that, I don’t even remember how it ended.

*This little dark-eyed junco takes the opportunity to grab a quick lunch.*

Today, more than 10 years later, I’m reading Fredrik Backman’s My Friends. Mr. Backman also wrote A Man called Ove which I loved and remember almost every bit of.

*The sun comes out and everybody settles in for a friendly meal.*

I expected to have a similar warm and tearfully emotional experience with this book, but so far I am not having those feelings…and I am struggling to finish it. I’m half way through and I’m determined not to let the book beat me.

The book seems to be two stories, one the story of eighteen year old Louisa who has aged out of the foster system and run away, and the story of four friends, one of whom grew up to be a famous artist, and their story of a summer decades ago, depicted in a very famous, very expensive painting.

*Some fuzzy girl in the house barks at her birds.*

Now one of those four friends has run into Louisa on her flight from her old life. He might be running away too. He has with him the ashes of the artist and the painting itself. It happens to be Louisa’s favorite painting, one she came to town to see.

That’s as much as I know at this point. Louisa and the artist’s friend are on a train going somewhere. The friend said the artist wanted Louisa to have the million dollar painting. (The artist and Louisa met briefly in an alley where she was spray painting a mural on the back of a building. He said she was his kind of person.)

It has occurred to me that young people and famous pieces of art might be a theme.

*They ‘hide’ in the top of the nearby beech tree until they think it’s safe.*

Which reminds me of another book, written by a friend of mine, Karen Mulvahill. Her book, The Lost Woman is the story of Nicole who’s parents were each rounded up by the Nazis during WWII. Nicole’s father owned an art gallery and Nicole worked there as a young woman. After it was taken over by members of the Nazi party she managed to get hired to work there again.

*And then they’re right back to eating.*

She did that so that she could protect as much art as possible. But at what cost? At the beginning of the story she is an old woman, hiring a man named Robert to find and return some of the art that was stolen.

The book, beautifully written, is the story of Robert and Nicole and how they came to be in the places they find themselves.

*It begins to snow again and the goldfinch makes peace with the cardinal who also wants lunch.*

So here you have three books and three sets of young people absorbed in art. Three different stories threaded together with images of my winter goldfinches who, of course, have their own stories to tell.

Wordless Wednesday

January 28, 2026 by dawnkinster 24 Comments

January 26, 2026
by dawnkinster 24 Comments

The magic watering can

Once upon a time, when I was 14 which was many decades ago, my brother gave me a watering can for my birthday. I kept it through all my moves, college, 8 apartments, my first house, and finally to the home we live in now. Years of moving around and the watering can always moved with me. It lived in the cabinet below my kitchen sink.

These days I only have one plant, but it’s hard to water, because it’s years old and very dense. The long spout of my watering can helped me get water to the roots. I water it every Sunday.

Then, one Sunday I couldn’t find it. In fact there was nothing below the sink. We’d had to empty most of the cabinets to get some work done in the kitchen the week before. I didn’t know which box, out in the garage, held my watering can. I used a glass to water the plant, most of the water ran down the leaves to the floor.

When we put everything back into the cabinets in the kitchen I couldn’t find the watering can anywhere. I asked my husband if he had seen it. He looked stricken, and said maybe it had accidentally been thrown out. I was heartbroken. I continued to water the plant with a glass and wipe up the spilled water. I almost asked my brother for a new one for Christmas this year. But I didn’t want to tell him we had lost it.

And then the dishwasher broke.

While my husband was installing the new one, hoses connecting under the sink, the watering can appeared. Way in the back of the cupboard, hiding in plain sight, it had been there all the time. After almost six months of being lost, of me thinking about it every Sunday, it reappeared.

Yesterday I watered the plant and smiled as the thirsty roots grabbed every drop.

January 24, 2026
by dawnkinster 22 Comments

It’s a little chilly around here

The media has hyped this storm for more than a week, warning us of brutal cold and inches, maybe feet, of new snow. And they haven’t been wrong, about the cold anyway. We’ll see about the snow tomorrow when ours is due to arrive.

Last week I dug Katie’s old boots out for Penny. Penny’s feet are bigger but I can still, with a lot of work, get them on her. We’ve been using them for a few days when she goes out to do her business. She’s not a fan.

On most of our trips outside at least one, and generally two, boots fall off as she runs around in the snow looking for the perfect place. I collect the rogue boots and stuff them in my pocket and sigh, and when she’s done we race for the house.

Most of the time. Sometimes she stops mid race and holds up a paw. Once she tried to hold up three paws all at once and then just sat down in the snow, shivering. When that happens I pick her up and we race, as fast as I can with an additional 26 pounds, back to the house.

I don’t think she appreciates her mom nearly as much as she should.

*I just don’t think this is the look I’m going for, mom!*

Anyway today is different. When I woke up this morning about 6 a.m. my phone said it was -15F (-26C) and that it felt like -25 (-31.6C). I lay very still. Penny was still sound asleep, curled up next to me, and I didn’t want to wake her.

*At 8 a.m. the temp outside was -18F (-27.7C)*

Because when Penny wakes up the day has started and that means breakfast and going outside! I didn’t want to go outside.

For a moment I contemplated how I could get her to hold it all day. I soon gave up on that idea and started thinking about how to make this work safely for both of us. I figured out how I could layer up in running tights under jeans under windproof running plants. And long sleeved shirts under sweatshirts under the coat. And two pair of socks.

