What happened here

We got this on Friday. 

Rainbow wasn't too thrilled about the hard water...

... not to mention the snow.

Most of the snow is still here because it's been so cold, like down to 15° overnight. It's back up to 40° right now, though, so melting's happening. Yay! I'd better get at my window washing. Ugh.

Junco bath

Juncos are only around here during the late fall and winter, then head farther north in the spring. I guess they like cold weather. They must like cold baths, too, because it was a really chilly day about a week and a half ago when I happened to notice this one in the birdbath. I'd never seen one in there before. He really seemed to be enjoying himself!

Well... where was I?

I feel very out-of-the-groove when it comes to writing blog posts! Yikes! I guess I took too much time off sewing kangaroos and mowing, etc., etc., and I lost my blog-train-of-thought. Plus, I've taken sooo many pics with my iPad (which now end up automatically on my PC, too - thanks a heap, Jenny!!) that I'm feeling overwhelmed with photos and don't know where to start showing you stuff. Aargh.

Also, I must confess that I'm a bit addicted to Instagram. Hello... my name is Grandma G, and I'm an IG addict. There. I feel better now. Ha. However... if you want to see those photos, you don't have to have an IG account. Just go to https://instagram.com/grandma_g415 (if that doesn't work for you, try taking the 's' off of https) and you can see them, plus some cute kitten videos!

That being said, here I am back with what else but a cat story. 

This, as you probably recognize, is Autumn. When I saw her doing this, I thought I had another weird-water-drinking cat.

She caught me shooting her. "I am not weird!"

Then she went back to it.

But I noticed something and had to go outside for a closer look:

Uh oh!

Some poor little goldfinch didn't fare so well!

I don't know who did it. Maybe Autumn, but I kind of doubt it.

I was hoping it was the goldfinch that has been persistently trying to get through our living room windows for the last WEEK and won't give up... but I was not so lucky. He's still at it. (There's even a video of him on my Instagram feed.)

Camera play

We had a light shower of rain last Monday, and I happened to notice the drops splashing into the birdbath (the day before I had to take it down thanks to the turkeys). I decided to see what kind of photos I could get. I was lazy, though (or in a hurry, or didn't want to get cold, or wet, or all of the above), and used my telephoto lens through the window, or maybe they'd have been better if I'd gotten closer. But they were fun, anyway.

As of this writing (Sunday evening), we were getting some light snow, and the forecast at the time had a 90% chance for more snow today. Yuck. Hopefully their prediction of only 2 inches was accurate, and we don't get dumped on. Nevertheless, it's gonna be a cold week, with highs barely above 20° at best after today. And 3° for a low on Thursday night! Brrr!

It happened

I took these photos Saturday morning.

Yep, frozen solid.

It's not very smooth. It was windy. There were also a lot of little 'things' in the water... like the fuzzes off of dandelions. They were surely some kind of bits from weeds having gone to seed. Seeing them in the air on Friday made me think they might've been those other 'white' things. Actually, I did see a bunch of white things coming down in the middle of the afternoon. I wasn't sure if they were really the 's' things or not... until they landed on the deck and melted away. At least they were short-lived. I'm sure there'll be more soon enough. Ehn.

It's good sewing weather, though. I'm making progress! :)

Look who came back!

I skipped a day! Did anybody even miss me??? ;)

Okay... back to it.....

I was sitting at the kitchen table eating my lunch yesterday, and I happened to glance out the window and notice my blue grosbeak at the birdbath. I grabbed the camera, but I was too far away with the wrong lens on the camera to really get a good shot of him.

I'd seen him a time or two before that, but he never stayed long enough for a photo. I am just happy to know that he came back to nest again this year, since they aren't normally seen in this area.

He hopped into the water and did a little splashing around, so I hurriedly sneaked closer to the window and managed this shot:

None of those pictures are comparable to the ones I got last year, though.

New to the birdbath

Actually, I should say new IN the birdbath!

What a silly kitty you are, Purrl!!

It snowed

The birdbath was frozen again yesterday morning. It also had a slight layer of white on it.

There were some of those white flakes on the deck floor, too. But look... there were also pink flakes!

There were even slight drifts of the pink flakes in front of the garage.

They drifted up against the grass, too.

Yep, it's bees' wings. Lots of bees' wings. ("Bees' wings" are what farmers call those annoying bits of corn chaff that fly everywhere. For more info, check out that link.)

Nearly every time the guys go to put corn into (or take some out of) the bin to the northeast of our house, the wind also changes to the northeast. I think it's magic. :-Þ

Update: From moments ago (Wed. a.m.):

With the size of those flakes, they're gonna add up pretty fast. But hopefully they'll stop soon. And the good news is... they're not pink! :)

Fallness

Fall is definitely making its presence known. It seems like it wasn't that long ago (and it really wasn't) that we had a couple of days of 80°. But Friday morning we woke up to this:

Yep, that's ice. Brrr.

The trees are turning color, although this doesn't seem to be one of those years where everything is so brilliantly colored in our area. This ash tree is trying its best, though. Not bad, as far as ash trees go.

The leaves are dropping, too, very gradually so far.

Such a pretty time of year. I'm not quite ready for it to be so cold, though. And I sure don't like that 's' word I've seen in the forecast. I hope Indian Summer arrives soon and lasts a loooong time! The farmers need it, and especially some drier weather, to get the crops out of the fields.

It's been SOOO hot lately

Okay... your turn: "How hot has it been?"

It's been sooo hot that this robin just sat in the birdbath with its mouth hanging open for about 5 minutes the other day.

Then it took a dive:

Ahhhh... that felt good!

More!!

Then it was joined by another hot bird:

Let's see who can splash the most!

Okay, let's see who can do the best dive!

I think we have our winner below:

They had great fun splashing and kept at it for a long time. The next day there were even three robins in at a time!

It's been sooo HOT and sooo HUMID, one would think we lived in southern Florida, Annie Dee! Sure glad I don't, though... certainly not my kind of weather, and hopefully it will end soon.