Skywatch Friday

May 6th, 2010

Finally - a day during which one could lie on the ground (a little damp) chew on a piece of grass (if one has bovine tendencies) and gaze at the clouds, imagining in them the most fantastic pictures!

Have fun, and do visit Skywatch Friday here to see other wonderful skies from around the world.

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is P

P is for Pigeons




beautiful pigeons




beautiful bird

These beautiful pictures taken in Venice, Piazza San Marco and kindly made available by  alastair@picturesofvenice.net

A relative of the dove, pigeons are a graceful bird, but by their vast numbers and their affinity for cities they are often classified as a nuisance.  Welcome, and fun to feed, but a terror to clean up after......

Wikipedia has an interesting article on pigeons and doves here and has much to say about the birds that have been lost in modern times, - the Passenger Pigeon and the Dodo -


Occasionally we see a flock of Homing Pigeons, - a lovely sight as they circle the valley and then return to the cote maintained by a neighbour.

For more interesting P's fly over to ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her kind helpers.

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May."-   William Shakespeare

The wind blew mightily all evening long, but when I woke early in the morning to tend to the little dog the air was calm and sweet, - nary a cloud in the sky and the waning moon high at the top of the mountain, readying itself to slip behind into another space.  I went back to bed, thinking pleasant thoughts of a day in the Garden.

At six thirty, when I woke once again, rain clouds were dark in the north, and the hills were hidden by a grey mist.  But still in the south the sky was blue with only the occasional small white cloud.

The wind was picking up!

At noon there were great blustery gusts of wind as the little dog and I went for a walk before lunch.

One of them bowled him over and I had to help him up  in the face of such fierceness and carry him home.

We came in to find the electrical power was off, and so it stayed for three hours, while the new grass in the pasture billowed in great green waves, and the tulips bowed and curtsied and leaned their pretty pinkness into the breezes that whirled around them.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a smirk on the face of a patch of coutch grass - another day of freedom to spread its wiry roots into the Iris and the Shasta Daisies and along the perimeter of the garden.

I wait patiently for that first day of May when the bees buzz and the flowers lift their faces to the sun,

 and all is calm - a perfect gardening day.

"Ah my heart is weary waiting
Waiting for the May"
Denis Florence McCarthy  Summer Longings


Tonight the sky cleared and the setting sun cast lovely apricot lights on a few clouds in the East.

The wind still gusted around corners and down the fields.

Skywatch Friday

SPRING having a last fling with old man Winter in the Similkameen

An eagle inspects the situation and heads over the snowy mountain tops to the next valley.

In the valley the apples blossom cheekily......

For more spring skies visit Skywatch Friday Here.

ABC Wednesday

The featured letter this week is O

O is for Osprey

The Similkameen Valley is known as the Valley of Eagles, but around the high lakes and along the river  the Osprey is plentiful and calls the Similkameen home as well.

Anatomically the Osprey resembles the eagle, but has narrow wings which are markedly angled, and peculiar structure of feet and claws.  Unlike other raptors the Osprey has four equal toes, with the outer ones being reversible making it a cinch for the bird to grab its prey with two toes pointing forwards and two pointing back.  'A long, sharp, curved claw on each toe, and short rigid spikes on the sole of each foot give the bird a firm grip on its slippery prey, which nearly always consists of fish that the bird catches alive...'

The Osprey patrols over water in its territory several times a day and when it sees a fish it hovers until the fish is in a suitable position, then ' dives from the sky with its wings half closed and claws stretched forward, disappearing under the surface in a great spray of water and reappearing a few seconds later with a fish firmly clutched in its claws'.

The Osprey is somewhat smaller than the Eagle, and despite the advantage of its claw structure it sometimes loses its prey to the larger bird.

photo by Ed Shultz

The Eagle can be very aggresive when in the mood to snatch the Osprey's fish, but the Osprey can be very persistent about hanging on, and it has been remarked that the Eagle sometimes spends more energy in stealing than it would in honestly fishing for its own dinner.

Ospreys have large nests made out of a great variety of sticks and found products interwoven into a vast and untidy structure.  The female usually lays three eggs, and although mortality can be high amongst the young the bird can live beyond twenty years.

Here is a photo borrowed from the internet of an Osprey nest close to the water, perhaps on a stump...

but I have usually seen them high in the trees surrounding a lake or even on the top of poles.......

Bell-Irving has an heliocopter named The Osprey and I presume in its flying ability it has many attributes of this powerful raptor.

Fly on over to ABC Wednesday to see other O 's, thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and the kind people who assist with this meme.

A little morning music in the Lost Garden...



Come stroll with me down memory lane....

Time for breakfast, - will you come in and have some coffee and a bit of toast?  I have some nice fruit bread...  And we can lose ourselves in Horowitz's beautiful Schubert Impromptu.

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
~Robert Frost

It is Wednesday, and Charles is off to entertain at the Care Centre with the

Senior Singers

Not one of April's best days.  The wind blusters about, intent

on blowing the blossoms from the flowering shrubs, and

causing the garden plants to adopt a decided lean to the East.

Still, I have seen a Magnolia Blossom from the tree

at the big house

and I am impatient to see the whole magnificent sight.

I set off to be buffeted down the lane.

At the turn in the road I stop to admire the glorious soft fruit blossoms.....

and to examine the apple blossoms 

'in the pink'

and eager to release their sentimental fragrance

The magnolia tree is magnificent.

The west wind has scattered the clouds above 

and there is enough blue in the sky to make a sailor a pair of pants

and to provide a perfect background for these delicate blooms.

I stop and chat a bit, discussing the ways of the world

and taking note of the flowering almond, - its branches packed tightly with

tiny tender pink buds.

and the interesting old tree alongside the house

It is getting close to lunch time and I trek back up the lane..

Meanwhile, back in the garden the big celebration is Tulip Time 

and Sweet Honesty and the lemony Spurge bloom along with them

Along the road and in the pasture the dandelions hold their own golden converse.

and a mourning dove waits to greet me home.

Skywatch Friday

Three Similkameen sunrises and one sunset - hard to tell which is which 

but don't let that lovely slender moon fool you.

For more beautiful skies from around the world

visit Skywatch Friday

with many thanks to those who host this meme.

ABC Wednesday


The letter this week is N, and N stands for Niddy Noddy.

Niddy-noddy, niddy-noddy, two heads and one body


The niddy-noddy is a spinner's good friend that enables her/him to wind wool directly from the bobbin after spinning or plying and measure the length of the wool at the same time.


Wikipedia has a very informative article here which explains the use and value of the niddy-noddy to spinners who must remove the yarn they have made from the bobbin into skeins for washing or dyeing.


I can attest to this, having had many skeins of wet wool weighted down at the bottom and hanging from shower heads or pinned to coat hangers, - practically as good as wet nylons in the business of irritating husbands.

A niddy-noddy can be quite elegant when it is made out of wood, lathed and polished, or it can be very practical if made at home from PVC - instructions can be found here in a great blog written by DoctorDirt and entitled As the Yarn Turns.


Are you a knitter?  Do you have some knitted wool you want to salvage or recycle?  A niddy-noddy is your answer.....as seen here on scarlet-zebra.com.

For more interpretations of the letter N pop over to ABC Wednesday - you never know what you will learn.....