A Walk in the Woods on a Misty, Warm, January Day

With temperatures in the 50s and only a light mist falling intermittently, I decided to take time off from yard and garden clean-up chores to walk through the woods and see what's up. Lots of plants leafing out but no flowers yet. Fungi and moss and ferns were the headliners.

On dead and fallen trees were these amazing huge fungus "conks"...

Lots of moss and fern covered trees...

Signs of flowers to come...

Our seasonal pond was full and clear, with lots of little critters in it, including newts and caddisfly larvae: tiny creatures hiding inside their makeshift tubes that look like sticks walking across the pond bottom. I picked one up but it refused to come out and walk across my hand.

Those little things that look like whitish sticks are really tiny caddisfly larva inside tubes they've patched together out of bits of leaves and stuff.

One of those I put on my hand and zoomed the camera way up, but the critter is inside and camera shy.

 I put it back in the water. It is the lighter tube left of the skinnier light tube in this photo.

 I walked on to our little creek that flows into Agency with its bridge and more moss and fern covered trees...

Our mini waterfall on the little creek...

 Walking back toward the house, I saw our resident female American Kestrel on the tip of the sequoia in the goat pasture, a long way away. I hope she decides to stay and nest here.

Back by the shop building, one of the many Northern Flickers around lately was working on the trunk of a tree. I've been seeing nine at a time. I don't remember ever having so many Flickers together here in the past.

Then it was time to clear out the raised beds. There was enough greenery for a salad tonight. And about a zillion tiny beet plants from beets I let go to seed last year. They need to be thinned and transplanted. This warm weather makes me think it's time to plant the garden... and so I did the next day, peas and lettuce and radishes and spinach. Onions were up from last year's seeds and as thick as the beets.  But winter may not be done with us yet...

A Visit From Suue

The rest of the world knows her as Sue, but to me she will always be Suue (pronounced Sooey) as that's who she was back in our high school days. Her younger brother couldn't pronouce Sue, I think, so it became Suey. At some point she decided to change the spelling to Suue. And, yes, we have been friends since high school, although we didn't live in the same town or go to the same school. But we had a mutual friend, another horse crazy kid, and horse crazy kids will always find each other. A year younger than me, Suue went to the same college and became my roommate in my Sophomore year... and every year thereafter. After college we took different paths for awhile but always reconnected off and on.

Last week, she rambled her way to our farm for a few day visit. And it was just like always... easy and fun. We hiked around the farm on a mostly-non-rainy day. We found some interesting orange fungi on a beaver-killed tree.

 And we drove up Agency Creek Road beyond our farm, enjoying the woods and streams. Suue lives in Maryland now and misses the ferns and fast flowing streams. She volunteers at a wildlife refuge that is all marsh.

Suue was excited to see a whole flock of Gray Jays (I think they've been renamed  Canada Jays) following us along the road. Some of them came down into camera range but didn't sit still very long for photo ops.

 We saw three Dippers in one place, which is unusual except when the juveniles have just fledged and are begging for food. Perhaps these were youngsters from last year?  They eluded my camera. I later considered that two of the three birds might have been the next pair downstream (Dippers have territories about a mile long) meeting and having a boundary discussion with one of the upstream birds.

A few tenths of a mile upstream, a pair of Dippers were preparing for next year's brood... Perhaps one had just flown in from sending the downstream neighbors back downstream.

The female seemed to do a happy dance afterward the nuptials.

The snow was getting too much on the road for our little car, so we turned around and went home. A Red-tailed hawk was sitting in a tree by the road ignoring our silent Prius.

Back home, it was time for Suue to head for Portland and the airport. Her next stop was to visit her 99 year old mother in Arkansas. We look forward to the next time her ramblings bring her our way.

When Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?

So said Percy Bysshe Shelley

     (and my mother, often)


I had not yet taken the Christmas lights down, so turned them on again when we had a light snowfall in mid-January.

The snow melted and a faint rainbow appeared after rain showers...

Now the spring bulbs are coming up...

And the winter blooming flowers are opening...

A drive up Agency Creek on Friday, January 17,  found American Dippers in lusty moods...

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another...

(lyrics by Sheldon Harnick)

Enjoy the moment! It will not come again...