I only have a few pictures again, but I need to try to post more regularly, so here we are. Sunset on April 2nd: Sunrise through the mountain ash tree branches on April 3rd: And then here's the big surprise. Or not. When I got up this morning, it was snowing and clearly had been doing so for a while. There was probably half an inch of snow on the ground already when I went out to take pictures of the eagle around 11AM. And it kept on snowing for a while after that, though it's stopped now. And yet it was still warm outside - a nice 0°C, so the snow was already kind of turning into slush.
Anyway, the first picture is one I took around 9AM. (What a contrast to the first picture, eh?) Then later, closer to 11, my mom saw an eagle sitting in one of the trees. So after I went out to take a look, I came back and got my camera. But when I walked closer to the eagle, for some reason he felt threatened by that, even though he has wings and was probably seventy feet off the ground, and I don't have wings and was on the ground. So he flew away.
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The weather here in March - or at any time of year, for that matter - is predictably unpredictable. You never know what's going to happen next. Nothing out of the ordinary happened this time, but I do remember a couple of incidents in the past where it was snowing, thundering and flashing lightning all at once - in May, if I'm not mistaken. That was a little bit weird. I titled this post "Typical Alberta Spring" because that's exactly what this March has been. We went from the single-digit minuses at the beginning of March, to having some beautifully warm days. Almost all the snow had melted, and a lot of the resulting mini-ponds had mostly dried up. Then BOOM, I woke up the other morning and there's snow on the ground again. I think it's been lightly snowing almost non-stop for two or three days now. And I am absolutely fine with that! We've had such a mild winter that I'm not quite ready for spring yet, though I do enjoy spring as well. Anyway, that's enough of my rambling about the weather. I've got 12 photos this time, so here you go! Sunset on March 15: Pussy willows; spruce needles; a snow-drifted path through the trees; and the sunset reflecting off of a puddle in the field, all on March 16. Blue jays on the 20th. (It's not the greatest quality picture because I was taking it through the window screen.) And the sunset from the same day. Snowing again on the 21st, and after it stopped, the sun came out and was making the fresh snow sparkle. I love it when that happens; it looks so pretty. And finally, three from today. The top two are just pictures I took in different directions, of the falling snow. And the last one is of some icicles that I thought looked neat . . . and also kind of murderous, so hopefully they don't unexpectedly fall on anyone!
I have another small batch - only six this time - but anyway, enjoy! Hockey rink on March 9th: Close to sunset on the 11th: Ladybugs on the 12th. Every year without fail, a low spot along our tree line near the house floods, and I'm not sure where exactly the ladybugs hibernate, but in any case, every year a lot of them end up in that icy water. Ever since I was a little girl, I've gone down there every spring to fish them out of the water. They're good for our crops. And I needed some fresh air anyway, so it worked out well! I'd counted 100 by the time I went back to the house, but there were a few incidents where I wasn't sure if I'd double-counted one or not. So there are more or less 100 ladybugs in my hand here. Sunset on the 12th: Redpoll on the 13th (I think some birdseed had been spilled there): And just this afternoon, a male house sparrow hanging around the feeders.
I've only got five photos for today, so this isn't going to take very long... A downy woodpecker on the bird feeder on March 4th: And right after the woodpecker, I took a picture of this. I thought it looked really neat how the sun was right behind those trees, so that the trees were silhouetted against the gray clouds. Sunset on the 6th: Sunset on the 7th: And then yesterday morning, my brother suddenly yells, "There's moose out there!"
We all went running for the window, and sure enough, there's a couple of moose quite close to the house, wading through the asparagus. I'm still here! I was away from the farm for a while, and when I got back I needed a few days to get a collection of photos to share, so here we go! Sunset on February 19: Sunrise on the 21st: Another sunrise on the 22nd: These woodpeckers don't usually hang around our house a lot, but for some reason, a couple of northern flickers have been making frequent stops to our bird feeders this year. Here's one of them on the 24th. (You can see the melting snow on the driveway in the background.) And then the snow came back. It started falling in the evening of the 25th, and by the following morning, we had quite a lot of it already. So here's the mountain ash tree clothed in its new blanket on the 26th, and then another shot of the flicker, who arrived for more food on the same day. And five pictures from the 27th. Three are just different angles of shots of the spruce trees, and one is just a visual of how much snow we got, most of it over one night. This fifth picture was an accident. The chickadee had better timing than I do. He decided to fly up from his position on the ground just as I snapped a picture, and I happened to catch him in mid-air, along with his buddy and, of course, the flicker. (Notice the difference of background between this picture and the first one of the flicker.) And finally, this morning's sunrise. Enjoy your weekend!
Sometimes it seems to me that sunsets and sunrises are more pretty in the winter than at any other time of the year. And as I just mentioned to a friend the other day, just when you think that you've seen every colour and design possible in the sky, God shows you a beautiful new creation. Here are two sunset pictures I got from the 18th: Two sunrise pictures from the 19th: And on that same day, a chickadee. I think that chickadees are my favourite birds, and I especially love them in the winter when it's more common to see them flitting around looking for food, or just sitting on a branch all fluffed up like a little ball of tiny feathers. This is the ice on our pond on the 24th. It's not the greatest picture, but you can kind of see the frozen bubbles at different layers in the ice. I've always found that neat. Two more sunset pictures from the 25th (and I love it when the sun rays change colour like that):
playing this season for weeks now. But our local public rink has extremely few public skate hours this year, so I figured I'd just skate on our own pond again this year, which works just fine. There were just a few problems. Earlier, I think around the end of November/beginning of December 2023, there was a whole bunch of dust on the surface of the ice. I didn't want to skate on the dust because I knew that would dull my skate blades. Finally, I think at the beginning of January, my brother came and told me that all the dust had blown off the ice. And then it got extremely cold, and nobody wants to skate outdoors when it's -40°C outside. So there went another week. When it finally warmed up again, it had started snowing, and it kept snowing for several days. (Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad it finally snowed!) By the time it stopped snowing there was a foot or more of snow on the pond. It was starting to feel like there wouldn't be any chances at hockey this season. But then on this past Tuesday morning (the 23rd), my brother stuck his head into my little office cubicle and said, "The dugout's cleared off and it's only -5°C. Want to go skating?" Of course I wanted to go skating! After getting our skates out of the shed and leaving them in the porch to warm up a bit, we pulled out the hockey nets and hauled them out to the pond. Then back to the house for the skates. Lace 'em up, grab the sticks, toss a puck onto the ice, and let's play! That's another part of winter that I absolutely love - it's hockey season! I'm pretty convinced that hockey is the best sport ever invented. On Wednesday afternoon, we were out there again. I'd gone out by myself, but when I came back, I opened the porch door and there was my brother, jacket and mitts on, on his way out. So I went back out with him and we played for a while. I would have gone out on Thursday as well, but it got too warm that day. And then I headed to the ice again yesterday. I'd gone out with my brother, and we skated for a while before heading back. But as we pulled up by the house on the quad, my sisters came out of the house with their skates. So I went back out and played some hockey with them for a bit before it warmed up to the point where my skates were actually breaking through the ice in one or two places. But anyway, that's my hockey story for this week. Now for the pictures. On Wednesday, when I'd gone back to the house and run into my brother on his way out, I'm not sure how coffee came into the conversation, but he asked if I wanted some coffee. I said yes, but I still had my skates on (my fingers and toes get cold really fast, and often when I put on my skates outside, so I've been putting my skates on in the house and then taking the quad out to the pond), so he said he would get the coffee for me. I asked for a double-double, and he made one for me and brought the mug out the porch. He also brought my camera, as I'd wanted to take pictures of that neat bubble ice. Back at the pond while waiting for him, I got an idea. Coffee. Skates. Hockey stick. Puck. Skate blade-torn ice. Perfect. Still waiting for my brother, I set all these things on the ice and took a few pictures. Here's one with the skates, and one without. Either way, I think these are perfectly Canadian pictures! because I was trying not to slide forward any farther because I didn't want to knock my coffee over. News flash: I knocked it over anyway. But at least I got my picture (and I think I'd already drank half of it, so it wasn't a total loss) XD)
What's your favourite part of winter? ...I've got fourteen pictures. First three: Sunrise and sunset on Christmas day! Sunrise on the 30th: Rex being lazy on the 31st: Sunset on January 1st, 2024: Sunset on the 2nd: And the hoarfrost this morning! It seemed to be snowing a slight bit this morning, but it was very fine, very wet stuff, so it might have just been hoarfrost blowing off of the trees.
Okay! Basically no snow on December 15th: On the 16th, I made this pull-apart cake for a church potluck. I would never have thought to do something like this on my own, so thank you to whoever first came up with this candy-cane pull-apart cake idea! Then also on the 16th, a couple of sunset pictures. And some clouds to the south of us that looked like waves. On the 18th, some clouds looking like they were rolling over us like waves. Sunset on the 19th, with three jet contrails going through it. The sun looked neat peeking out from between the clouds on the morning of the 20th. Later that day, I got a picture of a woodpecker on the bird feeder, and then later another batch of sugar cookies that I made. This time I decorated them right off. Sunrise on the morning of the 21st, and then later I grouped three cookies with my favourite designs together. Sunrise yesterday morning... and one shot of an ornament hanging in the foreground with the sunrise in the background. Also yesterday, I shut off the light in my small office space and lit a candle instead. First I held it up by one of my hanging Christmas decorations, and then I set it down on my desk so it was lighting up my journal. There's something about the sight of an empty page waiting to be filled, with a pencil lying on top, and the area bathed in candlelight that I really like. And finally, just this afternoon, the backyard. Still no snow... and it's been above zero almost every day this past week or two, so it's felt like it's either October or April - anything but December. It feels weird to think that it's the middle of December right now, and yet it still looks like we should be doing farm work outside. Well, this was my last post before Christmas, so merry Christmas to everyone!
I think I decided to post today because... okay, I'm not sure why. Maybe because I thought I was going to forget or something. But anyway, it's been ten days since the last time I posted, so I figured it was about time to get some more pictures up. I guess it's not a surprise anymore, but the snow melted again. This morning it sounded like we might get snow this evening, but the whole system of snow floated by just south of us. You'd hardly know this was Alberta with how little snow we have. Anyway, here's some pictures I've taken over the last week and a half. On December 4th, I opened an egg carton (all the eggs were from our own hens) and thought it looked neat with all the different-coloured eggs. On the 5th, I looked out the front window, happened to glance down at the stones lining the perimeter of my mom's flowerbed, and thought it looked kind of funny how the cats had walked carefully down the center of the perimeter. The snow melted again on the 6th. Then it snowed on the 7th. Left to right: Snowy backyard; Christmas ornaments hanging in front of the window, framing the snow-covered mountain ash tree; chickadee having lunch; snow piling up on the tree branches. Asparagus fields on the 8th: Sunset on the 13th: Snow-less backyard today: And I just finished making sugar cookies. My sister pulled a bag of Christmas sprinkles out of the pantry, so I used those in some of the cookies. Even though it doesn't look like it, we are only eleven days away from Christmas! Have a good weekend!
So the calendar and I are currently not agreeing right now. According to the calendar it's November 30th... according to what I'm still seeing outside, it's either September 30 or March 30. This is Alberta Canada, almost December, and we still have zero snow... which is weird. But hopefully it will snow soon! Having said that, I promise that all these pictures were taken this month, even though it sure doesn't look like it. :D Enjoy! Four from the 24th. First is his royal highness, Rex. I don't know why he keeps sitting up on that railing except to just be able to see in the window... but I personally think that looks kind of uncomfortable, and that metal must be cold on his paws. But that's been one of his favourite places to sit these last few days. The frost looked neat on the frozen tilled ridges in the garden. We did some Christmas decorating that evening, and when the setting sun shone through the window, it hit the snowflakes on some of the ornaments we'd hung, and was making them glitter. It was very pretty. Then I went to the patio window and took a picture of the sunset. Three pictures of the sky on the 25th: We did the rest of the decorating on the 27th: And I took a picture of a neat-looking sheet of clouds; then, after it was dark outside, one of the lights up on the house, which have been there for a few weeks now. Sunset on the 28th: Clouds on the 29th that looked like they should have dropped some snow and didn't: Then this morning, I was walking past the front window to turn on the light so I could play the piano, and I saw this: And a short while after that, I went outside to open the chicken coop. On my way back to the house, I saw the moon still hanging high in the western sky, so I came in and took a picture of it. Tomorrow is Photo of the Month day, so I'll have to find one of the highlights of November!
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AuthorHi, I'm Leah! I'm a college student, and I'm the Shop Supervisor here at Cornerstone Acres. I love to read, write, and spend time out in God's creation. I'm looking forward to sharing our farm experiences with you through this blog! "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him." ~Colossians 1:16, KJV
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