getting through the winter

We all have our ways of getting through the winter. When I'm not huddling inside waiting for the cold days to go by, I try to get out and do a bit of cross-country skiing, listening to the birds singing, and checking out the light sparkling off the snow. The animals around me seem to really know how to spend the winter in style.

This is Whitey, our third cat - the one we never planned for. He adopted us last summer, hanging around and being adorable. We tried to resist, but he bounced in and captured our hearts.

Here he is sitting up on the corner of the deck, right beside a piece of driftwood. Every morning, I put peanuts in the grooves of the wood for the bluejays. I guess Whitey is thinking he will grab himself some breakfast just when the birds are grabbing theirs!

This is a lovely downy woodpecker who visits the suet block every day. Here he seems to be playing with the snow, flicking it around just for the fun of it. We are sometimes lucky enough to see a beautiful flicker visiting the feeder. It's a larger woodpecker - brown, with a white belly spotted with black, and a red crest behind his head. But he is gone in a flash, and I have never had a chance to get a picture.

Here is a recipe for home-made suet that the woodpeckers, chicadees, and bluejays just love:

melt together: bacon fat, peanut butter and lard and then mix in cornmeal, whole wheat flour, peanuts, raisins, and sunflower seeds. Pour into the plastic suet containers saved from the ones you have purchased. Freeze till ready to use. I always think this is better for the birds than the bought stuff.

Gardening in the winter:

Check out this beautiful amaryllis! Even when the weather outside is frightful, you can still watch things grow and bloom. It makes me realize that spring is just around the corner.. Well, maybe the corner is far away, but we'll get there!

This is how Avery the cat chooses to get through winter: stretching out on a sunny windowsill, while the snow and cold is left outside.