It’s amazing what I sometimes see, despite the fact that I now have to wear glasses and I might be in the dark sitting on the toilet. I woke up at 4 a.m. (on purpose, I have to catch an early flight) and groggily headed downstairs to pee. Slumped on the throne, my sleepy eye caught a tiny shape to the left of my foot on the rug. It was a wood frog. Soooo tiny, but symmetrical and somehow familiar. This is the time of year they come into the house and you find them in the weirdest places. Once I found one on top of the bottlecap of the soda I was about to open. Yes, they are cute as the dickens, and our beloved Vermont harbinger of spring. (Why do I hate the word “harbinger”?)
I love to send my horses hair out to different locations on my farm. I also put the tail hair that I take out of my comb. I have been so fortunate to find small nests woven out of this tail hair! They are incredible works of art and now remembrance of the horses that have crossed the rainbow bridge. I put them in my Christmas tree with my bird ornaments! Natures treasures.
When I brush my hair in the springtime, I take it outside and leave it on the ground for the birds. I like to see how they use it to build their nests.
In Northern California, Spring is an unusual beast. Especially this year. If the winds die down and the cold front diminishes we may actually feel it. Somehow the daffodils found their way over a month ago. As did the blue flowers on what we call the California blueberry trees. With all the rains we’ve had this year it’s exciting to see what’s popping up. The wildflowers are glorious and taking over fields everywhere.
Colorado springtime is like the end of a horror movie where the killer/monster has been totally defeated and lies motionless, yet everyone knows that there's one more jump scare to come in the form of a freak May blizzard that takes out every nascent bud and sprout. It's not an ominous feeling though. It just feels like a lazy writer's cliche.
The juncos left my house in southern NH about a week or so ago. Perhaps they have landed in The Lung!? Every year the tiny miracles of spring give me faith...somehow all will be ok???
I can’t tell you how much I love that you have a horse named Norm! 😍 But also your descriptions of Spring arriving at your home are wonderful. Here in the High Desert of Santa Fe, the apricot trees are in bloom and apple trees are waking up. Our Aspen have fuzzy dangles all over, blowing in the breeze. The wild yellow roses are waking up and cholla and chamisa are starting to bud. While our hummingbird nest remained empty, tons of new nests are notable, piñon jays, ravens, dark-eyed juncos, red winged blackbirds, finches are all busy! Spring is the best — hope you get to enjoy it while on your tour
...also in Vermont and watching things green up. I will also miss the conclusion of this transition: I have a one-way trip to Calabria, and I don't know when I'll return. Buon Viaggio, Neko
About five years ago, the squirrels in my suburban neighborhood chewed up my patio furniture pads (which are so effing expensive for some reason) and used the gutted stuffing for warming their nests. I deduced this is what happened because pieces of the guts were stuck to the my fence and tree branches, leaving a fluffy white trail to their nest.
So last year, someone was giving away her old sofa cushions for re-use (for the stuffing, which is also expensive AF), and i decided to salvage them. I cut them open and left them in my yard and, as expected, the squirrels loved it.
Thinking the free fluff was enough of a diversion for the squirrels, I did not grow suspicious when pieces of my Buddhist prayer flags turned up missing. They get tattered, I thought, that's what they do. Then one day my neighbor texts me and says, hey, look up in my tree. And I do and there is the most zen squirrel nest you've ever seen, prayer flags strung around it and blowing in the breeze. I can see it from my back porch. It's thing I show visitors when they come to my house. All winter I thought of them, warm and...present up there.
The kick is that now that it's getting warmer, they seem to be dismantling the thing and "burying" the fluff material so they can "dig it up" for future use. Which is utterly brilliant except the fluff is tucked in here and there ALL OVER MY NEIGHBORHOOD, blowing around lawns, because you cannot bury fluff. It is not a nut or a seed.
I am bracing for Winter here down under, can you hear the thunder? Men at Work did but that was just fun for the fans. I'm shedding some weight which is great and being grateful for being upside down.
Sorry you will miss some of the early signs of spring at your home while on the tour, but not sorry I will get to see TNP in Detroit - thank you! Crocus, daffodils and tulips are blooming, which is great, but the tree pollen is crazy right now which is not so great - just another cycle in the circle of life.
I live in Indianapolis and am soon flying to Denver to enjoy seeing TNPs for the seventh time. Yay! What's funny, at least to me, is that playing in Indy that same night is...Destroyer!
Okay, you've just got to post a pic of you in your peepers. I must admit I'm one of those fellas who really likes gals with glasses. I find it alluring in some indefinable way. Hell, guess if I had grown up more an alpha male I'd be one who rather WOULD have made passes at girls who wear glasses. But no, I had to maintain gentlemaness. Nice guys finish last, yes, but at least we finish with sincerity...
