A January Jumble

Jumble (noun) = an untidy collection or pile of things

Jumble (verb) = mix up in a confused or untidy way

BRITISH = articles collected for a jumble sale

Well, "untidy" and "confused" are negative words to me, but this post is certainly a "collection" and a mixture.  So, "jumble" it is!

 

As most of you know, our last cat, Maggie, crossed the rainbow bridge on September 21, 2020.  I don't miss the dust and the litter boxes, but I do miss the affection that accompanies a loud purr and rubbing on my legs.  So, it has been a joy to interact with several cats this month, including cat-sitting for neighbors vacationing in sunny Florida!

 

Speaking of critters, it has been a bumper month for trail cam photos - the Bald Eagles have returned to fish for Northern Pike at the lake below our house.  I wrote about this in February 2021, when Golden Eagles joined in the feast as well.

 

 

Here is the patch of open water - the "fishing hole".  Last summer, the beaver built a secondary dam below the main dam, which has created this little catchment.  Apparently, the fish are swimming through gaps in the main dam and wind up in shallow water that makes for easy pickings for the raptors.  Bad decision!  The camera is positioned on the other side of the water, so the views you are about to see are looking toward where I am standing to take this picture.  (click on the pictures to make them bigger)

 

 

 

All of this happened in the space of a few minutes.  Later that night, another raptor came to the "restaurant" - an owl!  This is the first time I have ever captured one with my trail cam!

I have been doing a little cooking once a week, to give Head Chef a break.  I didn't take pictures of week 1 - Normandy Pork Casserole - a recipe from Low Carb Diabetic - and I would recommend the dish!  Week 2 was Slow Roasted Salmon, and I am not giving you the link since the spices overwhelmed the salmon.  But I documented my work ...

 

Speaking of food, Head Chef gave us a New Year's resolution - Eat More Jam!  How many jam/jelly/related jars do you have?

I am joining LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.  The prompt for this week: What are your favorite colors?  Do you wear them or decorate with them?  As I look around the house, I see many shades of brown, augmented with blues and reds.  As we bought furniture over the years, we went for subtle shades and used pillows and blankets to add the color.  If I consider my closet, the base palette is brown and black, but with a rainbow of blouses, scarves and sweaters.  Is there a specific color your family would say is your favorite?  Purple.  My bridesmaids wore purple, and I have a purple suede outfit from the 1980's that Spousal Unit wishes I would wear more often!  Has it changed over the last few years?  Today, my style choices are functional - designed for our active and outdoor lifestyle.  In other words, not much purple and no suede!!!

 

 

This week, I am also linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date.  Her theme this week is scarves.  I wrote an entire post about scarves on February 10, 2019.  This was one of my favorite collages from that post.

Finally, I leave you with this whimsical fairy house that my neighbors created from a tree stump, lovingly harvested from the property of my Dear Neighbor Friend.  I am so thankful to live here, and to have so many "jumbles" to share with you.

This week, I am also linking to:

Brian's Home for Thankful Thursday.

Eileen for Saturday's Critters.

Mosaic Monday

 

Mosaic Monday #22 - March in the Mountains

I enjoyed March.  It brought a tremendous variety of entertainment, certainly too much to cram into one post (and this may be too long already for some folks with short attention spans - LOL!  But I encourage you to stick with it for the ending!)  So, some of the month's highlights will float further into April - check back for a future post.  For now, let's get on with the show!

How dramatic the weather transformation in the last 30 days!  I took these pictures on the pristine white morning of March 13, as I reported for my volunteer shift at the Whitefish Historical Museum.

Eight short days later, Spousal Unit and I sat on the front porch, basking in the afternoon sun and indulging in an adult beverage.  Yes, Spring has arrived.

Beyond the warmer temperatures and melting snow, birds are one of Nature's great harbingers of seasonal shifts.  You may recall that I previously wrote about taking pictures through my spotting scope.  This month, I shouldered my scope and ventured down to Hodge Creek.  A 200-yard walk from the house, Hodge Creek forms one border of our property, and it positively teems with wildlife.  I set up the scope with my phone attachment and snapped away.  

Northern Shrike - a new bird for me

How delightful to see a breeding pair of mountain bluebirds, the first I had seen near our house this spring.

I shared some of these photos with my neighbor, and I had labeled this shot as a Cedar Waxwing.  Being the dedicated teacher that she is, she did her homework and came back to me asking about the differences between a Bohemian and a Cedar Waxwing.  Off I went to consult the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds, and darn it if she wasn't right.  My birding buddies would probably be shocked to read that I didn't even know about the Bohemian species!!!  Now I know that one of the distinguishing features of the Bohemian is a rusty underside to the tail - on the Cedar, the underside of the tail is white.  

The Northern Shrike repeatedly left this perch for bugs - here he is 

crunching one of his snacks

Dare I say it?  I think I am getting a bit addicted to this birding thing.  Or maybe it's a combination of seeing/identifying new birds and achieving quality pictures that has me hooked.  Speaking of which, I am not satisfied with these photos.  It is a challenge to figure out the ideal combination of settings on the scope and the phone, and to do it quickly while the bird is still visible.  So, I asked Spousal Unit to accompany me for one outing, and perhaps advise on a better approach.

That day, it was quite windy, which only added to the difficulty as the little birds were perched on top of trees that swayed dramatically.  In the end, Spousal Unit suggested that I should set up on the deck, and take pictures of stationary objects such as tree stumps using a variety of settings.  I could note the settings and then correlate them back to the quality of the shot.  So, stay tuned - more experiments coming your way!  (Or, as I joked to Spousal Unit with a wink, maybe I should just buy a camera that can handle long-distance shots!)

From left: female Mountain Bluebird, Bohemian Waxwing, male Mountain Bluebird, female Mountain Bluebird

When we aren't tramping around in the woods, Spousal Unit and I have teamed up in the kitchen for new culinary delights.  And all of them are keepers!

Cajun Asparagus Skillet

Chickpea Curry with Flatbread

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

Chicken Meatballs

Of course, Spousal Unit is Chef with Hat in our house, and March was busting out of its seams (or maybe WE are busting ...) with other first-rate eats.  For the last few weeks, he has been on a bread kick, so the breadmaker is getting a workout with pumpernickel, dill bread, raisin bread, Dijon rye and half whole wheat.

And every once in a while he likes to surprise me.

This month has had its share of social events.  One of our fellow Mountain Ambassadors is one-half of a musical duo called The Cutaways, and a half dozen Ambassadors with spouses attended one of his gigs.  It was a fun-filled evening, partly due to the smashing location - the Sacred Waters Brewery.  The Brewery anchors one end of a small complex that also includes Glacier Sun Winery and a produce market.  Open doorways between the businesses encourage you to move freely among them, and you are also allowed to bring food and beverages from one into the other.  As someone who does not drink beer, this was a huge boon for me - I could buy cider or wine at the Winery and bring it into the bar.

We ordered the Elk Slider Duet from the surprisingly eclectic menu.  Yummy!

Earlier in the month, with prime snow conditions, I went snowshoeing with some friends and cross-country skiing with a neighbor.

When I go skiing with my neighbor, it's a bonus to see her animals, including these newborn goats

Are you getting the gist?  It was a busy 31 days.  Even so, I made time for some drawing.

I can't think of a better way to close this post than an AWESOME series of coyote photos from the trail cam (these pictures all took place within 3 minutes).  It certainly was a magical March in our mountains.

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.  

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