Frost and Varmints!

Some frost photos, but mostly just varmints, followed by Mittens! 

A spider does not belong inside, outside is the better place. There, they can create webs Jack Frost might decorate! 

Steve has had a heck of a time with the squirrels around here. Talking to others who have had up lights, he's not the only one who has furry tailed creatures who enjoy gnawing on electrical items visit at this time of year! 

More hoarfrost. 

After another set of lights was in need of mending, Jon decided to see if he could catch one of the creatures. He did and the squirrel went crazy! It was obvious the rodent had not heard that sticking a wet nose/tongue/whatever to cold metal is bad. Jon released him with a bloodied nose it kept bashing on the wires! 

A hopefully wiser squirrel when it comes to live traps and Christmas lights! 

Later, Steve and Moses startled an opossum on the front porch and Jon thought he saw it out near the rabbits. So, he once more set up the live trap and this guy was caught. Here it is hissing and growling at the wary photographer! Jon and Steve took it up near the ranch to release it. Jon has some fairly good photos, but they hadn't made it to my area before this posting! It seems opossum don't live long in the wild-they have a much longer life as house pets- only about two years. So, we anticipate something may have gotten an early Christmas dinner last week. NOTE: Possum live in Australia and other places, while an Opossum lives in North America. 

The squirrel may be leaving the lights alone, but they are gallant acrobats when it comes to the bird feeders. Steve had only filled the ones on the pole, thinking they may not be able to get to them. NOT. They leap and climb to reach the goodies! Before the Opossum was captured, the suet feeder went missing and was found empty under a pear tree. We thought it was the white varmint, it was probably squirrels! Jon put a latch on the chain so it cannot be slipped off. 

One of them figured out how to hang by his toes. Another one had no idea and kept sliding off the long feeder to the ground!! 

Two different sorts of balancing acts!!!!! 

As annoying as these brushtails are, they are entirely entertaining. Even Mittens likes to watch them.

Moving in the Bunnies

It was VERY cold on Saturday, Dec 5. Another super busy day inside and outside. 

Steve fixed the back stairs with a railing so navigation would be easier. 

Jonathan worked on the larger of the rabbit cages that came with the rabbits. The pair had been living together, during the colder days were in the garage with a heat lamp, and lived in spendy cages that were more fluff than stuff. Jon wasn't sure if the female (renamed Maude) was pregnant, but he really didn't want to have kits in the winter. So, he needed to reinforce the cage and make it into two rooms. Maude loves to chew on things and the cage was fair game. 

I took pictures outside and then had a spot of help with Holly. 

This is the larger cage before renovations. A soft hammer blow could harm this expensive purchase on Amazon. The cage parts on each end were reinforced and he added better latches. The cage they were picked up in, Jon's completely unimpressed with. He may use it for something later. He will also need to make a couple more regular cages to move the rabbits to and then this one will be rebuilt completely and used. 

This is Maude. Her previous owners called her Zsa Zsa.  

Here is Maude with Bucky, who was called Jimmy Bunny 007. They moved from the unheated addition to their outdoor cage and seem to be quite content not being pampered indoor outdoor bunnies! 

 

Tulip Time-

Blogger has become increasingly frustrating to use, which is why I have not updated in months! I decided I wanted to share my tulips with you-These are only a few of them. I do have some planters that are not blooming well and some of the older ones are not quite ready yet. I'll add those with photos from previous years-

 These tulips, the bright orange ones, are always the very first tulips to come up. There were so many I've moved them a bit to make a bank of orange. They are incredibly festive and I'd love to know their name!

 These are my second ones to bloom every year. I have two sets of red tulips-in this photo you can see the ones on the bottom are a bit different. I also have those star shaped tulips in a different part of the front bed. In this next (not able to be rotated) photo you can see the leaves are a different type as well.

BUT, this April, not all was well with the stratosphere. Or something. We ended up with a couple of pretty incredible frosts. As you can see, it was not encouraging to the fragile tulip blossoms.

These crinkled edge tulips look quite a bit like Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors!!!

 I did clip (the next day, after another frost), a ton of the orange ones. I realised if I put them in a tall vase, you wouldn't be able to tell they were droopy! As you can see, the petals show definite frost damage, but they did open and close, so we enjoyed them inside for several days.

 These are some I did not plant, they have peony like petals. It appears I don't have any photos of the white or yellow ones-I'll have to find them to photograph them this spring!

                                This one is a lovely pink tulip. Such a striking pattern on their petals.

As much as I adore daffodils, tulips are so lovely. I never look at one without thinking of my daddy (they were his favorite flower) and of fairy tales. The reason the tulips close up at night is so the fairies can sleep safely!

Frosted Beauties

I grew up with something we called hoarfrost. Most people in the states are not familiar with this word, but it is so beautiful! A partial definition of this is from Wikipedia:  The name hoar comes from an Old English adjective for showing signs of old age, and is used in this context in reference to the frost which makes trees and bushes look like white hair. It may also have association with hawthorn when covered in its characteristic white spring blossom.

 Love looking at the birds as they perch in the frosted trees. They are so much easier to find!

 Hoarfrost is cold, beautiful, and very fragile. Buford Buckshot, being made of metal, was intricately decorated overnight.

 

More of the different foliage in the yard. Above right are black eyed Susan's and dollar plants, next to those is my golden willow we brought from the coast, and last are ivy leaves. Such incredible shapes and designs in the frost!

 
 I wandered over to my neighbor's house and caught some super funky crystals adhered to different kinds of yard art. I loved the frosted Christmas light and the LED snowflake below will look incredible lit up...if the solar powered panel got some daylight! (I'll have to go over tonight and see.)

I particularly love this little garden bug that was spinning in the breeze. And I also noticed, the breeze we had in the night made the frost crystals form on only one side of these dried flowers. Pretty cool, huh? 

I opened this post today with birds and figured it would be fun to close it with birds as well! Birds are so much fun!