thankful thursday

There have been many wild birds here every day this Winter: juncoes and chickadees and finches and titmice and nuthatches and cardinals and jays and downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers and red-bellied woodpeckers. There is a small hanging basin for water, and every morning I pop out the disk of ice that has formed and refill the basin from one of the buckets I'm carrying to the goats, so that at least once daily the birds have access to water in a relatively safe spot. (I've also had hawks here this Winter, so the safety is not absolute.)

In addition to a suet feeder and a hanging feeder of mixed seeds, I've also been scattering seed on the snow under the thicket of Kerria japonica and Spirea branches. I began doing it so the juncoes would have plenty of food available instead of waiting for seed to fall from the hanging feeder, but as more and more birds made it clear that they enjoyed this less-exposed dining area, I began putting more seed on the ground. It's been quite remarkable how many birds will gather under and within those shrubs every day. And around the corner, the suet feeder is especially popular with all the woodpeckers.

This morning I happened to look out at the exact right moment to see two new visitors to the suet feeder, each appearing briefly before flying off. 

First the male:

Then the female:

Eastern Bluebirds!

This is only the second time I have seen a bluebird on my property, and it was such a gift to look out at just the right moment to see this pair. I'm sorry the pictures are a bit murky; it was sleeting lightly.

When I went out to scatter seed and fill the wild bird feeder today, I added dried mealworms to the little feeder attached to a window. The titmice and finches visit it now, but maybe the bluebirds will come back and give it a try if they notice the mealworms. Or maybe I'll put up a second suet feeder.

I would love to see bluebirds as regular visitors here.

But even if it's another two years before the third sighting,

I'm so grateful I saw these two today!

~~~~~

nearly wordless wednesday

Piper and I went for a short, soggy walk

and brought home

Comptonia.

~~~~~

markmaking february

Every path between the barns, the house, and the paddocks is solid ice.

The temperature is ranging from single digits to low 30s.

We've had snow, sleet, and sun.

More snow predicted this week.

Hello, February.

Here is the Daily Markmaking so far:

 February 1

 February 2

February 3

February is the month when I remind myself to weigh the low-level anxiety of carrying daily water buckets over icy paths against the delightful absence of mosquitoes and biting flies. Even ice looks pretty great when you compare it to mosquitoes.

February is also when my thoughts turn to the gardens. When I have to rein myself in before I even open a seed catalog.

Seriously.

I've been piling catalogs up as they arrive and there are at least eight of them now.

Haven't opened a single one.

But it won't be long now.

~~~~~

following up

evening chores last night

Two follow-up notes on the blogging questions...

I have found no pattern in commenters who are being blocked, so I searched the Help page on Blogger where several bloggers had asked why some readers are unable to leave comments on their blogs.

Here is the reply, specifically relating to Embedded comments, which is what I use. It's the only Blogger option where comments appears on the same page as the post, and where Replies to the Comments are permitted:

This option (embedded) uses third-party cookies to connect users to comments. Many people disable third-party cookies on their browsers, and that is the usual cause of this problem. Because of the nature of the internet, this is out of your hands, because it is a choice that users make in their browser settings.

So, there you (maybe) have it. Personally, I have not bothered to disable third-party cookies on my browser, and I don't know what the pros and cons are for doing so. And I'm certainly not suggesting that anyone change their browser settings. But if someone who has had trouble commenting on Comptonia decides to experiment and finds out that this really was the problem, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe even in a comment!

And if anyone discovers other options for bridging the commenting chasm, please share, any time. If I've learned one thing, it's that this problem affects many of us.

~~~

Re: the Feedly sponsored ads, I looked at my Adblock Plus settings to see if I could change something. Yes! At some point - probably years ago - I apparently chose to allow what are called "Acceptable Ads:"

Acceptable Ads are nonintrusive ads. They are the middle ground between ad blocking and supporting online content because they generate revenue for website owners.

On some websites - for example, international news sites - I allow ads because the "real" content is valuable to me and I'd rather allow ads than pay to subscribe to a dozen online newspapers. I think the "Acceptable Ads" setting may be how the Feedly ads slipped through, although it's very strange that I have never seen them before this month.

Now I've made all ads "unacceptable" and my feedly lists have returned to all-blogs-all-the-time. So far, so good! I will manually turn off my ad blocker on certain sites; I already do that on some sites anyway.

~~~

Thanks very much for all the input on these conundrums.

We shall now return to our regularly scheduled blogging content.

Bud says, "Does that include breakfast?"

Yes, Bud. Yes it does.
I'm on my way.
~~~~~

wordless wednesday

~~~~~