Our temperature had been staying right around 28 degrees for several days, and our continual rain had turned to freezing drizzle and a bit of hail. Not nice, to say the least.
This morning when we got up, surprise, surprise. The temperature had risen to 34 degrees and rain was coming down. But! Shortly the temp dropped a degree (yep, just one little degree) to 33 . . . and lo and behold, it started to snow. Really snow.
In short order we had an outside scene that looked like this. Hooray! Has winter finally arrived to the north woods?
But back to yesterday afternoon when the temperature was still 28 degrees.
I spent a couple of hours (silly me) making the decorations for a bird's Christmas tree which my dear husband had set up on our front deck.
I used my donut cutter to make bread "wreaths" . . .
. . . which I then "frosted" with a mixture of peanut butter and bird seed.
Previously I had made and dried apple slices and attached ribbons. A couple of nights ago, I made a long popcorn string for the tree, too.
Hollowed out orange halves made festive little baskets holding more goodies for the birds.
The bird tree was decorated by late yesterday afternoon (too dusky/dark for a picture) so I figured I'd take one this morning.
Doesn't it look lovely? Can you see all my carefully crafted ornaments? Nah, me neither.
And, oh look! Now the snow has stopped and it's started to . . . yep. Rain.
Good-bye, Winter. Sigh.
30 comments:
We never did get the snow part. Just rain rain rain. Did I mention RAIN?
Love the bird ornaments. Cripes--you're even kind to the creatures. You're just a durn fine lady.
still raining here too ... a few flakes but dang ... a lot of rain. ice fishing might just be an optical illusion this winter season
the birds at my house are greedy -- the treats would have been gone before the snow!
I love your flocked trees in the background. I ! Love ! Your ! Snow ! I am so jealous and I'm so glad you love it, too. Otherwise, I might not get to see your pictures of it. We're spending Christmas in Colorado with our daughter, this year. So, I'll have a white Christmas. Only 2nd time ever. Happy snowy Wednesday!
I much prefer snow to rain, we have had rain rain rain please send some snow, I love your bird feeds, might do something similar for ours ;-)
You are such a good bird caretaker!! Wow! And maybe with the rain all of those bird "ornaments" will show up in another photo.
Sue - I'm not much but frustrated by my bird tree attempts. After the rain all day (again), what snow that is left is slushy cement. My bird "wreaths" that were frozen solid when I put them out have all become a defrosted, sodden mess and fallen off their ribbon attachments. The popcorn, believe it or not, is disintegrating in the rain. (Who knew popcorn would do that?) Even the dried apple rings dropped off their ribbon hangers. I can't believe the total disaster of my Christmas tree for the birds! Waaaaah!
Marie - I never even saw a bird land on the tree . . . before it started disappearing under the heavy blanket of wet, wet snow! Now everything is so gloppy wet, I think they've missed their chance. What kind of winter is this??!
Laurie - Good thing I took some pictures before the rain began. Everything looks pretty dismal now.
How wonderful you get to spend Christmas in Colorado and the snow! Enjoy, enjoy!
Dawn - We've had much too much rain this fall and early winter. Everything is so saturated that when it does freeze (it will, won't it?), there is talk about roads cracking badly because there is so much water in the cracks and underneath. I think we need to have a talk with Mother Nature!
Mollie - If you read what I wrote to Sue up above, you'll know there's not going to be much left on the tree. And I'm not going to make those same ornaments again. They turned out to be too destructible!
What nice treats for the birds!!! How much snow did you get in the end?
Cootie Bug - We got about 2-3" which came down and piled up very quickly. But then it rained the whole rest of the day (still is now at 7:30 p.m.) and much of the snow disappeared. About all we have left now is heavy, wet, wet slush. :o(
Mama Pea,
You know the birds so appreciate all the lovely Christmas treats you hung on the tree just for them :-)
First snow, does that mean you'll end up losing this snow to the rain and ice?
The weather has been very odd for us so far. We've broke many records for high temperatures this past week.
