The Homestone

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

August on the Meadow


Summertime. 
The dog days of August are busy days for the birds 
(and the bees) with little ones learning to perch and fly and forage. And speaking of bees ...


“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should,
for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

Our current feathered visitors include a late and motley crew of evening grosbeaks.  
A family of three. Mom and Dad and one young 'un. 

 







Two finches at the breakfast bar enjoying a bit of chatter about the weather perhaps . . .
And our beautiful hummingbirds are gone now. They leave in mid August with just one or two coming through in the final few weeks of August.  We leave our hummingbird feeders well tended till the frost is on the pumpkin ~ just in case a hungry little flyer drops by for a fuel stop. 


Once the swallows give up the clothes line it's time to hang a load of laundry on a summer's breeze.
Sweet sweet swallows.






A Sand hill Crane lifts his lankiness seemingly without effort and balances way up there : )
The end of summer is in the air.
I do not know this author or her book but I do love this quote attributed to Ms Babbitt.

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.”
― Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting
 
























Blessed we are and ever thankful. 

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Swallows and Sunsets

Feathered friends and spectacular skies
 
 A chattering of swallows

 David and I both love taking pictures but David is my Sky Man.  From his first Brownie Camera decades ago and now with ipad and Canon in hand he continues to amass a really beautiful collection of sky photos.  Sunrises, sunsets, cloud bursts and sun dogs, aurora borealis and clear blue skies over winter white ...  One day we will gather the best of these together.  
For now; this collection of The Sky the Other Night. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Till next time ~ happy skies and thanks for dropping by.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Bird of the Year visits the meadow

You won't find us on Twitter, we don't tweet; but we do love birds and one of our favourite spring time visitors is the Evening Grosbeak .  We are all of us Finches after all.  
Evening Grosbeaks don't really have a definitive song apparently ~ instead they have conversations.  And they can't be nailed down ... no solid migration path.  Not much is known about their nesting behavior either.   They are this years ABA BOY ~ Bird of the Year with the American Birding Association.  Perhaps this BOY distinction will bring together more information about this delightful bird.







We live on the edge of the Boreal Forest ~ for more information about Boreal Songbirds you might enjoy visiting these websites.

 
 The Boreal Songbird Initiative
Conserving the Boreal Forest for our songbirds



Friday, July 06, 2012

Oh deer. It must be July.


A trio of young bucks decided to come by for a visit the day before last.  Just around coffee time. There they were just outside our kitchen window. Wondering if the grass is indeed greener and curious about the newest span of stacked log zig zag fencing.  Our next half hour was full of exclamations of delight with our cameras clicking and whirring.

Delightful.  What a great planet!


 




 



 
July on the meadow. 
:-)