Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: winter


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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.

Ready to go.

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.

Well darn it anyway.

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.

It’s a look.

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.

A sign of coming warmth. We hope.

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.

I did good, right mom?

Promise.


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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.

What’s going on down there?

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?

Coming in for a landing.

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?

How many of us do you see?

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.

Make room for incoming!

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!


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What’s new in the new year?

I have a bunch more bird pictures to edit. There are probably some good ones in there but I’m just not motivated. And if I don’t hurry up and get them done I’m pretty sure I’ll never do it. That would be bad because I have this rule that I can’t go out on a photo hunt if I haven’t even processed the ones I’ve already taken.

Silly rule.

From the ice storm we had last week.

Meanwhile, Penny and I have started back to school. It’s been almost a month since we’ve been in a class. I was concerned that she’d forgotten everything I’ve learned (she says she hasn’t learned anything other than how to manipulate me) and that I would have a wild child on my hands.

Turns out she was very happy to go do some Rally with me last Saturday morning at a scheduled fun match.

At the Saturday fun match.

She got to see other dogs and do some fun stuff (her favorite thing is to fly over the jumps) and get treats and she especially likes it when people come by and tell her she’s beautiful.

I guess mom and dad don’t do that enough.

Lots of shelties were there Saturday.

She did four runs on Saturday, 2 of them off leash. We’re still working on specific stuff, especially the no treats in the ring thing, but we both had fun. It felt good to get out together.

Monday night we started back at our regular Rally class. Two runs, both off leash, and she was a very good girl. She mostly focused on me instead of what was going on in the ring next to us, or within our own class members at the gate or coming or going out the back door.

And there was that jump she REALLY wanted to take, and we had to heel right past it. SO HARD!! But she did it both times. I was proud of her.

Impatiently waiting her turn.

Today she did the cutest thing. I realized during school that I hadn’t worked with her in our basement at all during the weeks long holiday and that we could have been even better in class if I had spent that time with her. So this afternoon while I was out in the kitchen and noticed her treats, I asked her if she wanted to work.

Yesterday we trained at Home Depot.

She immediately grinned and ran to the top of the basement stairs, looking over her shoulder at me. We haven’t worked down there in over a month but she knew exactly what she wanted to do. So down the stairs we bounced and we worked on heeling and figure 8s and waiting and sitting and staying and coming and some other stuff. She’s very focused until she figures out mom doesn’t carry any treats.

Her favorite place to be.

The hardest thing for her was when we were heeling back toward the jackpot treats sitting up on a cabinet. I hadn’t intended to jackpot her then, we just happened to be going that way, and she broke heel to run to the jackpot and I said “no, come here” and she reluctantly did. And then we turned around and heeled away from the jackpot! OH NO!!!! But she stuck with me and at the other end of the room I released her and we both went back to get her jackpot.

Yesterday’s walk at Katie’s park – with SUN!

That was really hard for her. I told her she was a good girl. I should probably tell her she’s beautiful while I’m at it too.


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Junco smiles

There are some little birds around here that only visit me in the winter. They spend their summers further north and when I see them hanging out here for the first time each fall I usually feel a slight twinge of sadness.

On cold days they puff up even more.

Their arrival at my feeders are one of the first signs that fall is slipping into winter.

Showing off his puffiness.

For whatever reason this year there seem to be a lot more than usual, and I’ve been enjoying them hopping around looking adorable.

Hopping down to the ground, their preferred feeding space.

They are such poofy, round little birds. The males are dark grey and the females are a bit more grey brown. But honestly it’s pretty hard for me to tell them apart. I think all these images are males. And you can tell they are juncos by the pinkish beaks they all sport.

Matching his (or her) winter background.

This year instead of resenting their arrival I’ve been enjoying their antics. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them too, even if only in this post.

A little snow early in the season doesn’t bother them at all.

Merry Christmas everyone. May you all have a peaceful holiday.


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The one no one notices

Some birds get all the attention. You know the ones. They’ve got beautiful bright feathers and they like to show off.

Afternoon light at the heated birdbath.

But I’ve been watching Mrs. Cardinal as she frequents my birdfeeders. Her subtle coloring is as beautiful as the flashy feathers of her mate. She’s a quiet beauty.

She attempts to hide during the early morning sunrise.

For the past couple of days there have been several female cardinals at the feeders, in the branches of the protective honeysuckle bush, and hiding among the last leaves of the beech tree.

Finding a safe place during our first real snowfall.

I notice how beautiful she is glowing in the light. whether it’s the early morning slanted sunrise or during an afternoon snow storm. She’s modest, though, and won’t sit and pose for long.

Too much attention and she’ll head for quieter places.

You have to be satisfied with her brief appearances and wait, hopefull, for your next glimpse.

I noticed Mr. Cardinal watching her too. He seemed as smitten as me.


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Happy Thanksgiving

This morning as I’ve been fixing the big dinner I’ve been watching my birds out the window and my Penny-girl napping inside and feeling grateful that I’m in my warm house looking out at a windy cold yard. It’s 32F here (0 C) and it feels, because of the wind, like 19F (-7.22C).

Nom, nom, nom.

I know the birds watch me as I fill the feeders every morning. Every day, before I’m back in the house they’re usually fluttering around picking at their favorite spot. This morning I somehow missed the goldfinch feeder and as I was walking to the shower later I noticed a big bunch of them all huddled around the very bottom of their feeder.

That’s all the seed there was left, just a bit at the very bottom.

I thought about going out and filling it after my shower. But they were hungry now. So I ran out without a coat and hurridely filled their feeder with thistle. Then I went inside to watch. No finches. I waited some more. One finch dropped down onto the beech tree, contemplated the feeder swaying in the wind.

“Come on little guy,” I murmered, “it’s right there for you, all fresh and nice.” He waivered and clung to his branch. “Come on sweetie, I whispered.” He tentatively flew to the top of the hook and looked around. Then he hopped down to the feeder and began to greedly eat. Suddenly finches came from all over, and swarmed the feeder.

I smiled.

Happy Thanksgiving little ones. Happy Thanksgiving.

And happy Thanksgiving to all of you. We hope you have a wonderful, warm and belly-filling day. Penny added that last bit about the belly. She has her priorities.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! from you gal Penny.