wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.

Monthly Archives: December 2019


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Stood Up

Before I let you in on their conversation, I must introduce the northern red-shafted flickers (of the woodpecker family). Mr. Flicker has a red slash on his “jaw” while Mrs. Flicker does not. So let’s listen in:

“Hmpf! Where is she? She was going to meet me at ‘The Suet Block’ for lunch and now she’s stood me up.”

 

“I’ll just have to have lunch alone. Oh, I saw him there at the feeder. I was only a few minutes late and he just couldn’t wait. Had to go ahead and eat without me. Some date!”

“Where were you? I’ve been waiting on this post so long, it’s a wonder a hawk didn’t come by and snap me up for HIS lunch!”

 

“Waiting for me? Hah! While I was waiting over here, you were already filling your face — I can see it all over your beak.”

“Oh Lord, give me strength!”

“Oh my goodness. Folks, did you see that? The Flicker family are at it again. There’s so much food for all. Such a shame they have to bicker … Haha, bicker … flicker … hahaha. The Bicker Flickers!”

“Oh well, it must be the stress of Christmas. They’ll get over it. Sure hope they have a happy new year.”

And you too, folks! Have a happy new year.

Remember, don’t sweat the small stuff or you’ll end up like the Bicker Flickers.

Think of all the blessings in your life, be thankful, and enjoy.

By the way, you see all this food around me? Someone brought it out here, thinking of me.

Why not do something kind for someone else every day? What a better place the world would be.


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Skywatcher

I’m becoming a skywatcher. Who would have thought mid-winter clouds could be so pink without a real sunrise? The cloud was a blanket over the hills. The cold snow under the blanket was turning blue.

What struck me was the contrast between the pink cloud and the cool blue snow.

The picture is not touched up. These are the weird colours of the morning sky. That’s why I ran for my camera.

The day turned stormy with a complete blanket of gray clouds scooting past only to be followed by more of the same. High southeast winds did nothing to blow the clouds away and reveal blue sky. Clouds just kept coming. I was surprised the winds were not from the north, so icy were they.

It was a weird day, weatherwise.

Winds SE 52 km (32 mph), gusts of 67 km (42 mph) later in the day.


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Lunch With Lincoln

For the third day in a row, I’ve put walnuts grown in my backyard on pieces of firewood in the woodshed. I had hoped that Lincoln would help himself to the food on these very cold, windy, rainy nights.

He did!

Today I put more walnuts out and he hovered nearby, not even running far. I went back into the house to get the camera, and he ran behind the woodshed. In a moment his curiosity got the better of him and he peeked around the corner.

As I didn’t go away, he decided he might as well go ahead and eat. He’s a bit messy, with food on his arm, but that reminded me of his injury a couple of weeks back. You can see that it’s healed, but the fur is uneven at the edge near his elbow.

Since he sat so still, eating, I made a little video of him having lunch.

 


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Oh My Goodness!

A noise like the clunk of a piece of wood in the woodshed got Emma barking. Something was scurrying around out there. I grabbed my camera to zoom in so I could see better at this distance.

Lincoln was scampering back and forth and up and down so fast I couldn’t get a clear picture of him.

I noticed that the second batch of walnuts I had put out on the firewood was gone, so I presume the donation was appreciated.

Lincoln ran around the pile of old posts and lumber at the side of the woodshed and as I tried to follow with the camera, muttering, “Hold still, will ya?” I saw double. I lowered the camera and squinted. Yes, there were two Lincolns out there, chasing each other around. No wonder I couldn’t get them to hold still.

This blurry critter is NOT Lincoln. He was at the other end of the heap.

But then WHO is this?

 

This one’s fur is much lighter.  See how dark Lincoln’s fur is by comparison?

I snapped pictures hoping for one that wouldn’t be too blurry. Those critters just wouldn’t stand still. Imagine my surprise when I uploaded the photos and saw this photo below.

Oh, my goodness! Caught in the act (inadvertently – I wasn’t trying to spy on them), and still moving so fast that it was blurry!! Yikes!

 

Lincoln is the deliquent. Do y’all know where De Linc went? https://wordsfromanneli.com/2017/06/26/lincoln-the-delinquent/

So  I suspect this Delilah must be Delicious Della.

It looks like my wishes for Lincoln have already come true and he really is having a Merry Christmas!


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Merry Christmas, Lincoln!

“Uh-ohhhh!” Lincoln says. “Busted!”

“I think Anneli found the mess I made when she loaded firewood in the wheelbarrow yesterday. All the walnut shells behind the wood, bits of sunflower seeds — they were all tucked away behind the first row of stacked wood. I heard her say, ‘Ahhh-HUH! Ratty has been here!’ It was all I could do not to laugh out loud. She had no idea it was me, Lincoln — her favourite squirrel.”

“But now I’m busted. What to do? Run? Naw … she won’t hurt me.”

“So I asked her, ‘How’s your Christmas going so far?’ But she just snorted. Must be too much work right now. Everything happening at once. I heard her grumbling to the Captain about how busy the traffic is.

“Too bad. There’s no traffic here … except those spaniels of hers. I’ve got their number though. Don’t know why Anneli thinks they’re so great. They can’t even climb!

“Although … that Emma can jump pretty high. Think I’ll duck for cover just in case.”

“She’ll never find me up here. See me? To the left of the big chunk of wood on top?”

