But I often see beautiful cardinals, especially in the winter, both the red papa birds and the tawny mamas. They really stand out against the snow, which we had a lot of this past week.
Posted on 01/27/2024 6:41:42 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Sorry, I’m just not a bear person. I’ll bet you any amount of money the bears didn’t need to look up to know you were there. They knew and didn’t care is what I’m thinking.
I don’t even want to move near the Smokies anymore. Bears scare me just like alligators do. There weren’t a ton of alligators when I was growing up because they were hunted for part of that time. I think Florida should allow gators to be killed anytime without penalty. They have overrun the state. No thanks.
The sunshine in Florida is great, but there are other things to bother you there. All sorts of bugs, and alligators to name just a couple. I’m not certain I could live there anymore. Maybe. It’s a perfectly lovely place to visit though. And the sunshine IS wonderful!!
But I often see beautiful cardinals, especially in the winter, both the red papa birds and the tawny mamas. They really stand out against the snow, which we had a lot of this past week.
Harvested this week:
Beets
Green onions (fricken golf ball sized)
More radishes
Ginger
Planted a White Peach today. We’ll see if it will produce in Zone 10.
Great photos! Especially the Cardinals! Love those!
I’ve been hooked on this Gab thread called Things with Wings. I have puzzle software on my laptop and I am always on the lookout for colorful, bird, fish or flower pictures. This thread is great still shots and videos of things with wings. So many birds I have never seen before. https://gab.com/groups/65996#w8v8ofqus8
i dunno if they knew or not because one day one walked under the deck, and i clapped my hands to see what it woudl do- and it jumped in the air and took off rocks flying every which direction-
Yeah, the gators are getting out of control in areas- snakes too- especially in florida-
photoshop can make the bird stand out better- darken and desaturate the background a bit- keep the light as is on the bird, boost the color just slightly- as many cameras don’t accurately record colors- You photo is a nice photo too- got good detail in it-
Thanks for the tips! I never try to tweak them, because I don’t know what to tweak. I’ll try your suggestions!
Well, who WOULDN’T want to hang out at Lake Geneva? *HEART*
I have a SIL that lives up near Tomah, WI. The years we have a ‘mild’ winter, she’s had Robins up there all winter long. Crazy!
Cardinals are my absolute favorites of our Winter birds. We have a TON of them at our feeder in the winter months. They LOVE roosting in our Lilac hedge during the day; they are so POLITE at the feeder, too!
They also like our hedge of High Bush Cranberry Viburnum - but it seems that they will eat those berries LAST, no matter what the Winter brings.
Are the White Peach the ones with the squat fruits? I’ve never grown them, but have had them ONCE at a ‘fancy gathering’ that I was undoubtedly accidentally invited to. ;)
Had a male cardinal bite me once, it hurt. He was in shock from hitting the window and if it’s cold I bring them in and hold them a bit to wake up. It always works with many different birds. When this cardinal was recovering he bit the skin between my thumb and forefinger. Yeoww. He was ready to go.
We love those donut peaches, its a short season in Michigan and we hunt for them. Also called Saturn peaches, originated in China. There are nurseries that sell the trees. They come in white and yellow but the white is far superior in flavor and sweetness. Never liked peaches until I tried one.
My daughter-in-law gave me a grow kit for Christmas…… a ceramic pot with holes in it (alike the one pictured below, but taller with 5 rows of 3holes), and she had pre planted it with the mixture they sent.
Instructions were to keep it in kitchen (no direct sunlight) and spray water mist on holes and top twice-a-day. They said it would start to sprout in about 2 weeks but it has been over 8 weeks and no sign of sprouting. She planted one for herself too at the same time, and same experience, it is not sprouting either.
I don’t know what went wrong? I want to try again with a different container outdoors when the weather warms up. But also don’t want to abandon the indoors pot. Any of you have stories of experience with this?
I just had a thought .... I can use my garden fencing panels to make a compost pile! I have enough to enclose the 4 small metal raised beds I am taking with me & should have enough left over for a compost area. I need to take the fencing to the new place anyway, so some of it will just be on the next trailer load. The wire rectangles are 2x4” so I will tie on the plastic mesh I saved after changing out the frames to wire and the leaves won’t escape.
If you don’t have photoshop there is a free online version that makes basic changes such as contrast, lgithness, color changes etc. It’s pretty good for doing the Importent things in post processing of photos. You can try a bunch of things, or a few, and see how it looks, while,your original,copy is safe in your computer, so no risk of damaging it. Just gotta upload the photo to the site. I would try a little,sharpening too to help,the details be a little more prominent, but don’t 9
Over-do it- it’s easy to go too far sometimes.
I have grown the Porta Bella mushrooms from a kit. I had a fieldstone basement at the time and it stayed at 55 degrees down there year-round, so it was a perfect spot for growing them.
Only tried it the once. I got one BIG one and a bunch of smaller ones. They were delicious.
But that’s the extent of my mushroom-growing knowledge. ;)
I’ve tried shiitake a couple of times but let the logs get too dry both times. They were far away in the woods and hard to get water to.
I figured out a setup I can do that can be kept closer and will give the 80% shade they need. Pallets with small gaps between the boards on the South, West and top. One on the ground, four for sides and one as a roof. Then I just need a dedicated water tank, pump and misters on a controller.
The easiest to grow are Red Wine Cap. All you need is hardwood chips. You can put the wood chips under shrubs and that also creates shade, though they don’t need as much shade as some shrooms. Helpful if you happen to water those shrubs or other plants too.
https://www.fieldforest.net/product/wine-cap-instruction-sheet/instruction-sheets
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