wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.

Category Archives: squirrels


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More Nuts Than Ever

I’m tired of washing, pitting, and freezing plums. The pears and apples are finished except for one winter apple tree that will be ready in about three weeks. So now it’s time to have a look at the walnut tree.

A closer look will show a few walnuts still hanging on. Some look dark and some quite green, but that is only the outer husk you are looking at. As the nut grows and the husk dries out, the nut and what’s left of its husk fall to the ground.

This one shouldn’t be too hard to pop out of its husk, but beware, the inside of that green coating stains like crazy. It would make a perfect “walnut” furniture stain. My hands always seem to end up looking like part of a walnut end table.

Once the husk is off the walnut, you can see the walnut that we are more familiar with, but it still needs some drying time. A burlap bag hung on the wall beside the woodstove is the perfect place to dry the walnuts.

Every couple of days I sneak some and take them to the woodshed as an offering to my squirrels.

“Thank you, Anneli,” Crispin chatters.

 

I love to have a change of food,

A different kind of nut,

The walnuts put me in a mood,

That makes me pat my gut.

 

The hazelnuts are such a treat,

I’ve packed a lot away,

But walnuts have delicious meat,

They’re best of all, I’d say.

 

I bite a hazelnut and run,

To hide it in a cache,

But walnuts are too big, no fun,

To lug them to my stash.

 

And this is why it’s oh, so fine,

To have them brought to me,

I know that all of them are mine,

To be devoured with glee.

 

 


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Lunch with Crispin

Hi again! I’m Crispin. Remember me? I’m kind of small, but I’m not unimportant. I’d like you to watch a video clip of me eating a hazelnut. Please ignore Anneli’s unsteady hand with the camera. She’s getting old and a bit shaky sometimes. (But don’t tell her I said that).

So that’s how you do it.  It takes two hands to spin it around as you eat, but that keeps it round. Kind of like licking an ice cream cone around and around so it doesn’t flop over. But don’t forget to put most of the nuts away for the winter.

Would you like me to peel one for you? Then we could have lunch together.

Hazelnuts are oh, so yummy,

Feel so good inside my tummy,

But there’s one important trick,

Learning how to peel them quick.


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Backyard Eateries

Oh, good grief, those squirrels are such messy eaters.

What do you think I should do? Such a  mess!

It even spilled over the edge of the table!

I’ll just take this one sunflower seed. I wouldn’t want anyone to see me here and think it was me who made this mess!

Uh-ohhhh! The Steller’s jay is at my dining room table.

I have to hide these nuts I just got off the hazelnut tree.

That’s good. I’ll push it down with my nose. I still have one nut for my lunch. Think I’ll eat it now before that jay finds it. They are such thieves!

First, to get the shell off. Good thing I have really sharp teeth. I tried them out on Anneli’s thumb one time. I felt bad later, but what does she think? I need to be fed?

Oh, yes, now this is looking better. The shell is off and I’ve worked up an appetite.

Can’t wait to bite into this hazelnut!

I found a new place to eat. As you can see, I’ve switched to walnuts. They’re not so messy. But I still have to keep an eye out for those jays. I think I’ll have a quick bite, and then take the rest to my secret stash deep in the wood shed.

Life is never easy. You always have to be on your toes and have an alternate plan in case something goes wrong.


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Newsflash

I don’t usually do two posts in one day, but this one is important.

The Captain heard a ruckus nearby and saw two robins divebombing a little squirrel who clung to the bark of a large fir tree with all his terrified strength. I suppose it had come too close to a nearby nest.

It took a few seconds before the Captain realized that this was a very small squirrel and that it had only a short tail, the kind that baby squirrels have.

We’d almost given up on seeing any baby squirrels this year, so this one was a surprise. I wonder if it’s the only one. I’m sure he is Crispin’s baby.

I also wonder if he survived this cold night. It has been windy and rainy almost as if it were winter. Some sunflower seeds in the woodshed might help it along.

The baby squirrel clung to the tree for several minutes. It gave me lots of time to get the camera and snap a few pictures, but I worried that he was so exposed to predators for so long.

Finally he decided to make his way down the tree and back into the woods.

Welcome to our little animal world. Now I’ll have to think of a name for him.


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Vandalism

It’s time for spring cleaning and I took a broom to sweep the deck. But whoa! What was this? Did I have a raccoon or a rat visiting at night? What a mess!

I found a clue. A fir cone left behind. But maybe it had just been blown there by the wind. We have had some very windy days….

But in the corner at the front of the deck, I found more clues. Again, it could have been blown there by the wind….

But a closer look told me that the vandal had taken time out to have a snack and even had plans to eat a second cone before something scared him away.

Busted!

“Hmm … what to do now?”

“I might just have to rethink this….”

“It’s a good thing she loves me so much!”


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Lunchtime

Hoo-whee! These fir cones are like a candy cane. So good!

Oh! Sorry. That was rude of me. Would you like to share this one? 

These cones come in little wings that you can peel off. I’ll get one for you.

What’s that? Not your kind of food? Oh, too bad. I’ll get back to it then.

Say, if you really want to see me in action, play the video. Be sure to turn up the sound so you can hear the robins singing their spring songs.


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S is for Squirrel Babies

Just to set the record straight before you read and look at the photos – these are the baby squirrels from a couple of years ago. There were no babies this year that I know of.

 

“Come on, you guys! It’s lonely at the top.”

“Let’s wrestle.”

“We need a referee.”

“You go down and tell him to come up while I find a referee’s chair for him to sit on up high.”

“Aw, come on! Stop playing hard to get.”

“I don’t want to be referee. It’s too boring.”

“Let’s play tag instead.”

“You’re it.”

S is for squirrel babies.

 


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Wild Weather

Before the big windstorm happened, the Captain was keeping a few cans of beer cool, in a plastic tote on top of the patio table that you can just see the corner of at the right side of the photo.

The second patio table, the round one on the left, used to sit in the middle of the deck where the fallen hanging basket is lying on its side now. The wind must have blown the table over as far as it could go.

The oranges were on the table beside the beer cans, to keep cool. I also had a small parsley plant in a pot. You might see it lying on its side without the pot near the far end of the deck. Just a matted clump of dirt with a few yellow green leaves in it.

The blue pieces are part of a small clay pot that I painted  about ten years ago. I always liked that little pot, but never imagined that the wind could send it flying off the table and smash it. The white saucer used to be under the parsley pot. Not sure where that pot ended up. I think it was plastic so it may have flown to the neighbours’ place or be in the next town by now.

The  bits of branches from the fir trees are relatively small compared to the branch that came down  just beyond the deck, as you will see in the next photo.

I’m glad no people, dogs, or squirrels were out for a walk when this branch decided to drop in, and I was so happy to see the squirrels and two hummingbirds alive in the morning.

And so, further to the previous post about Thanksgiving Day, and all we have to be thankful for, I feel very thankful to have been spared major trouble from this windstorm.  Even the few hours of a loss of power were not too bad. I can’t begin to imagine the terror people go through in hurricanes. Hearing this wind roar through like a freight train was bad enough.