Squirreling Away?

The storing of something when in abundance against

 a time when it will be scarce (after the manner of a squirrel).

I know, it's a love/hate thing when it comes to squirrels in your garden. Personally I love them because they are incredibly smart little guys who don't scare or attack me!  As long as they have food available, thanks to nut bearing trees, bird feeding people, and fruit, seed, and berry growing gardeners, they don't really cause a problem. They don't hurt the garden birds, just chase them around a bit, and they do a good clean up job under the feeders. If you really don't want squirrels near your house just discontinue feeding the birds - but to me that's sad because every garden also needs beautiful songbirds.

Our current visitor is back each morning - completely fearless of us 

when we politely request that he leave the seeds for the birds.

Sending Happy New Year greetings from our house to yours.

Hard nuts to crack -

 

. . . . IS FOR AUTUMN

They're always here! 

No matter the season, grey squirrels are part and parcel

of our garden still with several large oak and hickory trees. 

The acorns and hickory nuts are collected, persistently gnawed, 

and often stashed and stored around the garden for later meals.

These critters have voracious appetites.

Perhaps they are descendants of the original farm inhabitants - this land

 was once farmland - who decided to coexist with the humans who 

built on their territory back in the 1960's.

This week I made a quick stop at JoAnn's Fabrics/Crafts for yarn and

 found this! I'd actually seen it a couple of weeks back when there - with

 a $24.99 price tag - and decided to pass.  

This week fall merchandise was on sale, 70% OFF which was huge, 

and this wall hanging was still there. . . . . . waiting for me! 

At just $7.50 I couldn't not buy.  It's really nice with a real wood frame

 and leather hanger.

Today is cloudy and quite cool with some rain expected later this

 evening and during the night.

This evening we may light the fire for the first time - all is set

with logs on the hearth ready to burn.

The clocks go back tonight and tomorrow morning may be a day

to sleep in. . . . it will be chilly and overcast all day.

Happy Saturday

Life is a balancing act!

Eastern bluebirds

Male Northern flicker ~ Eastern bluebird

Female Northern flicker

 Male Northern flicker

Brown-headed nuthatch - Female Northern cardinal

Male Eastern bluebird

European starling

"Perching isn't easy - I could use a pair of those wings!"

Eastern Grey squirrel seems to enjoy the suet as much as the birds!

 All photos taken yesterday morning - as you can see our fig tree is a popular 

hangout for the garden birds and squirrels.

We are expecting rain later today so will take our now daily

 two mile walk this morning.  

Wishing each of you a good weekend wherever you plan to hang out!

January Garden Visitors -

The usual suspects, grey squirrels, are rampant in the garden again. 

Perhaps the mild daytime weather is bringing them out of their nests in the

 back garden treetops. 

They search on the grass for acorns - some they probably buried themselves

 in autumn - and scuffle around under the bird feeders for dropped seed. 

We have stopped throwing out bits of bread and such because we feel if 

 unwanted nighttime visitors, opossums, raccoons, foxes, deer, and the

 neighborhood coyote stop by, we shouldn't encourage them to return.

They are quite cute and, despite their naughty pranks at the feeders, 

we would miss them if they stopped their visits to our garden.

Trees are totally devoid of leaves now other than a glimpse of a green pine here and there. 

Blue skies, even with a few puffy clouds tossed in, bring smiles and thanks in

 January. . . . . . . . . which can be such a dreary month.

Update on the keyboard problems on my 2018 MacBook Air.

The Apple Genius Bar cleaned under the laptop's keys which appears

 to have helped, and I brought it home the same day. 

They tested and completed the work whilst I waited - a total of about 20 minutes. 

If it continues I can return and they will go ahead and replace with another

 keyboard which could take up to three days. Because this is a known problem

due to the 'butterfly' style keyboard installed on all MacBooks since 2015, 

Apple does not charge anything for the cleaning or replacement if necessary.

Life is much better when the computer works!

Hanging in there......................

Brrrr, it has been cold!

A few extremely chilly nights have passed, now we should return to

 warmer days. I see no more sub-freezing night temps heading this way. 
Floating bed sheets and tablecloths over the hydrangea bushes is over.

Perhaps spring is truly on the way here in the southeast.

These mama squirrels will be happy up their trees.  Busy for sure raising
 the babies we know are now tucked in those nests in the tops of the oaks.

Tails certainly come in handy for balancing acts - and always

 seem at their bushiness at this time of year. 

Perhaps they became snug blankets for the naked babies on

 those recent cold nights - just a thought!

Fatigue!

After the snow had melted from that storm we had just prior to Christmas,
 a squirrel gnawed on the firewood piled up on the table. It was there the weight
of the heavy snowfall actually snapped the umbrella post - metal fatigue! 
We should have cranked the thing down when snow was forecast, or at least
 gone out and knocked the 8" of heavy wet snow off before it caused damage.

Well of course there is no snow now, in fact today was in the
 seventies, far too warm for this time of year!

 I'm feeling fatigued myself. 
The Christmas festivities and all the work that went into making it a
 special time, has worn me out!
So. . . . . .taking a blog break perhaps until next year!!!!!!

FYI - the Eastern grey squirrels around here are building nests (called 

dreys) high in the oak trees as it's breeding time again. They will have their

 first babies between February and March. I've noticed them rolling leaves

 on the ground, stuffing them into their mouths and carrying them up into 

the branches. 

Front Porch Café. . . . . . . . . . .

Over the weekend we put out some extra birdseed on the railing of the front porch.

 Our garden birds had returned in small flocks and attacked the feeders - voracious

 appetites meant fighting for perches. The now bare fig tree was often full of birds

awaiting their turn at the feeders - some have good manners apparently, others

push and shove!

And then there are these guys!  Definitely happy when they discover in no time

 another café to have breakfast, and gobble they did. . . . . . along with a few birds,

such as this House finch pair who managed to grab a few seeds too.

We watched a marvelous NOVA 'Nature' TV program at the weekend titled

 "A Squirrel's Guide to Success."  It was awesome and I learned a lot more about

 these creatures who are SO smart!  If you have a chance to view that program on

 your PBS station, go for it, it's great!

I swear squirrels smile when happy. They can be very naughty digging out bulbs

and eating blooms, but you have to admit they can be cute when not misbehaving!

We have squirrel-proof bird feeders they cannot eat from - expensive

but seem to work well. 

Do you have these little guys in your garden?

We're off to spend Thanksgiving in Arizona so, just in case I don't

get back online for a while, we send our best wishes to each of you

for a wonderful holiday celebration.