zipping right along

February is zipping right along, that is. Not me.

But I'm keeping up. Just.

We've been having some cold days, but clear, mostly. Cold but not windy, mostly. Cold but sunny, mostly. It's been, in other words, an exceptionally fine February so far.

Which is great, because regardless of the weather, or how I happen to be feeling physically, I'm outside and in motion for a minimum of two hours every  morning and every evening. The goats provide the core of my personal healthcare system, and I'm grateful for the incentive.

red maple, on a day when it was warm enough to hold a pencil

I've started to write a blog post at least four times after evening chores in the past two weeks, and each time have fallen asleep over the laptop. Or, more accurately, under the laptop. Actually, under the laptop and two cats. It's an easy way to fall asleep, I suppose, if one is very thoroughly tired. But it's certainly a strange way to wake up.

So even if this post is only a jumble of random jottings, I am going to post it before evening chores today. And I'll add equally random snaps. Like these:

And these:

vase, view 1

vase, view 2

And in conclusion, two short random notes:

• Good news follow-up: I took delivery of three additional pallets of chaffhaye, and the forklift operator got them close to the barn. This makes every single day easier for me: there's still wrestling and sweating and occasional swearing involved, but no sledding or dragging through gates.Those 90 bales should take us to May Day.

• A happy "find:" the field technician who got my internet and phone line reconnected a few weeks ago dropped his (quite costly) Leatherman tool into deep snow whilst repeatedly to-ing and fro-ing between his truck and my house. He looked, I looked. He thought they would probably be near the pole where he reconnected the line. I thought they would probably be near the stone wall he scrambled over to take a shortcut. Well, I was able to give him some good news this week:

they were in the garden

I hope your days are full of good news and happy finds.

~~~~~

weekend seen

This chipmunk shinnied up the pole holding the bird feeder.

S/he paused a couple of times on the way up, to look around.

At every pause in the climbing, s/he slowly slid downward,

like a little cartoon character.

But once the buffet was reached,

there was plenty of time to eat and look around.

Ms. Piper also enjoys looking around. And sniffing.

Whatever she was sniffing here, it was fascinating!

She stood perfectly still for a couple of minutes.

We went to the woods today for the very first time this summer.

You may not be surprised to hear that it was very hot and humid.

An hour of walking was plenty.

First we walked down into our favorite little streambed looking in vain for cooler air,

then back along a flat trail that Piper really likes.

The bugs were so bad we both wore the Seriously Awful Spray.

Piper seemed unbothered by the deer flies, thank goodness. 

But if I stopped moving even long enough to take a picture,

deer flies took bites out of my fingers and my face.

Many of the photographs I took today were too blurry to share.

Say, readers, here's a question for you!

Are there any fungi aficionados reading this?

If so, I would love to know if that silvery color on the surrounding vegetation

is an incredibly thin and perfectly even layer of released spores.

There were a few similar examples nearby, at various states of maturity/decay.

Can't think what else it could be, but I'm surprised I've never seen this before.

The color stood out so much, my first thought was

that someone had used marking paint.

And here's another colorful thing, but less mysterious:

a "bead" of a "bluebead lily" in the process of turning blue.

They turn quite a dark blue - this bright, light blue was a surprise.

Well, Piper is sound asleep and the sun is beginning to drop behind the trees,

which means evening chores are waiting.

 Time to get busy.

~~~~~

miscellaneous mushrooms

~~~

(Just because they always catch my eye. So intriguing!)

~~~~~