Monday, January 31, 2011

Happy day

I had a good day yesterday, my birthday, thanks to Gordon...
 

 We went out snowshoeing. It was sunny and beautiful out, not too cold.


We followed the creek along our field into the adjacent field. Then I broke through the ice! You can see how it has fallen away from the edge in this photo. Uh, that was me. But I didn't even get wet, just leapt onto shore. I told Gordon to stop where he was and climb our, which is what he was doing in this photo! (The water here is about six inches deep. No worries of hypothermic drowning.)



The dogs were having a great time and posed for a photo or two.



Then they gave me a bunch of over-exuberant birthday face-kisses!


 The farmer who owns the land next to ours has a nice hardwood forest. They've been driving their snowmobiles and ATVs through it. We walked through for a while, for a change of scenery.



I was surprised to see a sunflower had been growing in the woods! I grow lots of sunflowers in my garden. I figure some bird transported seed to the woodlot, and voilà!



A very large tree died and fell into the fork of another tree.



When we got back to the house, Tristan pulled his usual stunt of settling down in the snow and looking pathetic.


 

We fed chickadees by hand near the house. They are so sweet! And can you see what's on Gordon's hat?
Yep! A hungry little chickadee. I am going to try to get more hand-fed chickadee pics in the coming weeks.

But wait, there's more fun! We met a local dairy farmer recently, and he invited us to come see his farm. He and his wife have lots of lovely cows who like to lick...

They licked my hands, they licked my hair, the licked my coat, they licked my leg!
 Worse than a cat!

Here's Gordon slacking off while the farmer does the hard work.



The healthy, happy barn cats enjoyed fresh creamy milk.
And look, a new born calf. Mama cow hadn't even finished cleaning her up yet.

After the dairy farm, we went out for Thai food. I was hoping that the other restaurant patrons wouldn't notice the scent of barn emanating from our booth.

Snowshoeing, chickadees, dairy farms, Thai delights... never a dull moment around here!



19 comments:

  1. Sounds like the perfect birthday to me! As cold as it's been, the little creek here isn't frozen either and I was skating along it (in my boots) and went in, about 6 inches. My ankle got caught but otherwise, no hyperthermia!

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  2. Anonymous10:52 am

    Happy Birthday yesterday, Natalie! Mike's birthday is today although we celebrated it over the weekend -- went cross country skiing yesterday and your pics remind me of the beautiful place where we skied.

    Years ago Mike had two golden retrievers -- your gorgeous photos will make him nostalgic. We also get chickadees eating out of our feeders but have not yet persuaded them to eat out of our hands. That is cool!

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  3. Ooo, Ronna, glad I'm not the only one!!

    CogDis, happy birthday to my fellow Aquarian Mike! Cross-country skiing is great.

    And persevere with the chickadees. They'll come round! I have had downy woodpeckers and nuthatches eat from my hand too, and out west Grey Jays and Clark's Nutcrackers.

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  4. Happy belated birthday Natalie. Looks like you and Gordon are on the way to a great year. All the best.

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  5. what a lovely photo of you two!
    happy belated birthday greetigs

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  6. Sounds and looks like a great day! Happy birthday to you and many more!

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  7. Paula, John, James and Wandering Cat, thanks so much!

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  8. Happy Belated Birthday! The chickadees are so cute. :)

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  9. Hi Nat,

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY

    from Sue and Williexoxoxoxo

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  10. Anonymous2:56 pm

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, you sweet young thing!

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  11. Happy Birthday, my friend! Your lovely shots almost make me long for snow!

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  12. Great photos, I love the chickadee on Gordan's hat!

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  13. Nance, honestly, I LOVE winter. But I really only started loving it since I moved here :) In the city, it's just a hassle, but here it's an opportunity to walk around/snowshoe/ski in a pristine landscape, look at animal tracks in the snow, stare at beautiful skies, throw another log on the fire. I feel very connected to nature here. And I have good thermal underwear and a great parka! Dressing for the cold makes a huge difference.

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  14. David, the chickadees totally melt my heart, and I love the adorable sounds they make, and the fluttering of their wings as they prepare for landing!

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  15. Thanks, Sue and Willie. We will get our sh*t together and come visit you soon!!!

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  16. Ooooh, Marylee, I love it when you call me young. Thank you!

    Little Blue Mouse, your Blue Tits are like our chickadees. Really, they are so easy to tame. Such cute little birds.

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  17. Ah ha! Found the birthday post! Glad you had a happy day! I've been away from the blog world for a week, work got in the way. I hate that! :D

    ~Lynn

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  18. Thank you Lynn! Isn't it annoying when work gets in the way of life? :)

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Thank you for all your comments, which I love to read!