Farewell to February

Several of my online friends and I have all decided we have had enough of winter so we thought we would do a group "Farewell to February" with peeks into SPRING (even though for most of us they are last year's photos). Some of them may still be showing their "foodie friday" entries but their farewells will be up soon.
Jayne, A Grain of Salt
Susan, Savoring Time in the Kitchen
Kathleen, Cuisine Kathleen
Carol, There's Always Thyme
Barb, Foley's Follies
Debbie, Mountain Breaths
Suzy, A Kitchen Bouquet
Cynthia, Events Only

Here in my area of MN we got 8 inches of fresh snow on Thursday so February is leaving us in a blanket of white. As it was falling, I snapped a photo of the busy feeder "tree". Do you see the downy, junco, redpoll and nuthatch?Ruger licked the snow off his nose and was covered in a blanket of white by the time he got done with his patrol of the garden.
Friday was cold but bright and sunny. Johnny and a rabbit dined on corn and spilled sunflower seeds.
The only thing I will miss about winter is the daily visits from Johnny & Joseph and their friends. The early morning sunlight really highlighted all of Johnny's coloring. Look how his stomach feathers reflect blue.
Joseph also made his appearance at the corn buffet...
but he has some serious competetion from the sparrows for the cracked kernels.
But enough of February and winter, I am so looking forward to spring and the arrival of the wood ducks.
Yesterday, my sister in CA, upon hearing about our new snow sent my MN brothers and sisters a couple of photos showing the beautiful blooming trees in her backyard. She told us it was "window art" that we should tape to our windows for a view other than white...way to rub it in L :-)The photo of her magnolia tree above had me longing for the sight and scent of my crabapple tree...
and the colorful visitors that rest in it...
and in the wild plum blossoms.
I just long for the 20 days until spring officially begins to pass quickly though I know that here in my area of the country I won't see any type of blossoms until late April and I won't be able to smell the lilacs until May.
Until then I look forward to seeing spring arrive around the country through photos on the many blogs I follow. Yesterday I read of a first sighting of a robin in NE...head north little bird...head north!

A new Harley

someone in the family got a new Harley Davidson (an almost Wordless Wednesday)

Mardi Gras Day...

Today I am joining my friend, Suzy at Kitchen Bouquet, in celebrating Mardi Gras Day. Visit her blog at the link above and see the others participating in having a virtual party with her. Suzy is a Louisana native now living in the Pacific NW and at this time of she year misses all the celebrations and food in her family traditions. Last year at this time, she taught us about King Cakes. A coffee cake decorated in the Madri Gras colors with a baby hidden inside. I actually cheated a little and used frozen cinnamon roll dough to create my cake.
When I found out the meaning of the plastic baby is that whoever finds it has to bring the next king cake, I opted to give the baby a little red cardinal, hoping that maybe a pair of cardinals will find my garden and make a home this spring which would be better than another king cake. You knew I'd have to fit a bird in here somewhere ;-)
I decided to make a spare cake using frozen sweet dough in case one of them didn't turn out. This one has the more traditional king cake shape with a few more birds added for luck.
Now you may be wondering what's a MN country girl doing with all those Mardi Gras beads...
Last spring they were flying through the air at us...
as we watched a family friendly Mardi Gras parade at Universal Studios in Orlando. I brought the ones I caught home for Alexis to play with.
As everyone in the park was celebrating Mardi Gras, we saw that the beads come in all sizes!
In honor of Suzy's regional foods, I decided to make some southern main dishes to celebrate Mardi Gras as well.
A quick google search for Mardi Gras recipes led me to a couple light dishes from Epicurious. Click the links for the recipes.

Spicy Seared Shrimp on Mardi Gras Rice is a healthy take on traditional dishes of Madri Gras. I loved it, J needed lots of milk to eat the shrimp.

The second dish is N'awlins Butter Beans with Andouille Sausage (soul food that is supposed to be good for your heart). I made this dish early in order to take a photo in the daylight, we won't be tasting it until tonight's meal. It does smell like nothing I've made in this kitchen before but then I've never had andouille sausage before either.

A northern girl celebrating southern...it's a good thing! Thank you, Suzy, for hosting this fun virtual event.

Joseph & Johnny

Joseph (with his coat of many colors) has been coming to feed in the backyard for a year now. We recognize him from the broad white stripes on his crown.

Johnny (as in Johnny come lately, the new kid in town) has no white crown stripes and joined us for dinner this winter.
The wiser Joseph feeds and stays close to the protection of the tree line but Johnny is adventureous and will feed under the satellite gazebo as well as on spilled birdseed under the feeders.
In Saturday's sunshine his colors reflected the rainbow with pinks, purples, blues and greens.






I was doing the happy dance too after he allowed me to shoot away even though he saw me at the window.

after the snow...

Saturday morning the feeders were very active with hungry birds who had to work a lttle harder to find the seeds following Friday's snow. The redpoll needed to dig for the sunflower kernels and the chickadee patiently waited his turn.
The junco got a huge mouthfull of snow with each kernel he found in the tray feeder...
while a bluejay waited his turn. I have noticed bluejays, goldfinches, juncos and chickadees lift up one foot at a time when perching on cold metal. They must feel the cold in their feet which is another argument for wood or plastic feeders in the winter months. I do have metal ones out but I always notice they are the last to be emptied.
Finding the peanuts under the snow took a little more effort and this jay dropped his before getting a better grip on it.
These two looked like identical twins as they waited their turn at the peanut feeder...
until one of them spotted me at the window.
He was caught off balance by a wind gust and I was thrilled to capture it before he uprighted himself.
This was the next shot, he was upright and acting like nothing happened...too cool!
Soon the peanuts were getting harder to find just by pecking around in the snow so here is the windup...
that sent the snow flying!
A sad face after no more peanuts were to be found.
Even Johnny had to send snow flying as he dug for corn.
More photos of Joseph and Johnny in the next post.