Snow Day

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It’s a snow day today. The birds don’t seem to be thrilled, but they are doing what they can to scrounge food during the icy downpour. A hummingbird is sitting on a snowberry bush and flashing me like a red streetlight.

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The juncos are the most common feeder bird right now, but there are warblers and sparrows as well.

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It’s really starting to come down.

Nina

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Meet our Mexican street dog. On January 3rd, she was still in Los Barriles, Mexico. Today, she was walking in the cold air of our Pacific NW winter. Her home town is at the far south end of the Baja peninsula. We should try to visit there and see if she has any kin we could recognize.

My wife and I have speculated that she may have been rounded up in a sweep of feral dogs.

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However she ended up here, we have been lucky to have her. This dog is very sweet. She’s actually snoring softly in her little crate at the foot of our bed right now.

Walks with Charlie

For the past few days, we’ve been dog-sitting. Charlie, the dog in question, has known us for a while now and every so often, he stays with us while his owner is out of town. I have been pretty busy at work recently and so I wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about having an animal around the house, but I’ve really enjoyed this visit. Maybe it is because I have been busy, that I haven’t really been exercising lately. Having a dog around is a good excuse to get off your butt.

Townie by Tygh
Townie, a photo by Tygh on Flickr.

During our recent outings, the weather has been pretty clear and so I have brought the camera along. So apart from the exercise, I also get a few pictures I can keep.

Chickadee
Chickadee, a photo by Tygh on Flickr.

 

Fenceline
Fenceline, a photo by Tygh on Flickr.

I have noticed a few unusual things while I am out. The shot above shows how the frost is melting in the shadow of the fence. I thought it was interesting that the fence has straight sections, but the areas where the frost is still prominent are curved.

Spirograph
Fenceline, a photo by Tygh on Flickr.

 

Orange
Fenceline, a photo by Tygh on Flickr.

There were a surprising number of things that were growing and even blooming in the relative cold of the Northwest in December.

I am very much enjoying Charlie’s visit. He seems to like our walks as much as I do.