Who Are You?

I thought my feeders were being visited by a new species of bird, but then I looked up "House Finches" in my Audubon book.  According to it, the yellow and orange ones are immature males and will become more red as they get older.  I've been feeding birds for years, but this is the first time I've ever seen the yellow and orange ones.  I guess I'm not as observant as I thought... 


I wish they'd stay yellow and orange, I think they're gorgeous!

March Moon

I've been taking advantage of the energy surge that the waxing moon usually provides for me by cleaning out winter's debris from the garden.  It's a good thing I got this picture earlier, as She is completely obscured by clouds now. 

It has been quite nice for the past several days with temperatures in the low 60's F, but snow is predicted for tonight and tomorrow.   It will be welcome; even though we've had what seems like a lot of rain and snow this past winter, what we've gotten so far hasn't been enough to end our drought. 

10:32 A.M.

That's when Spring officially arrived in California.  Not that it looks anything like Spring up here.  The header photo and the photo above were taken around the end of last April.  But, since it is officially Spring/Ostara, I felt like making my blog look like it, even though I'm glad it doesn't look like Spring outside. 

The ground is still mostly covered with a thin layer of snow.  A lot of it has melted due to the unseasonably warm weather we've had for the past few days.  I suppose it will all be gone in another week. 

But, I'm not really ready to let go of Winter.  It used to last a good 6 or 7 months up here.  Now we're lucky to get 4 months.  Spring doesn't last as long as it used to, either.  In this time of hateful climate change, Summer is the longest season.  I suppose most people like that, especially here in California, but I am not a fan of hot, dry weather.  Hopefully, we'll get at least one more snow storm and some good rain storms in April and May.  Then it's goodbye rain until November, unless some of Arizona's monsoon rains in July and August get pushed West.

Anyway, happy Spring/Ostara!

Little Gems

This is one of my favorite lakes up here, Lake Gregory in Crestline.  It isn't the largest, but I think it's one of the prettiest.  Most of the lakes up here have very little accessible shoreline, due to the stacks of docks and mega docks that cram their shores.  Lake Gregory only has one small dock, I think they use it to rent canoes or rowboats during the summer tourist season.  Motorboats are prohibited.  It doesn't have any houses close to the shoreline and it has a lovely walking path.  One can walk around the whole lake in under an hour if walking briskly.  If you stop to take photos or look at interesting trees, rocks, birds, leaves...well, you get the idea.  It can take all day!  And it's a lovely way to spend a day in the Spring, Fall or Winter.  I avoid walking around it in the summer, usually, as it's just too hot and crowded. 

Lucky

I've been seeing this guy for a several weeks now, but I never had my camera bag with me.  When I did have my camera bag with me, I would never see him.  But, last Thursday afternoon when I went out for a walk, I took it with me and I got lucky!  I was about 80 yards away when I spotted him.  I didn't want to waste time trying to get closer because I was afraid he'd fly away.  I grabbed my Canon Digital Power Shot SX10IS, not my DSLR, because I didn't want to waste time changing lenses.   I just kept zooming in (the camera has a 20x zoom lens) and snapping pictures.  I only wish I would have had my tripod with me because this camera just won't take a clear picture at full extension without it.  But, hey, I'm happy with what I got, especially the last one.  He had obligingly moved to another branch so I could get a different view of him.  The cloud bank, which was just cresting the ridge when I started shooting, was starting to drop down into my valley and I was lucky to get the last shot before he was obscured completely.

Mute

'Woman Reading in a Garden'  by Mary Cassatt

I haven't been reading in my garden because I'd likely freeze, since it's covered by several feet of snow.  But, reading is almost the only thing I've been doing lately.  Re-reading old favorites and whittling down my to-be-read stack.  I'm in that period of winter where my mind is, mostly, unable to formulate anything worth saying.  The silence that mutes the sounds of nature outside my windows is somehow contagious and I find it far easier to read the words of others than to utter any of my own.    

Songs

This afternoon beautiful rain-laden clouds started gathering above the mountains where I live.  We are to have rain first, then snow.  By dusk the clouds had closed ranks and the sky was a solid tapestry of various beautiful grays.  Accompanied by the music of a cold wind from the north singing in the tall pines, I put out food for all the various wildings I feed and made sure the bedding in the feral cats' houses was clean and dry. 