I love to send my horses hair out to different locations on my farm. I also put the tail hair that I take out of my comb. I have been so fortunate to find small nests woven out of this tail hair! They are incredible works of art and now remembrance of the horses that have crossed the rainbow bridge. I put them in my Christmas tree with my bird ornaments! Natures treasures.
I love that you decorate your tree with them! so sweet.
When I brush my hair in the springtime, I take it outside and leave it on the ground for the birds. I like to see how they use it to build their nests.
Great idea! I collect my knitting yarn scraps all winter and put them out for nest building 😀
In Northern California, Spring is an unusual beast. Especially this year. If the winds die down and the cold front diminishes we may actually feel it. Somehow the daffodils found their way over a month ago. As did the blue flowers on what we call the California blueberry trees. With all the rains we’ve had this year it’s exciting to see what’s popping up. The wildflowers are glorious and taking over fields everywhere.
Your Norm looks like my Gus. And shedding like him as well.
Cushings. He grows hair like the Fuzzy Pumper Barber Shop.
Poor old dude. Spoil him for me. Gus and our other two are Icelandics. They have two seasons, summer and shedding.
Colorado springtime is like the end of a horror movie where the killer/monster has been totally defeated and lies motionless, yet everyone knows that there's one more jump scare to come in the form of a freak May blizzard that takes out every nascent bud and sprout. It's not an ominous feeling though. It just feels like a lazy writer's cliche.
The juncos left my house in southern NH about a week or so ago. Perhaps they have landed in The Lung!? Every year the tiny miracles of spring give me faith...somehow all will be ok???
I can’t tell you how much I love that you have a horse named Norm! 😍 But also your descriptions of Spring arriving at your home are wonderful. Here in the High Desert of Santa Fe, the apricot trees are in bloom and apple trees are waking up. Our Aspen have fuzzy dangles all over, blowing in the breeze. The wild yellow roses are waking up and cholla and chamisa are starting to bud. While our hummingbird nest remained empty, tons of new nests are notable, piñon jays, ravens, dark-eyed juncos, red winged blackbirds, finches are all busy! Spring is the best — hope you get to enjoy it while on your tour
...also in Vermont and watching things green up. I will also miss the conclusion of this transition: I have a one-way trip to Calabria, and I don't know when I'll return. Buon Viaggio, Neko
About five years ago, the squirrels in my suburban neighborhood chewed up my patio furniture pads (which are so effing expensive for some reason) and used the gutted stuffing for warming their nests. I deduced this is what happened because pieces of the guts were stuck to the my fence and tree branches, leaving a fluffy white trail to their nest.
So last year, someone was giving away her old sofa cushions for re-use (for the stuffing, which is also expensive AF), and i decided to salvage them. I cut them open and left them in my yard and, as expected, the squirrels loved it.
Thinking the free fluff was enough of a diversion for the squirrels, I did not grow suspicious when pieces of my Buddhist prayer flags turned up missing. They get tattered, I thought, that's what they do. Then one day my neighbor texts me and says, hey, look up in my tree. And I do and there is the most zen squirrel nest you've ever seen, prayer flags strung around it and blowing in the breeze. I can see it from my back porch. It's thing I show visitors when they come to my house. All winter I thought of them, warm and...present up there.
The kick is that now that it's getting warmer, they seem to be dismantling the thing and "burying" the fluff material so they can "dig it up" for future use. Which is utterly brilliant except the fluff is tucked in here and there ALL OVER MY NEIGHBORHOOD, blowing around lawns, because you cannot bury fluff. It is not a nut or a seed.
Oh, how I love a shaggy winter horse. So fuzzy!
I am bracing for Winter here down under, can you hear the thunder? Men at Work did but that was just fun for the fans. I'm shedding some weight which is great and being grateful for being upside down.
Sorry you will miss some of the early signs of spring at your home while on the tour, but not sorry I will get to see TNP in Detroit - thank you! Crocus, daffodils and tulips are blooming, which is great, but the tree pollen is crazy right now which is not so great - just another cycle in the circle of life.
I live in Indianapolis and am soon flying to Denver to enjoy seeing TNPs for the seventh time. Yay! What's funny, at least to me, is that playing in Indy that same night is...Destroyer!
Is that Boon photobombing Norm in all of his splendor? 😊
Well, I'm dumb. I thought the horse fluff was snow patches. Also, HORSE FLUFF CRAFTS AHOY!!
Okay, you've just got to post a pic of you in your peepers. I must admit I'm one of those fellas who really likes gals with glasses. I find it alluring in some indefinable way. Hell, guess if I had grown up more an alpha male I'd be one who rather WOULD have made passes at girls who wear glasses. But no, I had to maintain gentlemaness. Nice guys finish last, yes, but at least we finish with sincerity...