February Feathered Friends

Each Winter I look forward to the annual visit of Bohemian waxwings that feed on the berries produced on  Mountain Ash trees, commonly known as Dog berry trees. I did take note, as did everyone else, that the trees here this past summer were bursting with blossoms that in turn became loaded with berries in the Fall. There is a saying that if the trees are full of berries we are in for a hard, snowy Winter and less berries would predict an easier Winter. Guess what? The berries were dead on this year, we had tonnes of snow!!! Whatever the case the more berries the merrier for the birds, they flew and fed in swarms. It started here in late January lasting to mid February.

Whenever I saw them I was amazed at how they all flew in a synchronized pattern and in such large numbers. I was lucky enough to photograph them a couple of times, I even caught them in flight as seen below.There had to be hundreds of them and luckily for them there was a bumper crop of berries waiting to be feasted upon. As they decimated one area of Dog berry trees they would move farther along until they found the next batch.  

Here's another view of them after a freezing rain system iced all of the trees but that didn't stop

this gang. They still carried on flying around and feeding and if I do say so it made for some beautiful pictures.

 Then I was privileged enough to have the gang come into my yard, I had a hint they might   because of my Dog berry trees that would serve them a good breakfast some morning!

 It was also a rare treat to see them feeding along side of a group of robins, although the robins were far outnumbered. These robins are Northern robins who choose to stay instead of migrate south during the Winter. Most of the time it's the male who stays behind to get an early claim in on a territory for  the upcoming breeding season. Since they aren't in mating season they are a little more sociable with other birds as captured below.

      

 I even managed to catch them in the act of stuffing their little beaks full of the plump, red  berries.

After the feeding frenzy was over the bird gang moved on to another part of town to continue on devouring the berries. they certainly licked the platter clean.

                         

Pinned It and Did It!!!

                         

Swaddle Baby

I am sure by now most have heard of the website Pinterest! It's the site where whatever you have an interest in you can pin that item to a virtual bulletin board that you create! It's been a wonderful source of inspiration and great, creative resource for me! If you want to check it out for yourself visit:  http://www.pinterest.com/ 

I'll share with you a couple of projects that I pinned first and then re-created myself. One of the first things I attempted was a spray paint art project from http://shealynnbenner.com/2012/05/tutorial-7-spray-painted-doily-canvas/.  I changed the idea a little and spray painted over various sized paper doilies temporarily tacked to the canvases I was painting over. The base remained white and I sprayed here and there with various spray paint I had in orange, red and bronze. Here's the  final result:

Another passion I have is making door wreaths and accents and when I saw this pin I knew I had to recreate it for my door.  See the project at  http://frugalflourish.blogspot.ca/2010/09/fall-wreath-with-bling.html

 I love how it turned out so much that I made two of them! If you look closely you'll see I added nuts and purple potpourri pieces to use as filler accents, use whatever you have around! Here's my version of the Fall monogrammed wreath :

 Lastly, I'll share the easy, peasy sewing project that would make a nice gift for a little girl. I first saw it at  http://beccamariedesigns.blogspot.ca/2012/04/swaddle-baby-tutorial.html
 I had the top half of a doll that came from a wall accent I had disassembled so I was already half way there which made the project that much faster! Here's my little baby doll that I'll give to someone special when I see her again!!

Unwrapped view

I also recycled an old picture frame that had gotten tossed in the trash by a friend. I stripped out the picture and the glass, spray painted it and some clothespins. Next I pinned three rows of  jute string on it for her three kiddies to pin their art work up for display. Each one had their line labelled and a pack of stickers to decorate their sheet  of paper with for their first project!

Exploring at the Seashore

Do you want to go for a walk? Well at our house as any dog owner knows, that creates a lot of excitement! Meet our bundle of energy, Jasper who loves to take walks on the beach. How about we take you along on a virtual  walk and show you what sort of things we see? Our favorite time to explore is early in the mornings and later in the evenings when there's hardly anyone around, sometimes we'll have the beach all to ourselves!
One early morning we stumbled upon an old glove that had no doubt fell out of one of the fishing boats, it intrigued someone to go take a sniff! His nose sure gets a workout while we walk, it's so funny how their nose will often lead them and with us it's our eyesight that captures our attention.

Many times as we've walked along the beach Jasper sniffs all the way while I scan the shore for beach glass and things. One sunny morning, sad to say there was a close call, if not for us, then for the next barefooted person.  We stumbled upon a barely submerged razor blade! I picked it up and was shocked at the discovery since we have super clean beaches. That just proves we always needs to watch where we step, obviously!

But on a happy note we do find some pretty awesome things like sand dollars, if you are lucky! Sometimes there are piles of driftwood to collect for display purposes or as with me to create with! I'll share that with you in another post. What I love most of all is the beach glass that gets washed ashore, sometimes there's lots and other times you see a bare beach. I was lucky this particular morning, which was extra special because my Aunt was home visiting from another province and she wanted some beach keepsakes to take home with her.

Sometimes you'll find the oddball item which makes you pause and wonder, what's that? Or what 'was' that? Oddly enough I found a bone that belonged to a seal, maybe? It looked like a T shape and I was curious to learn where it may have came from, thus I took this photograph, do you know what it belongs to?

Then I found a "Mermaid's Purse" as we call it, which is the egg capsule that carries the embryo of small sharks, skates or rays that breed in our ocean.

Last, but not least are cod ears which are tiny findings that often go overlooked because of their size. The correct name is otolith. It is a shell-like structure in the inner ear that reflects growth patterns of the cod fish the same way as the rings on a tree stump! Here's a close-up view of one we found.

I hoped you enjoyed seeing the things we found at the beach, I'm sure we'll be able to do it again someday as you know how much somebody loves to go for a w-a-l-k!!