Miss Kitty

Miss Kitty was upstairs watching television. We still had the baby gate in the doorway, so Annie could not come into the room. It is progress. We should get her nails trimmed soon.

Artichokes

Algonquin College was growing a bed of artichokes last summer. I have only found out what they were, this past week. Before, I had them labelled as spiky things.

The flowers are beautiful and exotic, and the bees love them! Some flowers had four or five bees working in them.

I have been told about a pig farmer acquiring a lot of artichokes, and realizing after a couple of days, that the pig by-products were not nearly as fragrant as usual.

By experimenting, he found that feeding artichokes as 10% of the total diet, kept them that way.

Sunrise

This time of year, you have to enjoy any signs of colour you can find.

The sunrises are so delicate!

Today's Flowers

One of my geraniums is blooming. Such a cheerful colour for the end of January!

Blizzard

This is not fog; this is snow! The storm was only half an hour long, but it was really coming down, and blowing!

This last picture is Annie, across the back yard. Maybe 40 feet away.

Skywatch Friday

Sunset, earlier in the week.

The main event is always in the west, but sometimes the east has lovely delicate colours.

Ditches

All that rain caused the ditches and streams to flood.

You can see where the snowbanks have been undercut and washed away.

PussyWillows Already

Okay, so they are tiny, and not even very soft looking,

but they are pussywillows! Spring will come!!!!

Watery Wednesday

We had a good two inches of rain yesterday, so I took the long road home, and stopped at the side of the road half a dozen times.

You can see the bushes along this stream fade into the fog as they get further away from the road.

Different stream, same fade.

And what did the road look like, you ask?

Allium Flowers

Jake

Jake was posing so nicely in the sunshine. Annie left the region the camera was pointing at, so I got a photo of her scruffy tail.

Tracks in the Snow

Early morning, and the tracks of a large bird, possibly a pheasant. I like to think there are pheasants around here. And the rare tracks of the dreaded purple loosestrife!

These tracks were made by a predator, judging by the distance I could follow them, circling, and checking every large clump of grass.

The leash gives you an idea of the size of the prints.

And on the way home, both leashes were attached to dogs, so I used a glove to show scale. There were crows on the other side of the ditch, not too far from these.

Sun on Water

We have been having above normal temperatures, and last week, the sun even shone for a few days. The whole landscape changes when the sun comes out.

Woodstock Town Hall

This was built as the Town Hall, but has become the museum

in recent years.

Today's Flowers

Sorting May's photos, I found this iris.

Swan

Doesn't this fellow think he is just

the handsomest thing in the pond?

Columbine

Columbine flowers

from my mother's garden.