Knitting, gardening, quilting, cooking and dogs
I think we can safely say winter is here, don’t you?
I had plans for today but with the depth of the snow, the length of our driveway, the fact that it’s still snowing and projected to continue snowing all day, I think those plans are officially toast.
If anybody in the neighborhood is going to the store, I need some stuff. Call me. <grin>
This is just under the upper rim on the outside of my upper biofilter tank for the outside aquarium. Anyone have an idea what buggy thing this is? Click the image and enlarge.
I know it’s buggy, just not what flavor of bug. Whatever was inside the mud or exudate shell is no longer there. The outside is covered with round . . . they can’t be seeds. They might be eggs but they aren’t like any egg I’ve ever seen. They’re round with a tiny dimple in the face.
Between snow, wind and motion, there’s a lovely little shallow dish carved out below the wind chime where the feather has kept the snow brushed away. Isn’t nature wonderful?
As the weather gets colder I seem to cook more breakfasts. My favorite is a not-omelet with whatever ingredients I have at hand. Sometimes it’s scallops and shrimp, other times it’s sausage. At some point I’ll get pictures of the non-omelet process to share.
Chickens go through a laying/setting cycle that contributes to our very occasional lack of eggs. Part of the derth is related to having free range chickens and dogs who love eggs . . . when they can find them. Because smart hens hide their eggs where dogs and people can’t find them, we have a fairly consistent supply of new chicks to offset those lost to old age and/or picked off by scavengers when the dogs get inattentive.
The eggs we get range in size, shape and color because our flock is a real mix of breeds. We have medium to small hens that are part barred rock, australorp, banty and something with feathered feet. We now have a silky rooster who was added to our flock by a family member. The one baby we’ve been able to identify as his looks more like a grouse than a chicken. Very cute.
The difference between our eggs and those that come from the store is really obvious when they are cracked into the same bowl. The store bought egg is yellow. The free range chicken egg yolks ranges in color depending on the age of the chicken and what they’ve been eating. The richer the color, the higher the nutrition.
The store bought egg in the bowl was a grade A large brown egg. You can see one of our eggs is slightly smaller and one is quite a bit bigger.
Two days ago this rose was the most beautiful thing, a soft barely pink blossom bejeweled with drops of dew in the morning light. I kid you not, this rose was gorgeous. I hurried in to grab my camera, but alas, the battery had insufficient charge to take the pic. By the time I got the camera charged and dashed out to snap a pic, it was just a nice rose. No beautiful dew, the rose had opened fully and the light was all wrong. <sigh>
The pump house has a temporary roof which just begs for critters to build their nests therein. It’s a fav spot for yellow jackets, though the space is tight.
The yellow jackets started their nest under the metal in much more temperate weather. Though it’s barely 9 a.m., it’s already promising to be in excess of 80º. The yellow jackets have already got the air conditioning going full blast. This little guy is working his wings off to get the air moving up the channel to cool the nest. It’s a bit difficult to see in the picture but he’s got his body canted in such a way as to direct the flow of air up the channel.