Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

I probably shouldn't be writing a blog post right now. I've been tired and crabby all day. I'm sure it's at least partly my fault, but frankly, I didn't sleep well last night. A few weeks ago I reluctantly agreed to replace our freezer for  a new, modern one that is frost free. There was some money set aside just for that purpose so there wasn't much I could say. Of course the idea was that we would save money on electricity. Well, I found out today that the frost free models use 40% more power than the one we replaced. Lovely. To make matters worse, the freezer is located on the wall opposite of where my bed is, and it doesn't shut off- ever. When I go to bed it's running and this morning when I awoke at 4: 30 it was still running. Now, I don't know how it is that for the majority of the day I can' only hear half of what is spoken to me. Sometimes I'll be talking to someone and nod and smile when I think I should, without hearing exactly wh...

 For some reason birds hold a certain fascination for me. Perhaps it's because they are like fish in that they come in such diverse colors and shapes and each one fits perfectly well in its environment. A few weeks ago a pair of Stellars Jays showed up on the scene. They usually arrive sometime around February and stick around until the snow is gone and then I  don't see them for a long while. I'm not sure where they go. It's the time of year when I start seeing a Varied Thrush or two- like the one in the middle picture. I've heard them called Telephone Birds because of the sound they make later on in the year, kind of like a phone ringing. Last week there was a Magpie hanging around. They are a beautiful bird, brilliant black and white with a hint of teal green and a long, squarish tail. I wanted to get a picture of it, but as soon as I reached for the camera, it took off. Go figure. That happened to me last year too when I heard the dog going cr...