Tag Archives: photography

Bluebirds

Posted on January 2, 2013 by AnnieRie

I always know it is winter when the bluebirds return to my birdbath. Today they obliged.

This is the male I saw. The two females were there earlier, but disappeared up into the trees, once I found the camera. I have to go looking for them the next few days.

The bluebirds never come to feeders, but water is a great attraction, particularly when it is cold and dry. This is their source, and they return every year. If you want bluebirds to visit you, just add water.

These pics below are from last year.

Hoping to get many more this year.

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Sixty @ Sixty

Posted on December 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Yes, sixty years young, today. This is one of those significant birthdays. Worthy of doing something different to commemorate.

I recall one of my fellow volunteers talking about traveling to celebrate a milestone birthday. Something like 50 days for the 50th birthday. We traveled way too much when we worked. We are really enjoying our surroundings and doing things we never got to do while we were in the work force.

So, I decided. Sixty is, of course, six decades. Six times ten. Six things, ten times. Or, ten things six times. I settled on more experiences with less to accomplish in each. It looks simpler to do. We shall see. I have been doing research already to find things that interest me.

This year, no New Year’s Resolutions, just the pursuit of these stretch goals, for lack of a better descriptor. Some are fun, some may be difficult. If I enjoy this journey, I may make it into a page. A journal of sorts. Since I am an avowed locavore, locapour, and still a foodie, many involve cooking, eating, gardening, farming, the county and nearby places.

My list —

Visit six festivals and/or fairs that are new to me
Taste at six new wineries never visited before
Seek out six new farmstands or markets to expand my locavore network
Do something different or visit someplace new in six states other than MD
Eat at six small business restaurants and/or diners
Eat/drink or experience six childhood memories
Log six new birds not seen before
Cook and eat six new proteins, i.e., meat, seafood, beans or nuts
Grow and/or eat six exotic fruits, veggies or herbs
Tackle six rightsizing projects

Some are self explanatory but others will take some initiative. Rightsizing projects include things we inherited from our families and things we accumulated over our 60+ years. Things like pictures, CDs, books, tools, clothes, shoes, whatever lurks in closets and cabinets. Having the space here makes it one of those often avoided projects.

The childhood memories include things like — riding a ferris wheel again, or a merry go round, or eating cotton candy, or a root beer float. Things we did as kids.

For my first project, my husband bought a pomegranate at Wegmans yesterday. I have had pom juice, and pomegranate balsamic, but never tried getting the seeds out and using one in cooking. Tonight’s salad will have pom seeds on it. Maybe using my fennel we bought, and oranges. I am making my own birthday dinner, doing things I want to eat. Rockfish. Salad. Roasted cauliflower. None of it hard to make, and no worries about driving in the slush/snow/ice/whatever we have on the ground tonight.

It is still snowing out here. The red bellied woodpecker and one of the squirrels were out there chowing down this morning while I was prepping the fish in a marinade.

This is a new young red bellied woodpecker, who is more skittish than the older ones are. He bolts when he sees the reflection of my camera. As for the acrobatic squirrel, he is lucky today. I don’t have the two layer baffle system on the large suet holder, and he can defeat just one. Besting the squirrels is a major undertaking here. Or, at least keeping them under control.

Who knows what this year, 2013, will bring to us here. I do know I intend to make it somewhat memorable, and certainly don’t intend to be bored.

hocofood@@@

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Tree and Garden Maintenance

Posted on December 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today was a clean up day. We had landscapers come out to do the final clean up of derecho damaged trees, before we put up the crank up tower in the yard. We don’t need trees coming down on the guy wires or the tower. Now that the leaves are gone, you could definitely pick out damaged trees that strong winds could bring down.

While out there, I took advantage of the mild weather and finished the haircuts on the spirea. Cleaned out those flower beds.

I really cut them way back. Not a bad idea. They come in more vigorous every summer and have created almost a hedge of sorts. This is what they looked like in the summer. The bunny is a bonus. Baby bunnies, birds, chipmunks, all love to hide in the spirea.

I also made my first attempt to clean out the veggie garden. It is a real mess. Full of dead tomato plants and overtaken by morning glory vines. I pulled out many of the cages and cleaned them.

I was careful to salvage my tomato ties and not throw away any sticks, ties or rope. The tomato plants will not go into compost. I don’t need them growing in the compost pile. The twisty ties were collected and brought in the house to put away for next year.

This garden plot is going to become herbs, lettuces and cool weather plants only. There will be a new garden next year. I need to get out into the field where I get more sunshine. The trees have now grown to a point where they shade the current garden site. Morning sun doesn’t come in until after 7 am. The sun starts disappearing behind the maple after 3 pm. Next year it will be worse as the trees get even taller.

There will be a new plot dug in and fenced. 20 by 40 is my goal. My 30 by 10 garden will now have a very large neighbor. This is the year I will do pumpkins, watermelon and lots more squash. Off into the field we will go. Oasis, who did today’s tree maintenance will be tilling and creating my new one. Ron is a local business owner, just a few miles down the road on Triadelphia Mill Rd. He and his crew did a great job today.

