Chop! Chop! Chop!

I heard them long before I saw them.

Chop, Chop, Chop!

A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers.

This is the female, which can be identified by the black line from her bill to her throat.  In adult males this line is bright red.

As a former migraine sufferer I cringe as their beaks hammer

back and forth into the frozen bark of the tree.

The chopping sound echoes through the forest

making me think of olden day lumberjacks hard at work.

Strips of displaced bark are removed and flung aside,

where they spiral to the forest floor.

It was only in examining my pictures that I noticed its needle-thin tongue darting in and out of the tiny insect holes hidden under the bark.

People incorrectly believe these birds are hurting the trees they hammer away at.  In reality they help control many insect populations that would otherwise create much bigger problems for the rest of the trees in the forest.

Here is a video I took of the woodpecker in action!

An Invitation

You have been invited to a special event.

On this very cold day,

 the second day of the New Year,

the forest glitters with the lights of a thousand candelabras.

 Silverware has been polished and is out on display. 

Lights have been set to maximize the sparkle and shine.

Winter has decorated with her finest accessories and invites you to join her outside and share in her celebrations.

Happy New Year

For every darkness there is a glimmer of light.

The trick is to find it...

In ourselves, in others, in the world.

Find it first in yourself and give it away.

In this fashion we can light the way for each other.

Mother Nature has lit these seed heads,

making them shimmer like fireworks in a midnight sky.

Thank you to all my blogging friends.
You make my world so much brighter.
I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Time to Hide

Winter came to visit our province in full force yesterday.

The snow swirled, blasted, and climbed everything in its path.

By the end of the day the snowfall had reached a new record...

45 centimetres in 24 hours!

Being a family of six, we took the clearing of the driveway and walkways in shifts.  By the end of the day not one of us could lift more than a log for the fireplace, where we gathered to rest our sore muscles. 

This is the view outside of the same kitchen window.

A good day to hide and stay inside!

Happy Holidays

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light.

From now on,

Our troubles will be out of sight.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas now!

From the song: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Written by: Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane

The Journey

They say a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step...

Followed by another

and many more.

A Moment in Time

If you had the chance to freeze time,

To stand still

And soak everything in,

Which moment would you choose?

Nature's chosen this moment.

Water from the birdbath, halted mid-flow.

Air, colour, motion; frozen in time,
 

Bubbling with life.

Stopped in time, it's amazing to behold.

Or is it amazing now that I've stopped to look?

Make each moment sparkle.

The Darkest of Times

Despite the cold, grey, gloom,

light finds a way

to illuminate

that which remains 

open.

Bored?

Bored: Feeling weary because one is unoccupied

or lacks interest in one's current activity.

Nature seems determined that I shall never be bored.

I went for a walk around my favourite park yesterday, you can see how the surface of the water is frozen except where an underwater mechanism keeps the current moving.

It looks like a frozen desert.

I thought the ducks had left for the winter, but I was wrong.

And here is my big surprise - a heron!

I don't know if I would have seen it because I didn't have my glasses on (I'm near-sighted.)  Luckily I was walking with my son (with his young, sharp eyes) and he spotted it right away.

I didn't have my camera with me (darn it) but did the best I could,
taking these pictures with my iPhone.

It stretched out its neck when it heard our voices
and after a while, flew into the reeds nearby.

I couldn't decide whether it was trying to hide or coming closer to see us.

My son and I stayed for a while to watch it and talk to it.

This was the view waiting for us in the parking lot.

Wow!

All this in a simple, thirty-minute walk around a park.

Bored?
Not a chance!

Yellow Brick Road

In the movie The Wizard of Oz,

the yellow brick road represents the way to success and happiness.

Above, is the larch tree from my previous post on November 26.

It has dropped its needles since my last visit,

creating a yellow brick road that leads to a beautiful view at the top of the hill.

But really, it has made the road itself,

the journey, beautiful.

Today my golden path is lit by red torches

thanks to the dried fruit of the Staghorn Sumac.

So gorgeous against the yellow backdrop!

In the past, sumac was used in the tanning of hides, to make black ink, as a substance to be smoked and to make a drink rich in vitamin C.

On a funny note, one hot day when my sister and I were younger, we saw these ruby red fruits and decided they must taste as juicy and sweet as they looked - what a mistake!

It was the equivalent of eating pine cones, but at least they weren't poisonous and apparently we got a good dose of vitamin C that day :)

As I stopped to take these photos I was passed by a man intent on exercising his way up the hill.  His eyes stayed focused on the ground, music pumping into his ears, heavy weights in his hands.

I was quick to judge him as someone who was missing the point to being in such a beautiful place.  But if he didn't care about the park, why would he choose to come here for his walk?

Nature inspires each of us differently.

Maybe this is his yellow brick road to good health :) 

My yellow brick road disappeared this week under a thin coating of snow.  The torches however will continue to burn, lighting the way up the hill

the whole winter long.