Now, after feeding those of us who live inside, I listen to the north wind serenade me with its chilly voice while sitting beside a warming fire of oak and pine.  Drinking a cup of hot chocolate topped by an indecent amount of whipped cream, I listen more intently; underneath the music of the wind, I can hear the murmuring of the creek.  It hasn't (oddly) frozen solid yet, but its voice is the slow, muted speech of one nearly asleep. Cats, dogs and husband are asleep.  Wind, creek, and fire song weave together to form a deep peace that wraps around me like a thick, soft blanket.

And, ahhh, here comes the rain...

Wordless Wednesday - Color

Great Backyard Bird Count, 2010

Somehow, I don't think this was quite what they had in mind.  This is Jackie, one of our little ferals, desperately trying to convince the birds to "come closer, come visit me, I won't hurt you!  Honest...trust me."  I know she's not hungry, because she just ate two cans of Fancy Feast that I put out for her. 

I think the Chickadee is saying, "You think we're dumb?  We didn't just pop out of the egg yesterday, you know!"

Wordless Wednesday - Star

Miss Birdie?

I hope this little birdie enjoys the sunshine while she can.  It was beautiful here today, but tomorrow we're supposed to get another 10 to 15 inches of snow.  The snow has melted off the trees, but we still have several feet on the ground.  All of our lakes up here are  full to overflowing, which is so wonderful!  Last Autumn they were down by 5 to 6 feet, and looking rather sad.  

Hopefully, I'll be inspired soon to write about something besides the weather.  If my mind were a sailboat, I'd say it's becalmed, wrapped in thick layers of fog, not a ripple to indicate any activity.  This usually happens to me around this time of year, I don't know why.  My grandmothers and mother would say I need a tonic, but right now I can't even remember what that tonic would be.  I'll have to go have a look in the books they left me...as soon as I can persuade my body, which feels as sluggish as my mind, to move.  

I wonder what Miss Birdie (one of the characters in Vicki Lane's excellent books; visit her blog, the link is on my sidebar) would recommend?  

Wordless Wednesday - Solitude

Balance

A friend said in response to my previous post that she was seeing Brighid's Day celebrated all over the Internet. It makes me happy to think of all of us lighting our Imbolc fires, whether by using candles or fireplaces, celebrating and honoring the feminine side of deity. For far too long She has been ignored in favor of He. I believe there must be a balance.

I wonder, though, how many women feel free to honor the feminine side of deity openly? In the particular area of California that I live in, I would doubt that there are any. Here, the scales are heavily weighted in favor of Christian fundamentalists. For some reason, these mountains seem to attract them as much as it attracts people like myself, people who are more spiritual than religious.

What particularly confuses me is that some of these Christian fundamentalists are so willing to commit violence in the name of Jesus. I, and friends of mine, have had statues of faeries that were in our yards smashed to bits. Left on top of the smashed bits is always a card that reads 'Jesus loves you.' What??

So, I will continue to honor the Sacred Feminine in secret and look forward to a day, hopefully occurring in my lifetime, when I can do so openly. A day when some people won't be threatened or outraged by balance.

Mixtures

My little fire of apple branches (pruned from my trees) burns merrily in honor of the Goddess Brighid's Day, or Saint Brigid's Day if you're Catholic. Brighid had an apple orchard, so I burn apple branches to honor her.

I also make Oat bread to honor Saint Brigid. I put a piece of it, along with a bit of butter, on an outside windowsill for her. Tomorrow my family and I will eat the rest.

Strange? Well, not really, if you consider my grandmothers. My maternal grandmother was born in Northern Italy, then moved to Sicily when she was a teen, and then to America. But her great-grandmother told her how the family originally lived in Ireland, then moved to the Brittany region of France, then Italy, over the course of hundreds of years. So my maternal grandmother was a Celtic/Strega/Catholic. My paternal grandmother was Cherokee.  The traditions of their ancestresses and ancestors were extremely important to both of them.

So I was raised Catholic, with all the various religious and spiritual beliefs of my grandmothers (and Oglala Sioux grandfather) mixed in with that. Perhaps a strange mixture to some, but not to me.

Anyway, happy Brighid's Day or Saint Brigid's Day!

Winter's Jewels

Out of Season

I took this picture on the 22nd. I can't imagine what this poor little fellow was doing up here in a snowstorm, but today I saw two more!