The new home for the garden.

The tall grasses are my neighbor’s property. We cut ours so we can put the radio towers there. Now, I just have to find a way to keep these visitors from jumping the fence.

The deer think nothing about galloping through our meadow and racing across my other neighbor’s front yard. The day I caught this one with the camera there were four of them out there.

Well, winter will be here in two days. I think this year is the earliest for my plant pruning, and I have a head start on garden maintenance. Time to hibernate for the winter, and hope we don’t have ice storms. At least if we do, we have pruned the trees to keep them from breaking off.

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Posted in Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged gardening, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, nature, photography, spring flowers, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

The Geminids

Posted on December 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

With a bonus. A comet has left behind some debris. If you come out to the Howard County Conservancy Thursday night, you could find a rare treat.

The weather is supposed to cooperate. Clear, cold. Very little moon light.

Dr. Alex Storrs and Dr. Joel Goodman (stardoc) will be there. Starting at 9:30 pm until you can’t stay awake. After all, the site is nice and dark, and the astronomers are an awesome set of teachers about the night sky.

Don’t miss it.

hocoblogs@@@

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The Predators are Back

Posted on December 10, 2012 by AnnieRie

Yes, the hawk has returned. And not your garden variety wimpy hawk.

The other day I found squirrel feathers in the side yard. This has to be the hunter. He decided to plop himself on my feeder tree, and he proceeded to ignore all the little birds out there. He was looking for bigger rewards. The little hawk was out there a while back, but this is the first visit for our large hawks. He looks to be one of the Cooper’s hawks. We shall see if he decides to stand out in the meadow and hunt. Last year it was the favorite spot for mouse hunting.

Two weeks ago, the little sharp shinned hawk was out there. So, now both predators have come home for the winter. It should be interesting out here. We will see if these visitors get as bold as the ones a few years ago. The ones that liked to hang around on my patio furniture about five feet from the back door and make way too much noise.

Never a dull moment in West County.

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A Foggy Sunday Morning

Posted on December 2, 2012 by AnnieRie

Warm and foggy. Weather that changes by the hour. It is fairly warm out, and the fog is heavy in the yard and meadow.

I have been spending a lazy morning, finishing sealing the envelopes to send the Christmas cards, cleaning out the kitchen freezer to make room for the venison we are getting Tuesday, and checking out the Christmas lights to see if any strings need new bulbs. I also had to rearrange things in the basement freezer, which is pretty full again. Last week I just added three containers of turkey stock. Time to make some soups.

I did pop outside to feed the birds and to watch the red breasted nuthatch ignore me while he got breakfast from the feeder, letting me stand there and take his picture.

Back to putting out the Christmas decorations, like my bed post people I found years ago at a crafts fair at the county fairgrounds. I think finding special items made by local artists is my favorite source for decorations.

If the fog burns off, I will be putting up my lights on the trees outside. Otherwise, a lazy afternoon of watching football and eating steamed shrimp and flatbread pizza. Gotta make more room for that 50-60 pounds of deer meat. Oh well, whatever doesn’t fit will just have to become a large pot of chili sometime this week.

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Posted in Birds, Food, Locavore, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged birds, cooking, Food, foodie, Locavore, nature, photography, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Say What?

Posted on November 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Sometimes you look out the window and do a double take. Do you really see that? We have a stare down.

A young hawk and a squirrel. Doing that staring thing. But, I did divert the hawk by coming outside to take closer pictures. He swiveled that head around immediately when the door clicked shut. He did stay there long enough for me to get a few more pics, then took off.

I’m sure the squirrel was relieved.

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Milkweed in the Meadow

Posted on November 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

It doesn’t take much to make me happy some days. Like wandering out to take pictures and finding this in the newly mowed edge of the meadow out back.

dried split milkweed seed pod

Milkweed. That wonderful host plant for monarch butterflies. The butterflies we rarely see, but they are in our area because I have seen them twice in our meadow. Never when I had my camera though. I did once find one that lost a fight with some predator and was in pieces off the edge of our patio last year.

But, now that I know where we have milkweed, we can watch and look for the larva and the chrysalis. We have rescued, watched, then released many monarchs at the Conservancy. If I get proficient at it, and can safely move the chrysalis to an area where they can be protected, they have a much better chance of making it to adulthood.

Once I found the seed pod in our area, I did a little looking around and found a few dozen pods in an area about 200 square feet.

I harvested the pods to use at the Conservancy for a project. I decided to spread the seeds around even though they weren’t optimum for drying and transplanting. The pods had all been split and the seeds were past their prime.

I did find quite a few milkweed beetles too.