Those are some spoiled critters. I bet they enjoy those treats. I haven't even started our own holiday treat making here. No snow here yet either.
Sandy - All the snow which made such a lovely coating on every tree and branch disappeared yesterday with the rain but we have a covering of heavy, wet slush left on the ground. Our temp went down to 25 last night so now it's crusty slush! It has been a strange early winter for many parts of the country. Just too warm in most instances!
Kristina - Daughter and I had our annual Cookie Bake last Saturday so we have a good stash of (people) holiday treats. Too much of a stash because even though I'm not the cookie monster like my husband is I can't seem to stay out of those holiday special offerings!
First, I wanted to tell you I love the color, font and size of your blog! I can actually read it without squinting. Thank you.
Wonder if the birds can find all those marvelous goodies on the tree......maybe the rain will help.
No snow down our way but colder.
I bet the birds will love all that you've provided them, no matter if it's all soggy. Waaah, indeed! I have a sinking feeling that I will not achieve the holiday "spirit" this year because it is over 40 degrees every.single.day. The only thing that might help the tiny sweater and tiny mitten that greet me every day... :) xoxo
gld - Well, thank you very much for the comment on my font size, etc. I do have to admit I read a couple of blogs that I find very difficult to read . . . and it's an irritation!
The bird goodies that are left on the tree are all visible now . . . but I sure did lose a lot of them as they turned into a sodden mess and fell off! :o(
Susan - Even though we now have AWFUL ice everywhere, I do have to say that all of a sudden it FEELS like winter and I'm actually finding myself getting in the groove for the holidays! How do folks in Florida do it?
What a great idea! We have a lot of birds in our area. I have several feeders, but this would make a festive holiday for them also. I wish we had snow, but it's just raining here too.
Michelle - I've wanted to do a tree for the birds for years and wouldn't ya know it, the year I finally manage to do it, the weather doesn't cooperate at all! Oh well, maybe they'll still get some good from it, but it sure is a sorry sight right now!
Your snow covered tree is beautiful!!! I want your snow not the 70 degree we have.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!
Sue
Sue - Aw gee, thanks! The snow has now melted off of it and most of the branches have sprung back up. Our temp has now gone down into the deep freeze (teens and single digits) which is much more normal for us this time of year.
Merry Christmas to you, too!
Minnesota always goes back to "normal" or well below: ) JoAnn
JoAnn - But it sure took a long time getting there this year! :o)
Our snow is all gone, too. We've had days that were almost 60 F over the last two weeks. We just got back into December temps yesterday, but no snow yet. Not looking like there's gonna be a white Christmas for us, but I suppose I should be happy it's not short sleeve shirt weather.
Mark - All of us who have had this unseasonably warm start to winter should be glad for the extra month or so of being able to get around easily whether in vehicles or on foot. And the lack of time spent plowing and shoveling! (But I do think it's okay to pack away those short sleeve shirts now. ;o])
I LOVE this! Reminds me of one of my favorite books 'The Night Tree' by Eve Bunting that I read to my kids when they were little. One year we invited their closest friends to a bird treat party (based on this book) and they spent the afternoon stringing popcorn and crafting bird treats all for me to take them to our distant woods on the hay wagon. 5 kids, 3 dogs.... such fun. We stayed until it got too dark to see, then back to the house for hot chocolate and an outdoor fire. Thank you for triggering such pleasant memories.
Lisa - What a lovely memory of your girls' childhood. Although I put all our holiday decorations away today, we'll leave the bird tree where it is on the deck. I never did take the time to replace the ruined items from that big snow and then lots of rain. But the birds seem to be enjoying what is left on the tree. They've been pecking on the stringed (strung?) popcorn, the bread wreaths (the couple that the rain didn't destroy) and dining on the peanut butter/seed mixture I put in the orange halves.
Making all the items for the bird tree was a lot more work than I thought it would be. I could have used a few little helpers such as you had!
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