Well, we finally got some white stuff!



I couldn't resist a pic of this 'snowball'


and the ongoing series of seasons from desk window


The winter weeping mulberry


and fairy's garden below the mulberry limbs

Wasn't it a beautiful snow! It's been a long time since we've had such quiet, brigth white night! Loved it. Your garden blanket shows it at its best!

I'm reminded of (a) no spell checker! (b) yesterday a friend and I were laughing at ourselves. She goes out and makes sure the ice comes off her birdbath every few hours when it's snowing (thank goodness it's not often and yes, I mentioned birdbath heater!) and I go out and stomp the snow down underneath the birdfeeders so the sweet things can have a flat dinner table to eat from, especially my mourning doves. Only people on a forum such as this, will understand that!

Yep

Gail, everytime I look out at my birdfeeders and see an interesting bird, I think of you. Today I had a pair of downy woodpeckers. They have become regulars this winter. Earlier this winter we had a flock of evening grosebeaks.

Maggie, I love the reflection in your pool on the first picture!

Mamakane, I've NEVER seen a Downy Woodpecker in person. Wish I were there to see them! Oh wait, I'm a wimp in the cold. Never mind. But feel free to share pixes! Please, oh, please. I'll enjoy from the warmth of my Texas internet window.

Sorry, I don't get too many pictures of the birds. My windows are never clean enough to take them from the house and I don't have the patience to wait for them to settle back in at the feeders after I spook them.

I have old fence posts for bird feeder posts. They have little holes in them. The woodpeckers take a sunflower seed from the feeder, climb down to the hole, crack the seed in the hole, then climb back up to start over. Seems like a lot of work for one little bitty seed.

I wouldn't have the patience to wait for them to settle down again in your chilly weather either MK !
Our weather is so fickle, that 2 days after the snow melted, I had to wear shorts to work in the garden! And then a cold front blew in the next day - of course.

But gosh we get a kick outta our brief snow spells. Young and old alike are out making snowmen at the first chance. Even saw one riding around on the trunk of a car! Some neighbor kids did this unique trick:

and another from across the street

Mamakane, go ahead and take pics of the birds though your 'dirty' windows. Just make sure you hold the lens very close to the glass and it won't affect the quality of the picture very much. You will be surprised how it doesn't show when out of focus due to being so close to the lens. I sent Maggie some pics of birds feeding in our backyard during a snow storm (here in Amarillo) and she is going to put them on here I think.

They were taken with a 2.1 Megapixel digital camera using from 'normal' to 20X zoom for the various shots. They are all handheld pics.

Cute snowdudes, Maggie.

Thanks Caro.

MK and James, I'll post them on a new thread titled James' Jpegs , under Seasonal Chats topic, so it won't take as long to load as it would on this one