While out looking to see if there were other areas of milkweed, I did have to be careful to avoid the many many piles of deer scat. It looks like the deer have been chowing down on our part of the meadow. My husband gave the meadow the last cutting of the year, so it could regenerate those varieties of ground plants that the deer enjoy. Obviously, they were grazing for a long time.

deer scat all over the meadow

They also like one place in our front yard. We try to watch the ground when walking across the grass to the mailbox. All in all, it was a pleasant day today. The meadow is in its glory, and I love to walk back there, even if I hadn’t found milkweed, it was still a beautiful sight in the fall.

As a bonus, I have a bag of milkweed seed pods to use at the crafts fair in December for the children’s critter craft area.

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In Search of Woody Woodpecker

Posted on November 10, 2012 by AnnieRie

It seems to be turning into a birding weekend. And, I am really revealing my age since I remember watching Woody Woodpecker. Is that cartoon still around?

Between today and tomorrow, lots of birding being done. I missed the Howard club walk at Sharp’s this morning as I was working at the Conservancy on a bird feeding program for families. Making fruit kebabs, and having a blast with pine cones, corn cobs, peanut butter, suet, fruit and birdseed.

pine cones covered in peanut butter, seeds and currants

Yep, it was a bit messy but all of the 30+ little ones and about an equal number of parents and grandparents were out having fun making treats for the birds. It was one of the regular wonder walks, which became a short talk and lots of time to make three or four treats to take home for the birds. Treats like coffee lid pizza. Putting string through a lid so you can tie it on a railing on a balcony or deck, and keep birds happy that like to eat on platforms. We spread suet on the lid and decorated the pizza with raisins, currants and seeds.

coffee lid suet pizza

The real artists out there got into making totally covered pine cone treats, too. The good part of today was how easy it was to clean up as we just swept the suet and seeds out into the grass for the birds and, of course, the squirrels to find.

Before and after the event, we were visited by a couple of pileated woodpeckers. I did manage to grab the camera and get pictures. They wouldn’t come around while we were all there, just showed up on the same tree when there were just a few of us left.

pileated woodpecker

He had a compatriot there that I couldn’t identify, and there was a second pileated on a tree farther down the hill. I had to use my step and point method to get pics before they flew off.

I even caught one of them in flight.

And, if I am not all birded out, and can get up early tomorrow, at 8 am the Howard Bird Club Centennial park bird walk meets on the west end of the park. Enter off of Centennial Lane. Two or three hours searching for birds and walking the pathways and into the forested ponds off the trails.

An easy fun way to learn about birds. Last week they saw four great blue heron.

hocoblogs@@@

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The View from the Yard

Posted on November 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

No, not Camden. Dayton. Our yard. Where we have spent countless hours the past week, cleaning up and getting ready for winter. We spent lots of time outside, since our house was so cold. I was going to title this post, Heat, Glorious Heat.

When I came home today from dropping off food, cleaning supplies and clothes at the hocorising household for Mrs. hocorising to take to Jersey, I came home finally to a warm house. The heat pump is fixed. All is right in my world. Some mornings the temps on our first floor were in the 50s, and we were wearing fleece sweaters and/or vests all day. Going outside to work was better than shivering in the kitchen or family room.

So, what did we get to see outside. Mostly, since the leaves are falling, we got to see what trees were down, or coming down, since the canopy is gone and you can see the bare branches. It looks like we still have a fair amount of work to clean up the large pieces, so we don’t lose the trees we want to keep on our property line. You see, we moved out here for the privacy and between last year’s hurricane, this June’s derecho, and Superstorm Sandy, we lost quite a bit of deciduous cover.

sheared off trees of heaven

Some of our better older trees were damaged too. The derecho sheared off trees, while the hurricane uprooted them. We now need to decide what to plant to maintain our property line.

What also is amazing is how many pine cones came down. I have been collecting them for the Conservancy to use at the Natural Crafts Fair for Christmas. The first weekend in December as part of the crafts fair, they set up an area for children to make really adorable gifts using pine cones, acorns, wood, sticks and other natural items. I have a boatload of pine cones. The description from the web site. Put it on your calendar.

HC Conservancy — DEC 1 – Saturday 9 am to 3 pm Natural Holiday Sale and Crafts. Enjoy a lovely Saturday. Browse tables of natural gift items, create critters from seed pods and natural gatherings. Enjoy beautiful music with a cup of tea. Our popular holiday sale with talented local craft vendors, delicious refreshments, and nature critter crafts for the children of all ages. FREE.

Now that the ground cover is gone, and you can see the property line, you can find the old fence posts and barbed wire that delineated the horse pasture from other parts of the original farm. Our house is in the middle of what was the horse pasture. That is why our soil is so good, all that lovely horse manure churned into the soil, turning clay into something lovely.

It is interesting living here. We have fruit trees, hickory trees, berry bushes, mulberry trees, all sorts of ground covers and grasses. I love the meadow every season.

Our crab apples got many of their berries knocked off, but my neighbor’s did OK. Hopefully, that means we will have our resident cedar waxwings hanging around gorging on berries. Like they did last year. They love it here, even if it gets a little windy.