New Year

I look at the date of my last post... June 2.  The last half-or-so of June was tied up with Festivals and I was going to update things....but.....

I was hospitalized on July 11 for what has turned out to be Acute Disseminating Encephalomyelitis.  (We think.)  It has been a long process of treatment, then in-patient rehab, then home rehab, then outpatient rehab.  I've had to relearn how to talk, walk, write...basically everything.

And that's all I want to dwell on that.  I'm back to about 90-95 percent from where I started and so now, in addition to heading back to work, I turn my mind towards the things I love to do, and one of those is the garden.

While I was incapacitated, I had great friends who looked after my land, harvesting things, weeding, and just generally upkeeping stuff.  I can't thank them enough.  They helped me put the land to sleep in the fall, too.  Since then, we've been enjoying the wildlife that seems to have just decided our yard is home.  Our census is below, with our guesses as to how to tell critters apart:

• Three grey squirrels, Punky (the Hawk-Harasser), Itchy and Scratchy.  Itchy and Scratchy are smaller and usually together.  
• Fireball, the white squirrel. I thought he was long gone, but then I saw him on December 28.
• Four blue jays. Jim has named them (Jay, Jerry, Jackie, and Ruth?).  Every time I think they've moved on for the year, the next day I hear them squawking and begging for peanuts.
• Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal
• Mr. and Mrs. Purple Finch (We are more creative with the names some times rather than others.)
• Little brown birds of undetermined species (LBBOUS). Too many to name (although less than usual in the winter).
• Three crows.  They show up about once every two weeks. Huginn and Muninn and...I can't remember the third name. I'm told it was 'Jim' because that's funny.   Either way, the last time they came around though there were only two.
• Freyja the hawk (rarely seen after the "nest incident.")
• Dizzy and Lizzy the grey juncos, a.k.a snowbirds.  Dizzy was a male snowbird that hit the glass patio door running from Freyja.  He was stunned, so I picked him up and put him under the yew bush for some shelter from the wind and Freyja.  He was gone later.  We have so many that all the males are Dizzy and the females are Lizzy.  It's just easier that way.
• One of the neighborhood feral cats from Stormy's family.  Her size and long hair, but dark grey or black.

Jim tosses about a cup of peanuts out every morning; some out to the yard (away from the vegetable garden!) and some placed on the deck railings.  The bird feeder is pretty active, and doesn't get empty quickly despite being raided by the squirrels.  The snowbirds and LBBOUS finally found the suet feeder in the maple tree. 

As you can maybe guess, there's often a lot of activity, and they never sit still for pictures. Today, we are finally getting some snow, and while that makes me want to stay indoors and sleep, the critters are having a good ol' time.  Freyja the hawk was on the back fence with her head tucked down low against the wind. Either that, or we have to add an owl to our inventory. I couldn't get a good look even with binoculars.

The Dizzys and Lizzys are flitting about the deck, and Mr. Cardinal also made an appearance.  They all seem to be happier about the snow than we hairless apes. Actually, this hairless ape is not so sad about it either.  Snow melts and goes down into the water table (hopefully), and is a Good Thing for gardens.

Before the weather turned, Jim raked leaves (usually my job, but...)  and all five of the garden beds got a nice blanket to keep down weeds (we'll see) and keep the soil warmer over the winter.  The snow is laying upon that, and will help break down the leaves so we can till them under in the spring.

Which means, it's time to look for seeds.  Last year I got interested in seed catalogues, but it was too late.  This year, I have some my friend Misty gave me, and I'll look to those and decide what to try.  I' managed to save seeds from our bell and banana peppers last year.  I even managed to can the banana peppers, even though I had to use a walker for most of the time.  I need to get to Dill's Green House for seed starting supplies and maybe some hand tools.

I don't do resolutions, but I'm going to try to be better at keeping this up.  Feel free to share to other people if you think they'll be interested, and comment down below.  Happy New Year!