Happy Easter!

Yes, those are the correct photos. I took them this morning. I think Mother Nature got a little confused as to which holiday it is. She must've been thinking Christmas... or April Fool's Day? ;-Þ

I did catch a shot of the Easter Bunny, too, after he finished making his rounds. He was very hungry after all that work, but he had to work some more to dig his breakfast out from under all the snow, poor thing.

The robins and all the rest of the birds have been having a hard time finding food, too.

"I think I hear a worm!"

"I know he's down there somewhere."

"Aw, shucks. I guess he was too cold to come up."

Enough already! At least it's melting, and it should go pretty fast in the next few days. The robins have had their tails snowed on three times now. Is this the end of it? Not according to the forecast. :(

Have a nice Easter, wherever you are! We have so much to be thankful for, including the reason for the holiday!

What to do when it's below zero outside

What do YOU like to do when the daytime temp is below zero °F? Here in our house, we sometimes like to just hang out in a spot of sunshine.

More often than that, we take naps in that sunshine.

For those that live outside, naps in the sunshine are a little different.

But sometimes they like to play, too.

Above you can see why cottontail rabbits are so-named. :)

Backyard sightings

A hen pheasant:

See how well she blends in with her surroundings:

And even more so here:

Here's her mate (photo taken through a screen):

I see him around quite regularly. One morning he even woke me up crowing right outside the bedroom window. (I got ambitious and took the screen off for this next shot.)

And I often see this little guy(gal?), too. He's not too afraid. I got about 10 feet away from him before he decided to run after I took this picture:

He blends in pretty well, too... but not as well as he thinks he does. ;)

I've seen two of them now and then, too. Perhaps I'll see lots more soon. I think it'd be fun to find a nest of babies. What a photo shoot that'd be!

I saw him!

Look who I saw in the back yard last evening. It's the Easter bunny, right? Gotta be! Getting ready for the big day coming up this Sunday.

Yeah... and I'm short of photos. Too much computer time last week, and no time for taking pictures. Not much to take photos of, either, for that matter. Everything outside is for the most part pretty brown yet. As you can see above, there's a slight tinge of green to the grass, so it's coming. But these 20-degree overnight temps the last couple of nights are feeling too much like winter again. Ugh.

I'm sewing again, though!

Wildlife

The day I took the photos of the falling water drops, I noticed this big guy out in our backyard.

He made quite a contrast against all the white of the snow.

It turned out he wasn't alone. Even the females were looking quite colorful in the sunlight.

And there were more. I counted 7 in all, although I think one is missing from this photo:

Tuesday morning I happened to see this little guy out back:

He didn't want to come out far enough for me to get a clear shot at him, though.

I'll get him someday!

Haven't seen one of these in a while

See him?

He stands out better in this photo:

There were two of them, but they were having so much fun frolicking around that I couldn't get them both in the picture at once.

Though I wasn't pleased with more snow, it was coming down slowly and gently (NO wind!), so made for pretty conditions. You can see a few flakes in the pics, especially this one:

Rabbits have kept themselves pretty scarce this winter, as have most wildlife. Who can blame them, with the winter we've been having?! I feel like hibernating, too!

I was practicing with the Canon for these photos. I quickly went for the zoom lens to hopefully get some closer shots, but by the time I got back, they were gone.

Here he(?) is again

He (she?) is back

Another sighting of the cottontail, from a couple days before Christmas. Is it the same one? Who knows... kinda hard to tell them apart. ;)

He/she may make more appearances here from time to time. If there are more sightings/photos, that is.

I'm dying to get back to my sewing machine! It's still tucked away in its cabinet, though. Hopefully this afternoon I'll be able to finish catching up and get my "guest room" reverted back to my "sewing room"! And do some much-needed organizing in the process. Then I have some Christmas gift sewing potential I received... can't wait to get started! Oh, and Grandpa's mother gave me 3 boxes of her fabric stash to add to mine! Talk about potential! Woohoo!!!

Plastic shot

I couldn't call it a screen shot, since all the screens are off my windows. So I now do plastic shots because there's plastic over some of them. :)

Anyway, I saw this little cottontail resting in the shelter of the asparagus stalks yesterday morning as the wind was howling. At first its ears were down and I couldn't tell if it was a rabbit or a cat. But then it perked up, and this is what I saw. It only stayed long enough to let me get a couple quick shots, then scampered off below the evergreen branches.

Contemplating Easter?

This little guy (gal?) sat outside my kitchen window for the longest time this morning. No doubt thinking about all the work ahead in the coming week.

(Or wondering when the garden produce will be ready.)

Waiting for Santa?

Courtney and I saw this little cottontail in the back yard last Tuesday.

I hope he's got a warm spot to hide. We're supposed to get several more inches of snow today. White Christmas, indeed.

Wildlife

All the snow makes finding food very difficult for wildlife. These hen pheasants were by the lilac bushes behind our house this afternoon.

A little while later I saw this little cottontail. He was munching on the bushes.

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

There have been lots of deer tracks around, too. No doubt it's not easy for them to even walk in the deep snow.

From the frozen tundra

Okay... from the back yard. I almost decided to name this post "Not Courtney", since she's kinda been the main subject for quite awhile. Not much else to take pics of these days. But hey, she and her antics seem to be most people's favorite subject, anyway. :-)

These pics aren't very clear, because they were taken through plastic on the window. It was also snowing. But at least there's some wildlife out there literally "makin' tracks".

I like the way his front feet are off the ground in the last photo.

Peter and Jack

Both of these guys have inhabited our yard!

Peter Cottontail:Jack Rabbit: