Tag Archives: birds

A Chicken in Every (Crock) Pot And Ready for Sandy

Posted on October 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

While we run around filling bath tubs and clearing leaves out of the rain gutters, and positioning a trash can near the sump pump, and all those lovely other things, my crock pot is happily making dinner. I put half a chicken in it with CSA veggies and it is close to being done. I will microwave a few potatoes and we have a quick easy dinner before getting back into the waiting game. I will have a local dinner tonight. Open a VA wine and relax now that all the preparations are done.

frozen half chicken from tlv tree farm

I need to thank howchow for letting us know Harris Teeter wasn’t crazy crowded. We decided to err on the side of caution and get six more gallon jugs of water. Some fruit, since I didn’t get to the farmer’s markets, and a gallon of honey crisp apple cider from Zeigler’s. Not local, but still family made. The bath tubs will be filled tonight with water to flush toilets, and the coolers are ready to go if needed. Ten bags of ice are in the freezer now. Two will come out tomorrow into the cooler with the refrigerator foods we want to consume if the power goes out. That way we won’t be opening the refrigerator at all, or the freezer if we lose power.

All day today the birds went nuts trying to buzz feeders that aren’t there. Finches were sitting on the patio chairs (left out there since we can’t carry them far and there is no free place to put them) looking for the bird bath and the feeders. Ever watch a bird make a beeline for the feeder pole, then find nothing there but the pole. Very confused. The furniture was all moved over to the far edge of the patio near the area where the feeders and bird bath were located, and which now are all safely in the shed. I did remember to spread as much food as I could on the ground so the birds get something. They really are accustomed to coming here for food in the fall and winter.

The antennas are all down. The side of the house looks weird with no wires. This is the view from a few months back. Spring when the cherry trees were blooming. All the wires had to come down and tension taken off the ropes so they won’t snap. Here’s hoping the trees all hang in there the next two or three nights.

amateur radio antennas off the attic

On the local 2 meter repeater, we are reminded that CARA will appropriate the frequency tonight to support RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service). Amateur radio operators will be supporting the county in emergency communications traffic during the storm. We will have our hand held transmitters here at our house available with charged batteries so we can monitor communications (and communicate if we need any assistance in our area).

All in all, we are now even more resigned to a long, frustrating, series of days watching this storm cross over the east coast and impact our lives.

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Posted in Birds, Commentary, Community, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Nature, SSFC, Weather, West HoCo and tagged amateur radio, birds, commentary, community, cooking, crock pot cooking, hoco loco, Howard County, Locavore, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The Waiting Game

Posted on October 27, 2012 by AnnieRie

So now, we wait. Will we get slammed with 8-10 inches of rain? Should I get all the 5 gallon buckets I can find and just recycle the sump pump water for the toilets, or do I count on the tubs doing the job? Everything with the exception of the last two bird feeders and the bird bath has been brought in or lashed down.

It is the waiting for a hurricane that drives you nuts. Days of countless emails, weather reports, emergency notices, and then there’s the people out everywhere. Trying to get gasoline. Long lines. hitting the stores. I have stockpiled 8 bags of ice in the kitchen freezer in order to cover over the meat in there. If the power stays off too long, I will transfer all the meat to the heavy coolers if necessary. Interestingly enough, people don’t buy ice in advance. I made room for the ice in the freezer and cranked the temperature down a few degrees. I know we can drive west of here and load up coolers with ice, after the rains and wind stop. What is in the freezer now will keep it for at least two days.

TP and Milk. I love it that those two items seem to be the most popular before storms. Do people really think they will run out? Weird. Neither of them are on my preparation list.

The birds know something is happening. They are noisy, and flying back and forth to the feeders. Today, the nuthatches are back. With the downy woodpeckers, they are all over the suet and peanut feeder.

The nuthatch is on the suet while the woodpecker waits patiently. The finches and other birds have been coming in looking for the thistle feeder and the small hanging one, both of which are already down. The last one to take apart will be the primary feeder, which would be blown over. I really need to anchor that permanently now that we found the site where the squirrels can’t leap across the deck or jump from trees.

I also took fall folliage pictures today, figuring that the leaves will get blown away and we will come to an abrupt end of leaf peeping. This view today reminded me of how quickly the leaves changed this year.

Here’s hoping I get to see the gorgeous red colors of our maple in the back, which hasn’t turned yet. That may be good, or not so good. With the leaves on the trees, they tend to crack under their weight with heavy winds and rain. The maple is my birding tree, and one of the prettiest in the fall.

The view of it last November. We generally get the peak of the colors the first week of November. I just hope we don’t lose any more of our mature trees in this storm. It has been a pretty rough couple of years, when it comes to wind damage. Trying to sleep at night while trees crack and fall is not fun. This past two years we have hauled away at least a dozen trees from the property line, and we lost a few conifers in the ice storms before that. Besides the cover they give us, they are home to the birds and squirrels, which is why we have so many birds visiting us. They love the conifers.

Good luck all the east coasters in harm’s way. Stay safe.

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Hurricane Prep, The Smaller Items

Posted on October 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

Everyone always tells you what to do with the large ticket items. Water, ice, batteries, medications.

What about those little things? Like having a real phone in the house. All those fancy phones aren’t hardwired and require the power to be working for them to operate. My antique phone 😉

We also use UPS’s throughout the house to be able to charge cell phones and run small lamps with CFL bulbs. And, to run the cable modem and wireless router. At least for a short while.

How about the weather radio? And, of course a smart phone to check on things even without power. Like how long BGE will take to get power restored.

We have flashlights of all shapes and sizes in every room we use regularly, like the family room, kitchen, bath and bedroom.

We hope this storm will blow out to sea, but who knows. I suppose the more we prepare, the greater the possibility it will all be for nothing. It seems that only when we are caught unaware, like with the June derecho, that we have problems.

Thankfully, we are at one of the higher elevations in the county so we will be spared from flooding. And, with a new roof and a solidly built brick house, we can weather the winds. I spent all day today bringing in items that may blow around, with the exception of the bird feeders. They will come down at the last moment. Those squirrel deterrents will blow everywhere.

Here’s hoping this hurricane will miss us.

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The Dark Eyed Junco is Back

Posted on October 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

I know the seasons are changing when the juncoes return to my yard. We saw the first one this morning. Not the one in the picture below, because it disappeared too fast to capture. They become less jittery when it really gets cold and even my coming outdoors doesn’t bother them while they feed. Here is one very inquisitive bird from last winter.

dark eyed junco

They feed on the ground, and wander around under the bushes and the feeders. The chickadees and finches push the less desirable food out of the feeder to get to their favorites, and the juncoes get the leftovers that drop. Their return reminded me to look and see if the Centennial walks are up on the Howard Bird Club site.

It is fall birding season and yes, the Howard County Bird Club is again offering their weekly walks in November in Centennial Park. It is where we first learned to identify new birds, by sight and sound. It is also where we are learning more about waterfowl, as a change from the birds that visit our yard feeders.

These easy walks good for beginning birders start at 8 am. in the west area parking lot, entered off Centennial Lane. They are the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th of November. Club members bring scopes to let you get really good looks at the birds. It is 2-3 hours at a leisurely pace, and a great way to spend a November Sunday morning.

Some pictures from two years ago. The trip reports, available on the web site, show you what we found that November day in 2010.

great blue heron over Centennial Lake

3 male and one female mallard on a pond off the main trail

Oh, and when we go off the main trail, we often flush out other inhabitants of the park, like this young buck.

The buck, mallard and heron pictures were from the 14th, a day we did not see the cedar waxwings that were there on the 7th.

cedar waxwings

This is fall migration season. It is interesting to see what birds will stop at the lake on their semiannual flights. The bird club does these walks every spring and fall. Put them on your calendar and join us.

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That First Hint of Fall

Posted on September 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

Fall is definitely coming. We will hit lows in the 40s sometime this week. I harvested all the tomatoes left in the garden.

the last of the heirlooms

One lonely ripe red fig. A few yellow plums from the ground, where they fell. All the others were green, and will become one more dinner of green tomato pesto pasta, for the little ones. The larger ones will be cut, cored and sliced to freeze. Deep in the winter, I will do my fried green tomato dinner. They fry best when taken directly from the freezer, coated and fried.

The leaves are starting to fall. The wet weather yesterday has them glistening on the deck. Won’t be long until we are sucking up leaves and turning them into compost.

the cherry tree drops leaves earliest

I filled the hummingbird feeder with lots more nectar than normal. I have three hummingbirds that regularly visit. Mom, Dad and a baby girl. The baby was there again this morning, as usual when the camera was inside. She nails that nectar.

The trees and shrubs are full of berries, and acorns on the oaks. You can’t walk in the yard without crunching acorns beneath your feet. The animals are gathering nuts and the birds are feasting on the berries. The crab apples will keep the berries all winter, and attract flocks of cedar waxwings.

Fall is my favorite time of year here, even though I will be busy cleaning up the yard and filling bags to use in our compost, with the extra going to a master gardener that we connected with. We used the rake and take program in the county to do this. We make bags of leaves and bags of grass clippings, then mix the two to get the green/brown ratio. Using the bags over and over until they finally fall apart makes this a fairly less back breaking exercise. We rake everything into a long snaky line, then efficiently and quickly vacuum the yard under our oak, maple and cherry trees.

Vacuuming leaves to turn into compost

I am also keeping an eye on the herbs. The thyme and rosemary will hang in there for quite a while. The basil is giving up the ghost, so to speak and all will be harvested today. I saw the last of the plants drooping over this morning while I was collecting acorns for the Conservancy to use in their critter creations at the Christmas craft fair. I have a carpet of thyme on the ground. I may cut it back and cover the rest, to see how long it stays viable.

Let’s just hope we don’t get snow for Halloween like we did last year.

October 29, 2011

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Sunday Morning Ramblings in the Garden

Posted on August 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

It is a cooler Sunday morning, with the heat finally abating in the area. I was out this morning filling the hummingbird feeder and checking on the status of the garden. The tomatoes are making a valiant attempt at a comeback, but it seems now the stink bugs may be winning, and also the weeds and the morning glories.

The hummingbird feeder is a simple design that uses wine bottles, and as we all seem to know around here, I certainly empty my share to make their feeders. I keep them in the small refrigerator in the laundry room after I make a quart of nectar. Hopefully, no one goes in there and mistakes them for wine.

Hummingbird nectar ready to use

The nice thing about this feeder is the ability to just recycle the empty bottles and minimize what needs cleaning. The birds love it and one came up immediately after I went back in the house. Of course, the camera wasn’t near me. Trying to photograph our hummingbirds is difficult.

I wandered out and checked on the herb garden, which now has marigolds all around it. They didn’t bloom in time for the fair, but are putting out a nice amount of flowers that I can cut and use on the table.

Now, the garden. The garden is a mess. I found that weeds are growing rampant between the backs of the cages and the deer fence. I can’t easily get to them to pull them out. Only weed whack them from outside or try cutting them off by reaching through the fence. Not working. And, the morning glories are out of control. At least the bees love them.

Morning glories

I have three different colors growing all around the fence. I like the delicate blue ones best. They are also finding a way to climb my husband’s ropes that anchor antenna wires.

On the back side of the garden, I did find one of my wandering cucumber vines trying valiantly to make a comeback. We shall see if these slicing cucumbers make it to an edible size.

I did find another of those monster pickling ones hidden deep down between the bunny fence and the deer fence last week. Another one of the same size as this one photographed earlier.

As for the tomatoes, I am still getting lots of the little ones, and the larger varieties have small green tomatoes all over them. But now, the stink bugs are out in force. They dig into the small crevices and pretty much destroy the fruit.

I wish we could find a reliable way to erase these pests from our gardens. Every year there are more of them here. We need to find a natural predator to release that will feast on all the eggs laid by the bugs, before they hatch and crawl everywhere in our plants.

But, thankfully, they don’t seem to like the blue basil, like the batch I harvested last week to make pesto.

African blue basil

I got six cups of basil last week. There is at least enough out there to do this again sometime this week. I need to buy pine nuts, or maybe use the walnuts left from the rhubarb walnut bread I made. The basil is now creeping in all directions around the bird bath and under the wildflowers in the back of the herb garden. As for the rosemary, I may need to trim it back. I am going to be drying rosemary this fall, as it has reached a point where the three bushes are becoming small trees.

Rosemary

The rosemary, basil and cotton lavender were the three herbs that got my first blue ribbon in the fair. The cotton lavender is in a planter, but the others are in the garden. I want to dry some of the lavender too.

Cotton Lavender

Enough wandering in the garden. I think it’s time to wander somewhere in west county, like maybe to Larriland to pick peaches.

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A Window Full of Sunshine

Posted on July 18, 2012 by AnnieRie

Varieties of tomatoes ripening on the sill

This is my favorite view in the kitchen. Dozens of almost perfectly ripe cherry, grape and pear tomatoes all reaching their peak of ripeness in the morning sun.

And, yes there are larger ripe ones these days.

Orange Blossom Tomatoes

Caspian Pink

The Caspian Pink is a new one for me. It looks wonderful, but I did have to pick it a bit early because it was cracking and I didn’t want a storm to water it down.

Detail of small cracks forming on top

I don’t have any chocolate stripes ripe yet, but they are getting close. They have the most tomatoes on each plant so far. I have three plants of them. Crossing my fingers that they ripen before that forecasted four or five days of rain late next week. The rains last year really watered down the flavors of the heirlooms.

Two weeks from this coming Saturday, the Howard County Fair starts. I will be picking which heirloom has the best taste. That is what I will enter. Taste, not looks, does better in the heirloom category.

The sweet olive is my most productive small tomato so far. They are predominant on the windowsill picture above. They also have a wonderful flavor, but cherry and grape tomatoes are judged on looks alone.

Have you ever entered anything in the fair? This year, besides tomatoes, I will again enter herbs. Definitely the basil, but haven’t chosen the other two yet.

African Blue Basil

This year I am also considering entering some of my photographs, particularly my little feathered friends, like these.

Bluebirds Rule the Bath

Put the Fair on your calendar for something great to do. It runs August 4th through 11th. We get a $20 pass for the entire fair and go almost every day. If you want to see a real hoot, go watch the zero turn mower competition. If you want to see something amazing, go watch the 4Hers show their animals.

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Breakfast Al Fresco

Posted on May 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

My favorite time of day. Early mornings before it gets hot outside. The birds are singing, the squirrels and rabbits are running around, and my neighbor’s dog comes by to say Hi, before fruitlessly continuing his rabbit chasing in the meadow.

This week the Kousa dogwoods are blooming.

They are heavy with blossoms and I baby those trees to keep them from having breaking limbs. We have them pruned, along with the Japanese lace maples, and the crepe myrtles every other year, in order to keep them healthy. They are my privacy screen from my neighbor’s driveway and they allow me to sit out in the morning in peace and solitude.

Friday I went out to have coffee and fill the feeders.

No, that isn’t wine for breakfast. It is hummingbird nectar in a wine bottle. My feeder uses a recycled bottle as the vessel with a copper wire and a cap. A little tricky to assemble but easier to clean.

The empty messy feeder. Pop off the cap. Rinse and throw the bottle in the blue bin. Clean the cap. Reassemble with a new bottle and you have happy hummingbirds.

Notice the double sided sticky tape ant trap. I have to get a permanent ant barrier, but so far this works. We have a hummingbird family who comes every summer and hangs out in my flowers, and my next door neighbor, too. We both have feeders for them.

As for the squirrel log, and the suet, we try to keep the squirrels from the bird food, and it usually works. I give them one of these logs and one unprotected suet but keep the high protein good birdfood away from them. The birds are busy feeding babies, and they are very active. I have a couple of feeders full of nuts, safflower and sunflower chips and cracked corn. It goes fast this time of year and then slows down once the trees and bushes start getting seeds and berries.

While there, one of the younger chickadees came to visit.

There was also a very young house sparrow hopping everywhere, but too quick for me to capture. Two days before, a very young sparrow was unsuccessfully trying to fly high enough to make it to the feeder. Unsuccessful then, but eventually they get the hang of it.

I did wander down to check on my garden and found my first blossoms on the yellow plum tomato.

The tomatoes have survived their planting shock and are doing well. I cluster plant them along the fence, with small cages and then use string and poles to keep them aloft. I find that the support system works better than really huge cages. At least in the area where I plant.

I also noticed while sitting out there that the sage and rosemary bushes are spreading so much they are no longer separate. They have been there three years now. They somehow survived snowmageddon in 2010. I am getting huge beautiful sage leaves, big enough to look really nice as fried sage to decorate gnocchi.

Breakfast on the patio. A lovely way to start the day. Cheers!

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Art Reception This Week, and Earth Day

Posted on April 18, 2012 by AnnieRie

Two events this week at the Howard County Conservancy. The art reception and auction is tomorrow evening starting at 6 pm. I will be working the event, and who knows if I will get something to finish off the foyer. Lots of good stuff to bid on, particularly these pieces done on reclaimed wood by SOGH.

I keep hearing there is nothing to do in HoCO. For $12, come drink wine, hear entertaining judges, have some My Thyme appetizers, and maybe go home with interesting art for your place. If you have never heard Rebecca Hoffberger, you are in for a real treat. What is showing here is similar to what they are showcasing at the American Visionary Art Museum, or AVAM. All Things Round.

Then, for more to do, this weekend is Earth Day. The Conservancy has a full day planned. For singles, couples, families, retirees, whatever category that fits, there is something to do. Winter is hard on the trees and streams. Sprucing up the property in spring time means lots of little things to do. Easy to hard. Pick your pleasure. Stream cleanup, for example.

Some of us are going birding at 8 am. We may be out for two to three hours, depending on what we hear and see. We have recorded sightings of rare birds, and we have two very talented leaders. Even if you are just getting interested in what is singing in your yard, they are great to walk with. They bring the high powered scopes and generously share the sightings. We have seen eagles on the property, lots of raptors, rare sparrows, and it is spring. Can you say Orioles? We see them often. Baltimore and Orchard orioles. Here is a link to the bird club page with photos of Mt. Pleasant, the farm where the Conservancy is located.

After the bird walk, there are lots of activities that the staff are organizing. Clean up tasks, crafts for children. Check the web site if it rains. Come spend some time outdoors.

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It’s Sunday Morning and Everybody’s Dining Locally

Posted on April 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

The bunnies are.

So are the finches.

So is my red bellied, but he decided to run up the tree when he saw the glint of the camera. Can you find him up there?

He also decided a little later to sit higher and make enough noise to let me know I was interrupting his meal. Once I went inside he came back down to his nuts and seeds. The little woodpeckers won’t run when I come out, but the red bellied is still skittish enough that he hides in the trees.

As for us, a true local delight for a leisurely breakfast.

My CSA eggs, sunny side up, from Zahradka Farm, made with Trickling Springs butter, and served with buttered Atwater’s olive bread toasted. You can get Trickling Springs butter all over the place now, the organic markets as well as at Atwater’s in Catonsville. I thought I still had sourdough bread in the freezer but only olive bread left. Time for a trip to Catonsville to get a few more loaves to freeze. They work great that way. Get them sliced and put them away wrapped in foil. Pop in the toaster and enjoy.

I have perfected my sunny side up skills by using the trick of putting a lid above them to just set the yolks without them getting hard.

With yolks this orange and the eggs so fresh, it would be a crime to overcook them. Although I did break one putting it in the pan, and my husband graciously chose that one. He likes his over easy anyway.

Gradually working our way through the eggs in the fridge. Time to make some egg salad for sandwiches this week, or a frittata with that spinach from the CSA last Friday. Two more weeks of home delivery.