I do hope this isn't a sign that an early spring is on the way. We still need so much rain and snow. But, more than that, I hope these Robins will find a safe, warm place to take shelter in if they plan on staying up here!

After the Storm

There's nothing like the color of a mountain sky after a snow storm. A friend e-mailed me the above picture; I can't make it out to the main road yet.

It was my intention to hike up to the top of the ridge behind my house so I could take a picture from the top. I got a little over half-way and decided that it would have to do. Whew...I am out of shape! Waaaaay out of shape.

We got a little over 4 feet of snow. Big Bear, a bit further up the mountain, received over 7 feet. The roads were a mess because, on the second day of the storm, Cal Trans had a scheduled furlough day! So, no plowing got done on the state highways that day. The state highways to the ski resorts are now plowed clear of snow, but I thought the county plows would get to our road, too.  Not yet!  But my larder is well stocked, both for humans and animals, so we can wait. Amazingly, we only lost power for a couple of hours! My husband was just getting ready to go out and start the generator when the power came back on.

The people who live down in the foothills in the areas that burned in last year's fires also fared well, thank goodness. There was flooding, but no major mudslides or damage.

Right! No, Left!

The snow has been blowing sideways, first right, then left. A couple of times I could swear it was going up. A real, old fashioned blizzard, the kind we used to be able to count on to occur at least four or five times during a winter.

We've got about 14 inches on the ground as I write this, and it is supposed to continue snowing through Friday. For the elevation I live at the weather wizards are predicting about 7 feet of snow, but I don't think we'll get anywhere near that. I think we'll probably top out around 3 or 4 feet.

But, I wouldn't mind it if the weather wizards are right!

Billions of Blessings

It is finally snowing and raining here in Southern California! Yesterday we received nearly 7 inches of rain at the rate of 1 inch per hour. Today, more rain for the lowlands and snow up here. Each raindrop and snowflake is a blessing gratefully received by the parched earth, dehydrated trees, plants and some of the people; I'm amazed at the number of people shown on the news who live in the lowland areas who are complaining about the rain! I'm not talking about the people who live in the burn areas and are in grave danger of having their homes washed away by mudslides. My heart goes out to them and my prayers, too. I'm talking about people who are just a bit inconvenienced by rain but complain bitterly about it. Unbelievably self-centered...

More than billions of raindrops and snowflakes fell, and will fall, I'm sure. The weather people say we may have 4 to 6 feet of snow on the ground by Friday evening up here, and over twenty inches of rain in the lowlands. I'm hoping, for the sake of the people in the burn areas, that it won't be that much in such a short period of time, but that we will keep getting rain and snow storms that are more spread out. That way the earth will have time to, hopefully, absorb the water.

Rain, snow, water, precipitation...what beautiful words! :)

Who Cares?

Furgus doesn't care that we're still in a drought. He's just happy that it's sunny, 53 degrees F. and I have all the windows and doors open. That way, he can follow the sun around the house and bask in it's warmth. (That is some of the cats' play yard fencing behind the window screen. I don't let our cats use the play yard in cold weather because our ferals like to lay on the cushions in the play yard).

We did get a slight misting of moisture last night, not really enough to even call it rain. BUT! The weather people are predicting heavy rain, and snow above 7,000 feet, starting next Sunday or Monday. They say this should change our dry weather pattern and put us into a wet one for several months.

Oh, how I hope they're right!

All Right, STOP IT!

This is a picture from last year. This is the way it normally looks in Big Bear, and here, too, at this time of year.

But, not this year. The ground is completely bare, no snow, no rain, no form of precipitation of any form.

So, I have a request for those of you in the south eastern United States, England, and anywhere else that is getting much more snow than usual. If any of you were, or are, praying for snow, please....STOP IT!


(Not that I seriously think that any of you are still doing this, but we're getting desperate out here...)

Wordlesss Wednesday - Mine

Oh, Thoot!

"There thee ifh again wif that darn camawa!" I bet that's what this little Chickadee is saying, but she can't speak clearly with a full beak. I'm sure her mother taught her better manners! ;-)

The birds have been feeding heavily even though there isn't a speck of snow on the ground. It's cold, though; our lows have ranged from 7 to 22 degrees Fahrenheit over the past month. I'm going to have to visit the feed store tomorrow to buy more suet cakes, peanuts and black oil sunflower seeds. It's my belief a full tummy makes for a warm little critter!