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.

Time to get rid of the pumpkins

Winter has come early this year. Here are the jack-o-lanterns, even more scary now that the mould has set in, but out of place in the new snowy landscape. Snow has covered everything, and it looks like the kind that is here to stay. But white snow reflects light, and it's a lot brighter than gray rain and cloudy days.

Here's what Avery the cat thinks about the cold:

He is actually outside a lot in the winter. When the snow gets too deep, he appreciates it when we shovel off the deck so he can get some fresh air. I've also seen him jumping from one deep footprint to another to avoid being buried in the deep snow.

Life persists

It's been raining like crazy every day for a week, and we noticed that water coming off the roof was not running though the evestrough but right over the side. Today the sun shone fitfully, and I prodded my husband Wayne to check out the situation, with the promise that I wouldn't make him do anything else for the rest of the day. (A hard promise to keep!)
He climbed to the top of the ladder only to discover a weed growing out of the seam of a tubular evestrough!
After much unscrewing of sections of evestrough, he discovered the insides were packed full of dead leaves, evergreen needles, and bits of roof. It had decomposed into lovely dark compost that was fertile territory for this weed.
And of course the compost was blocking the rain from going down where it needed to go.
I felt a bit of a pang as I dug out the weed and tossed it away. Against all odds, this plant sprang from a seed that just happened to end up in a section of sealed evestroughing that separated enough to provide some light. This is a pretty inhospitable enviroment, even for a weed. Yet after this brave effort, it is still at our mercy. It's not easy being green.

Heidi and the beanstalk

While cleaning up the garden, I picked the dry pods hanging from the scarlet runner beans. These beans are just beautiful - shiny black with pink edges. I'm going to save them to plant in the spring. With beans these pretty, I'm not surprised Jack traded his cow for them.

Here is some kind of mushroom I found by my raspberry patch. I've never seen this particular kind in my garden before.
They definitely don't look good enough to eat.

Mystery birds

Every afternoon around 5:00 for the past 2 weeks, a flock of these birds has landed on a tall dead pine at the back of the garden. I have counted up to 9 at once. They are a bit smaller than a crow, grey with stripes, and I often see them rubbing their heads on branches. The most amazing thing about them is the noise they make. It's like being in a pet store. Trills, whistles, croaks - it sounds like finches and parrots and canaries all at once. I would love to know what they are - any suggestions?