Winter! Brrr, It's cold.

Hello everyone,

It's been awhile. It's been a busy time with Christmas, birthdays, hospital and nursing home runs to see Mom, but I try to take my camera along, "just in case." It never fails when I decide to leave it home, something great makes an appearance and I kick myself.

On this day, I was at my sister's house, and as I was getting into the car, I caught a flurry of motion. This Red-Shouldered Hawk swooped down and landed on a wire in front of me. I reached into my car, grabbed my camera off the seat, and quickly took this picture.

On December 23rd, we discovered this injured Tufted Titmouse hopping around in our garage. We tried to capture it, but it unfortunately got outside. We carefully followed it and eventually managed to capture it after about a half hour. We could see that it had an injured wing, so we took it to the Mount Vernon Songbird Sanctuary , where it was cared for and brought back to health. On January 13th, it was returned here, and released again into our backyard garden. It flies fine, but will always have a droopy wing. After its release, I happened to spot the bird in some branches, so quickly shot a few pix through the window. Sorry for the quality of the composite above, but the branches got in the way.

Yes, it's winter here. It's in full swing and I'm sitting here at the computer - never warm enough inside the house either. I think of my brother who has just moved from New Hampshire down to Florida. Smart man. :) This is an ice-covered cliff in a nearby town.

The icicles are so large that they have formed a sort of ice cave.

Another backyard bird - a pretty red cardinal. It's always a challenge for me to get pictures of our garden visitors. You can see how thick the branches are.

A neighborhood farm.

Driving into the farm country near my house is one of my favorite things to do. I love the open land. I have a dream of someday buying an old farm and just letting it go wild. No farmer here, but definitely a land lover.

Crow on the farm

I'm sure I've shown this scene before. I never tire of it. I would love to turn that little shed into a hideaway cottage and just sit down there and relax.

A tumbled-down shed and a Sycamore tree.

Tracks and shadows on the snow

One of the "kids" who was born here last year. All four of them are still around and their Mom is also doing very well. They still take shelter in the holes in the tree outside my window, which is also the place where they were born. So much fun to watch them, but they sure do tend to hog the bird feeders. I don't mind, even though we'll probably go broke feeding them. :)

Tracks and shadows on the snow in my backyard

On a colorless day, on the way to see my mother, this is a view of the Salmon River in East Haddam, Connecticut.

Snow clinging to tree trunks.

A pine cone buried in the snow.

Some birdie footprints

On this morning, we drove to our favorite coffee house. The snow began to fall and the conditions, at times, were white-out. As it happens, this is one of the farms I drive by on the way to Litchfield, when I do my nature walks on the boardwalk.

What looks like fog is actually snow falling.

Ice floes on the Connecticut River in Haddam, on another day, a little brighter and sunnier, but FREEEEZING! The wind blowing off the water was wicked. I quickly got out of the car, shot a few pictures, and ran back inside. 11° F/ -11°C, with winds around 45 mph gusting higher, yielding a wind chill factor that it made it feel like 0°F / -17°C. An Arctic cold front brought winds and frigid temps that just blew right threw me. Within just a minute, I felt my hands going numb. Gimme shelter!

Hey, where are the penguins?

Some icicles on a stack of ice

And on that cold note, it's 6° F/ -14°C this morning as I write this, and it's time for me to make some breakfast. I hope you are all well and enjoying the weekend.

Thank you for all of your visits.