*I don’t think I’ll come over there to get my boots mom. OK?*

But for Pen? She was definitely going to have to wear her boots and even then I was going to carry her out to her spot so there was less time for ‘boots on the ground’ and the opportunity to lose one along the way.

She woke up at 7, had her breakfast and then looked at me expectantly. It took forever to get me dressed and her boots on her.

She was not excited about me carrying her out into the cold. It hurt to breath. I wasn’t excited to be out there either.

I set her down and she, of course, couldn’t stay on the part of the yard we’ve packed down from numerous trips. No, she needed fresh fluffy deep snow to pee in. Which she soon found and immediately peed and peed and peed.

I was telling her good girl and hurry up all at the same time. The chill was seeping through my coat.

She finished and looked at me, grinned, and ran through the snow, leaped over the pile of shoveled snow at the driveway and then just stood there, looking around. I asked if maybe she’d like to go in?

*This isn’t so bad, mom. Want to go for a walk?*

Oh no mom! I have to do my other job, and that needs to be over there in the front yard where we haven’t walked before at all! You know, in the DEEP snow!

I sighed and followed her as she leaped over the pile of snow on the other side of the driveway and ran through the snow until she found the perfect spot.

*I think it’s better just over here, mom, come on!*

One boot came off. I collected it and told her to hurry up. She did.

So then I scooped her up and we trotted through the snow, over the piles, up the driveway and into the house. Success! She’s such a good dog!

*I believe the proper fee for doing my stuff outside is three kibbles mom. Hurry up.*

And just then then the sun came up.

We’re not heading out there again until much later today, when we can hope that the sun will warm us up to at least 0F. A veritable heat wave.

Stay tuned for stories about snow tomorrow. I won’t ask you to read a whole post about Penny doing her business again anytime soon.

Promise.

January 18, 2026
by dawnkinster 34 Comments

Catching up

I have a new laptop. Can you tell? I can, there’s a different feel, things are in different places, and I have to figure everything out.

For example, I can’t find the cursor to put it where I want it to do any editing. Getting the images in is hard too. I can cut and paste previously typed stuff, but I can’t delete anything. So odds are you’re going to see the same sentence repeated because as I was inserting photos they were going in the wrong locations and I was trying to move text around them.

*I’ll just ignore all that going on over there.*

AND I have this backlog of photos to show you! Of course they’re mostly birds, shot in my own backyard because sometimes I look out there and I can’t not take their pictures. They are soooo cute. And beautiful too.

*Hey lady! This is supposed to have water in it!*

I have so many images of the same birds eating out of the same feeders. But each time I’m hopeful of getting that shot. You know the one. The one that makes you gasp or smile or both.

*Hurry up and eat before some big bird comes along.*

Sometimes I think I’m the only one feeding the birds in my neighborhood. They sit out there in the trees and shrubs and seem to wait. I’m hardly ever back in the house when they’re chowing down on the newly filled feeders. It’s cold right now and I’m filling six feeders 2x a day.

Does that make them spoiled?

So now I have all these images that I’m just now getting processed and you just need to see them. I have virtually nothing interesting to say to accompany the pictures.

*No bird in this image…just beautiful frosty ice.*

The birds have been so hungry they are getting used to me standing in the window with that big black lens pointed at them. I think they’ve decided the risk of me is worth it. Or maybe they recognize me from all my trips outside to fill their feeders.

*Just leave all the peanuts in the shell to me and I’ll leave you guys alone.*

I guess I could tell you that all of these were taken from across a room and through a window. Thank goodness we paid some nice gentlemen to wash the windows this fall.

*There are five of us cardinal couples at the feeders daily.*

Whenever I’ve tried to do the windows I end up with a streaky mess. The guys that come here twice a year do a beautiful job and I don’t think they’re very expensive given all the windows we have. We try to get them scheduled in the fall before the weather would make window cleaning really miserable.

We were pretty late this year but we made it. In addition winter started a little early. Does that mean it will end early this spring?

Probably not. The winter this year seems more like winters I remember as a kid. Cold and snowy. We’ve had snow on the ground most of the time since Thanksgiving.

*Eating upside down is good for your digestion. Really.*

Anyway I think I’ve rambled enough to show you some of the images I got last month. I have a whole other set of images from the ice storm. That was pretty amazing.

*Hi, I’m a titmouse and I fly really fast. And I eat a lot. Cause I’m such a crazy little bird.*

I’d like to get all these photos from 2025 processed and filed away. Cause there are even more on my camera waiting to be downloaded from 2026!

Stay tuned.

I’m just going to publish this and see what it looks like. I can’t get to the preview either, and I can’t delete some stuff, though I was able to delete a few sentences and then I lost that ability again. It’s going to make me crazy if this is the way things work!

But I’m glad to just get some photos out there. I’ll try to see if I can edit it tomorrow. Maybe the laptop (or WordPress) just needs a good night of sleep.

UPDATE: Apparently WordPress just needed a nap. The editing today went just fine. I’m not going to reread this post, I’m sure it reads somewhat clunky as I was working so hard last night just to insert an image or a paragraph. But I feel better that I can at least delete repetition. Hope you enjoy the birds!