IT'S STELLER!

This winter we've had our first sighting of the beautiful Steller's Jay up here at Angel Crest Manor (1900' elevation)! We actually have a whole squadron of them (I've counted 8 as they landed in the huge cedar trees in our neighbor's yard. Their intense hyacinth blue livery is so much darker than our everyday Scrub Jay. And yes, they do squawk every bit as loud as the regular jays.  

SURE SIGN OF SPRING!

 Every year at Angel Crest Manor our designated Downy Woodpecker reappears to peck out a new cavity in the old apple tree. Last year's hole was nice...

but this year's is huge...over 3" across and as deep. Maybe he's expecting company soon or planning on a big family. 

SIGNS OF LIFE

 Okay, so it's the dead of winter in our valley. In desperation I trudge out in the garden looking for some "signs of life." Thanks to a normal amount of rain this season, there are some plants getting on with it. (I'd never make it in Zone 1-3, where the ground is frozen and covered with snow about now.) Periwinkle blue flowers are starting to open on the variegated creeping myrtle. What a cheerful sight!

 The Goldchild ivy is putting out lots of new tender yellow growth to help disguise my neighbor's ugly chain link fence. 

And potted up tulip bulbs are poking out...a hopeful sign for an early pink and green spring bloom! Maybe I CAN make it until the daphne and forsythia bloom next month!

FOR GARDENERS ONLY!

Nothing more to say.....

YOLKING AROUND

Someone must have left the lights on too long and fooled the hens into thinking it was spring! Ordinarily I buy jumbo sized eggs...usually I can get them at Trader Joe's. They come from Washington State and are nicely fresh. In a dozen you'll usually get one double yolker but in the spring you get two or three. However this batch looks like goose eggs and so far all of 'em are double yolks. Good eating! Yeah, the yolks on me!

MY BIRTHDAY BOY

 Jack has come a long way from his South Dakota roots...(circa mid 1940's)  

Shown here in the heyday of Saab rallye engine building (early 2000's)

 In the midst of a big "honeydo" (working on the foundation for my greenhouse in 2012)

                                        Doing client artwork in 2014
A big Happy 78th Birthday to mah honey!

NEW YEAR TREAT!

 I never really appreciated geraniums when I was growing up in California. We had hedgerows of 'em everywhere so I took them for granted, I guess. 
Then I moved to Oregon...

Gardeners here prize their summer blooms, take cuttings in the fall and put them on the kitchen windowsill to await late spring when they can go outside once again. I'm lucky enough to have a small greenhouse and I keep a couple of plants to winter over. Turns out they really like the mild climate in the greenhouse when the nights stay at about 50 degrees (thanks to a heater) and the days may get as warm as 70 inside thanks to solar gain. A perfect climate for them! I do prune them back due to lack of space but now they are blooming away providing a focal point surrounded by succulents.