Winter Wonderland!

How to enjoy a walk in the cold...

Break ice when discovered.

The sun was shining very brightly.

And some wildlife

And we saw quite a few of these flying things *wink*

Just two more-

Tried to catch him in mid-air. I'm too slow.

What Is In My Yard

I guest posted at LinderCroft a few days ago with my plans for a garden. Or rather my unplanning.

Well! For not planning it out well, it is finally coming together. Here is what I found in my garden today, six days later.

Spinach!

Tomato? I can't recall where I was standing when I took this photo.

Purslane! I didn't plant it and it's not actually in the garden but it's a keeper.

Not sure what those little things are and I'm more inclined to think they're not something I want in the garden. Will watch and see.

Beets!

Radishes!

And elsewhere in my yard:

This is how we've decided to keep the deer and rabbits out of the garden. It's worked quite well. No deer or other little varmints have been even close to the garden since it's been there. We have trail cams in our yard so we know ;)

Moss! I love moss. This is on our back steps. Apparently, there's also mushrooms? Mushrooms are all over our yard this year.

And not from today but within the last week here are some other 'things' in the yard, front and back.

Goldfinch peeking in the window.

Gross, huge mushroom in the backyard. This is from today.

Lambs ear = love

And one more that I didn't take a photo of but put in my nature journal.

Day lily

Birds, Spiders, Rain, and Food

Photography by Lee (Autumn Lee on the watermark) and me, from April and some of May.

A well traveled path at the North Chagrin Reservation Metropark.

Fuzzy Lamb’s Ear in our backyard (Richmond Heights).

Dandelions are everywhere this year! These are in our backyard.

I don’t know what kind of plant it is but I like the red coloring. This was at the Euclid Creek Reservation Metropark. More from Euclid Creek Reservation Metropark.

It’s never quite as majestic in a photograph as it is in person.

The creek bed is made up of shale.

The kids enjoyed exploring the fragile nature of this rock type.

I love to find hearts in just about everything. My kids pointed this out for me.

The rock layers seep water when pressed. And it may be strange, but I like these two photos showing the scuffed and old shoes of my kids.

Water at some point ran through this spot and moved the rock pieces around.

This is from May at Tinkers Creek Aqueduct.

I like the contrast of the bark and the branches.

The spider…

And the birds.

At Tinkers Creek Aqueduct, where we had some Nature Study and Ohio Study at the same time, there is a falls. Lee captured it quite well in this photograph.

This feeder is less than 5 feet from where I am sitting at my computer. A few days after we put it up, this Gold Finch found it. Unfortunately, the cat likes to sit in this window and it scares the birds. This picture was kindly taken by Fox.

We have two other feeders for birds and one block for squirrels. The squirrels can’t figure out how to get at the block though. A woodpecker, perhaps a Downy Woodpecker, has discovered it and loves it!

I have no photos of the rain but rain it has. The last two or three days it has been intermittent. It looks to be rainy this coming week as well. We don’t plan on going out much when it rains.

Oh, yes, and the food. Sometimes I wonder if I could make a cookbook with all the things I make. It seems I’m always cooking something. Perhaps I’ll make one for each of my kids.

Homemade tortillas. These are for the rest of the family since I can’t eat the wheat. (shh, I ate one anyway- yes, I had a headache later)

Pizza casserole.

Sourdough starter made with rye, oat and garbanzo bean flour. I get to use it today! There is much more now than when I took this photo.

My mix of rye, oat and garbanzo bean flour. The ratio is 1:.5:.5; if that makes sense. For each cup of rye flour, I have 1/2 cup each oat and garbanzo bean flour. Unfortunately, I’m running low on the rye flour…

Well, that is my photo post for awhile. Since I’ve not done a Weekly Wrap-Up for a little while, I thought this would be fun.

In Our Backyard- Photos

(It really was quite tiny)

(do you see the lamb?)