Flowers in winter

It's January on PEI, and this is the coldest it's been this year. We are hitting 20 below centegrade. Snow has frozen into concrete, and any exposed skin hurts. My water pipes froze this morning.

But on my windowsills, it's a different story. Flowering plants of many colours are peeking outside while blooming their heads off, giving me hope that winter is just a state of mind.

This Christmas cactus has stunning fuchia flowers.

This is my first orchid. I have found a lot of conflicting and confusing advice on the Internet about how to care for it, so I hope it will survive my bungling attempts to keep it alive. It seems that there are more species of orchids than there are species of mammals! And they don't seem to need many nutrients - most of the roots are above ground.

These forced crocuses encourage me to think ahead a few months to when they will be poking through the snow and most of winter will be behind us.

Companion plants

Last fall, I dug three geraniums out of their outside pots and brought them inside. They have been enjoying the sunshine in my office window, and so have some strangers. In one pot has sprouted pale green, bean-like leaves that I'm guessing is a sweet potato vine (above). I dug it out and gave it its own space, and it is taking off like crazy.
In another pot, I suddenly noticed a tomato seedling almost as big as the geranium it is happily sharing space with. This will not end well. I can't imagine what would happen if I continue to let them cohabit.
So how did these strangers become companions? One geranium came from an outdoor arrangement that contained some sweet potato vines, and I suppose a piece lay dormant for months and suddenly decided to spring to life. But the tomato is a mystery.
It is endlessly fascinating that plants will spring from wherever they can find a foot hold. But it also gives me hope that no matter what we do to this planet, life will persist.

Visitors to the bird feeder

Here are some of the rarer visitors to my birdfeeder: house sparrows. They notice any movement inside the house, and scatter immediately. But I managed to capture these two.

Not to be left out of the fun, here's a red squirrel who cleans out the feeders every day. So far, it has been just one visitor at a time, but I have heard two of them chattering and chasing each other through the trees.

And the most unusual visitor: Amber the cat. She is 16, although you would never know it by the way she can get up on the deck railing and balance on a 4-inch wide board covered with snow and ice. Even in a snow storm, she stands on guard.

Our feathered friends in the snow

After a slow start to the winter, we are getting dump after dump of the white stuff. It keeps me and my snow shovel busy, and it also gives me the chance to check out the neighbourhood birds.

And I get to stalk them with my camera. These pics are taken through the glass of my deck doors, so they are not as clear as they should be.

The chickadees are fearless, and will pose willingly for me, but the bluejays, even though they are bigger, are much more skittish. Any move from me inside the house, and they are gone. The grapevine that twined around the deck

makes great bird perches and helps to secure the bird feeders so they don't blow around as much.

Sparrows and goldfinches (in their drab winter plumage) and a downy woodpecker also visit the feeders, but they are even harder to capture on camera.