“I think I’m being zoomed. She does that sometimes with that gadget she points at me all the time. I can hear it going ‘Z-z-z-z-z-z-z … beebeep – click.’ It doesn’t hurt though.”

“Oh, look. Isn’t that sweet? She’s put some walnuts on the firewood for me. And what’s that, she said?”

Merry Christmas, Lincoln!


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Under the Double Eagle

I was looking for a glimpse of a great blue heron who once visited this marshy area. This is him about three years ago.

No luck. Just a lot of bullrushes and mist.

Two eagles about half a mile away, reminded me of a poster I saw in the 70s, of two vultures sitting in a snag, looking down at the ground, waiting for something to die.

The caption said, “Patience, my ass! I’m gonna kill something.”

But they were definitely eagles, not vultures.  I zoomed in and tried for a shot but it was really far away. Still, I could see that the smaller one was a mature bird while the bigger one was not. They don’t generally get the white feathers on their head until they are in their fifth year. Since the female birds are usually larger than the males, I thought this might be a case of a father and daughter having a conversation.

 

My daughter you’re a big girl now,

No boyfriends will I yet allow,

But soon you will be old enough,

Make sure the man you choose is tough.

 

The world out there can be quite harsh,

But keep your eyes upon that marsh,

A crippled bird might try to hide

Behind the rushes at the side.

 

Be careful when you swoop to kill,

Stay safe so you can eat your fill,

Don’t let the rushes tangle you

And hurt your wings, or that you’ll rue.

 

I see the heron stalking frogs,

Just at the back behind the logs.

When you fly down he’ll get a scare

And hurry to get out of there.

 

He knows that we could tear him up,

And then on heron we could sup,

But he’s a watchful kind of guy,

And he can soar up very high.

 

A heron circles in the sky

Much higher than we eagles fly,

Except for that, he’d be our meal,

You must forget him, no big deal.

 

For now we’ll take the sickly duck

That’s hiding in that swampy muck,

And we’ll be doing him a favour

As we both enjoy his flavour.

 


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Changing Skies

A southeast system of wind and rain at the lower levels and snow at higher elevations is moving up the coast and then inland. The owners of ski hills are ecstatic.

Just look at the turmoil in the sky. The uppermost clouds are dropping moisture from  those sweeping misty fingers.

A streak of heavy cloud sits like a skinny blanket, trying to decide whether to go up or down or continue north like a long train along the middle of the hillside.

Right in the middle of the picture, just above the level of the bay water, a low snaking cloud is following the Trent River to its mouth.

 

After a few minutes I go outside to take another picture as the clouds darken, and the hillside falls into shadow.

The layers of clouds have begun to separate and the lower ones seem to be churning in confusion. Where to go next?

Right now I’m happy to have the rain at sea level and the snow up higher where the skiers can enjoy it. If it keeps on raining, ask me in a week how I feel about it then.

And if it’s a rainy day, it’s perfect for reading a good book. I’ve written five of them for you. Just check out my web page at www.anneli-purchase.com to find out more about them. They make perfect Christmas gifts.


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Yule Love Yule Logs

This is a very Christmassy recipe, but it’s good any time of the year.

Simple to make: all the ingredients are in the picture below. No baking powder or baking soda or salt. Just butter, sugar, flour and an egg, vanilla, dates and nuts (you can do without the nuts if you have an allergy). Recipe is at the end of this post.

You can see that I’ve chopped the dates (except for one to show you) and the pecans (you can use walnuts if you prefer them).

Mix the butter and sugar, add an egg and mix again, add the vanilla and then the flour. You’ll get a gooey batter. Add the nuts and dates.

Drop by spoonfuls, a couple at a time, into a bowl with shredded coconut, and to avoid getting batter all over your fingers, take a big pinch of coconut and push the batter off the spoon with it. Then coat the batter over and over  in the coconut, pressing lots of coconut into the batter as you shape it into a roll (a yule log).

Place the logs on a greased cookie sheet and bake them at 350 for 15 minutes.

They should be golden brown when they’re done.

Now all you need is a cup of something to go with the logs.

I copied my mother-in-law’s recipe years ago. She used walnuts, but I like pecans too, so sometimes I substitute.

Easy recipe. Enjoy!


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Night Prowlers

On the BC coast, if you have trees around, you’ll have raccoons. About three years ago, this fellow and his friends visited our yard and I managed to snap some pictures. It was easy enough to do in the daytime. But it’s the nighttime when these guys are most active. We hear them snapping and snarling and scrambling up and down the trees. Since I don’t have chickens, I don’t mind the raccoons being around too much, as long as they don’t interact with my dogs. I hadn’t seen any raccoons around for a while and had forgotten all about them until a couple of nights ago.

raccoon

I was in bed, almost asleep at about 11:30 p.m., when the room got a little bit brighter. I got up to find the source of the light. It was outside – the perimeter light on our workshop. Someone or something had walked by near the workshop and made the light come on.  I shone a flashlight around the yard and there he was. He had his mask on and was prowling around the backyard looking for trouble.

I ran for the camera while the Captain held the light on a second bandit who was climbing a tree not far from the back deck. I snapped a picture but it didn’t come out very well. The spotlight was too bright. The gray thing to the left of the raccoon is the utility trailer hitch, messing up the picture even more.

Anyway, we now know what has been causing our light to come on in the yard. I’ll be careful not to let the dogs out at night without a leash. Wouldn’t want them to tangle with one of these guys. They can be quite vicious when cornered.