Monday, February 10, 2014

A few days ago we had snow!!  Here is my little car looking nice and cheerful in the snow.  I was waiting for R & D to pick me up for our Friday exercise outing.  I thought we were going to have a big snowfall and don’t have winter tires, don’t like driving in snow so was going to stay home .. but .. D convinced me to go.

I tried to capture the fluffy snowflakes on the bamboo leaves, they looked so pretty.

And there are iris rhizomes, bulbs, climbing vines, flowers … just waiting for the warm weather so they can grow .. grow .. grow ..

To think that I would have missed this beautiful vista if I had stayed home!!!

I could easily see a tiny faery door in the interesting textured bark of this tree .

Our little group of four were among a few others up early to walk along this marvellous pathway in the woods.  We were at Thetis Lake park .. quite a beautiful place to be.

Majestic, handsome, rugged, ancient .. the roots of this tree run deep and .. you know that they communicate with all of the other trees in the forest.  Instantaneous messaging of any changes.  Magical. And I can clearly see a little faery door at the front base of this tree . …how fun.

Salal growing out of a decaying tree stump .. which feeds the soil and provides a lovely home to this plant and many other creatures besides.

Such incredible beauty … 

The water in the lake was still .. like glass .. doesn’t it make you feel that there is really another dimension living in that space .. and we can only catch a glimpse of it when the water is quiet like this.

Silent beauty speaks for itself …

There were two Bouvier des Flandres or just “Bouviers” happily trotting along with their doggy daddy .. I was just able to snap one quick photo before they were gone.  This one had just been called away from the water’s edge … where he was testing the weight of the ice and we could all hear a distinct crunch as his paw made contact with the icy surface.  Good thing he obeys right quick!  It would have been a big struggle to get him out of the water, with all that heavy fur!

The thundering noise of a fast-moving creek caught our attention and called all of us to a side path to see what was going on.

Ok, we had a little discussion about whether the sign was warning everyone of a possible UFO sighting.  It was much more interesting to make that interpretation!

We continued along our way .. footbridge looming ahead, our session is nearly done.  But perhaps we will see more interesting sights along the way.  We usually do.

Blue skies are appearing overhead .. a lovely sight to see …

And here is sweet little Lilly … a little doll!

This dog was just priceless .. his doggy daddy was trying his best to have him pose with his stick in his mouth, he kept picking it up and dropping it and looked so cute.  But he just wanted to either play with his stick and jump around or just sit , stick on the ground and look up, adoringly at his dd!

So I took several photos … while he was temporarily still! (edit:  I just looked closely at his bandana and this is what I found . … fantastic!  http://dogbeach.org/  oh, to think that I would have missed this if I’d stayed at home!!)

Back at home, I’d been taking the hummingbird feeders in at night as the temperatures were low and the nectar was freezing. (I make 3:1 for the winter).  While I was holding 2 of the feeders, a little Anna came up and started feeding.  Don’t you just love those special moments in the garden ….

And this little one visited the other feeder once I had hung it back in the tree.  I’ve read that hummingbirds don’t depend on these feeders, they eat insects and drink moisture from the leaves .. but when the weather is freezing, we all want to ensure that they have nectar.

Looking out through the basement window I saw this little White Crowned Sparrow ..My decluttering is coming along in bits and pieces.  I’ve been finding all sorts of positive posts about this issue.  Many have struggled .. as am I … and I love reading the stories of their progress.  So I thought that this subject would deserve a posting .. perhaps in a few days.

Anyway …here I go again .. to try to fill up some of the empty boxes that I picked up a few days ago.   I was going to have a garage sale with my “wonderful” stuff .. but have decided to donate to a charity shop.  So I’ll give everything a quick clean and a polish before filling up the boxes.

🙂