Scattered Seed

The feeders are up and filled…..the redwing blackbirds are still here…..

Chickadees are hard to get to hold still for a photo,  so I got lucky with this one…..

a downy woodpecker discovered that I refilled the peanut feeder this afternoon….

the grackles are still around too,  though not many,  thank goodness…..

mourning doves come to sit in the feeder and look around,  sometimes not eating anything,  just sitting there….

blue jays are my most frequent visitor these days…..at least four of them…

not the best photo,  but I caught this blue jay doing a flip trying to get a peanut out of the ring!

Despite heavy rains this morning, the sun broke through, the temperatures rose, and it turned out to be a nice autumn day.   I checked the thermometer midday,  and it was 61 degrees!

Out front, the trees are almost bare and the leaves are ready to be raked up for compost.

As I cleaned around the kitchen,  I scrubbed the kitchen windows and brought out the tripod to see what birds I could catch at the feeders,    One more week till Feederwatch!

After a few brief errands,  we were settled back in at home,  and George started putting together a homemade pizza.  We bought the toppings a week ago,  and had just never gotten around to making a dough.    It occurred to us that the breadmaker might have a setting that would work,  and it did.     It made a delicious hearty crust,  and with all those toppings,  a delicious meal!

When I think that summer is over, and cold weather is moving in,  I often wish I lived somewhere warmer.   Then we take a drive up between the lakes on a beautiful autumn day,  and it reminds me of what I love about this area….

The past week or so I have been getting the feeders back up and filled. For awhile in the summer, squirrels were cleaning every feeder out as soon as I would hang it, so I gave them all a rest, and I knew the birds would survive without me.

Now that winter weather is approaching and Project Feederwatch is just a couple of weeks away, I’m set up again for the birds, and hopefully the squirrels don’t rule the roost again.

The blue jays cleaned out the peanut feeder the day after I filled it. There were five of them zooming back and forth all morning.

The first of the juncos appeared this week, and I counted eight out back this morning.

As the juncos arrive, the chipping sparrows will soon move on. There are several still here though, that flit about in a small tree in the neighbors yard, only occasionally appearing on the deck to peck for seeds.

The nyjer feeder stays busy with house finches, gold finches, redwing blackbirds at times, and always a group of mourning doves that sit and clean up the spilled seed.

This is what it looked like out back at daybreak this morning!

We had just put the gardens to bed a week ago,  and pulled the last of the tomatoes….It seems way too early for this!

The mailbox has been a treasure chest lately, with postcards coming in regularly now.   It’s a chance to collect, communicate,  and learn new things.

This card of delft blue tiles is from Anouschka in the Netherlands….

a cute dog from Karen in Utah…..

the signpost from Barbara in Switzerland….

this beach scene from Ana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil….

a castle in the Netherlands,  from Sia…

an interesting card from Ashley,  a student in Santa Barbara, California,  but a native of Seattle…

this from Jana in Germany of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland…

and this one will be an all-time favorite…..I love the artwork of Cornelis Jetses, sent to me from Jose in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

….our destination each October.

The beautiful drive over through the rolling hills (although leaves were not at peak yet).

The aroma of grapes as we drive into town….and a stop at the Wayside Market.

It was too cold for our meal in the park today,  so we opted for lunch at the Redwood.

The people behind us had ordered the fish fry,  which I pointed out to George,  so he had that too….overflowing the plate!

A little tour around the village to see old and familiar places…..then home with our goodies!

A huge head of cauliflower,  fresh cider,  cinnamon sugar fried cakes,  and of course the grapes.

Rosabelles, Niagaras, and Concords….It makes the whole trip worthwhile!

George left the house at six this morning for a weekend sports run,  which kept Martha confused most of the day.   She knows that when he leaves the house that early,  I will soon be getting ready to head out too.   She paced and whined and went back and forth from her cage all morning.   I’m sure she thought I was confused,  and nobody told her it was Saturday.

I awoke with the sniffles,  so I was happy to stay put today after a very busy week.   It was cold and rainy to start,  but the clouds broke midday and provided some welcome sunshine!

The maple out front is blazing in color.    This tree was only as tall as I was when we moved into the house,  and for the first few years I would walk over to it in the spring and measure up to it,  to see how it had grown.    Now I just look forward to mid-October each year when it glows in reds and oranges.

The last of the tomatoes are in the house.   I thought they would have been bitten by a frost by now,  but the first frost may come yet tonight.   It’s 38 degrees!

I’ve struggled to keep up with the birds the last couple of months.   Squirrels had taken over the feeders and I was getting discouraged,  so I gave the feeders a time out,  and I’m ready to go again.    I found the peanut ring in the garage (the pole has a baffle),  and filled that up this afternoon.

Suet is hung out in the willows.   I’ve missed the woodpeckers.

George made me this box to contain suet a few years ago, so even if an unwelcome visitor can get to it,  they have to work pretty hard.

He called, late morning, saying how cold it was where the cross-country meet was being held and he was anxious to get home.   I dug through my recipes and came up with one for cinnamon-topped rhubarb muffins to use up the last of the year’s rhubarb.   It gave him a warm treat when he finally got back.

And Martha was so pleased to finally settle down on her mat,  knowing we were all where we were supposed to be!

As I was pulling out all the different folders and envelopes from our genealogy cabinet, I was very careful to treat one folder with tender loving care. Inside is a pencil drawing that has survived 146 years, created by my great-great grandfather during The Civil War. It was Christmas Eve, 1863, and he was writing to his wife on one side of the sheet of paper, and providing her with a look at his camp on the other.

Years ago,  my dad took a magnifying glass and was able to decipher the letter on the back of the drawing.

What I had never noticed before was the news clipping inside the folder.    It shows the Third Brigade Band, which my great-great grandfather belonged to as a member of the 126th N.Y. Volunteers.

and here is a photocopy of the drawing  to show the detail….

I set out to accomplish quite a bit this weekend, and I feel like I made a stab at most of it. There was housecleaning and laundry to catch up on, grocery shopping, a trip to check out the new JoAnn’s. I bought bird seed and set up the feeders for fall, pulled the weeds and fading plants out front. Today I dug into the file cabinet, and separated the families in our genealogy pile. George can have his drawers and I will have mine. I entered quite a bit of information on the new family tree website that my cousin invited me to. I even made a batch of chocolate chip cookies!

George was off to Rochester all day yesterday with the cross-country team, and this morning he was off to visit a distant relative in Pennsylvania who wanted to share genealogy info.

Left to my own devices, I got a lot done!