The Great Backyard Bird Count

February 18 - 21 is the official weekend for this year's Great Backyard Bird Count! I look forward to this every year. Here is a bit from the website:

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds.  

It is a wonderful feeling knowing that you are contributing in a small way towards a greater, grander project. Some years I do this with the help of children, some years it is just me. Last year, Toucie wove in and out of my bird-watching sessions...an interested observer if not a full-blown participant :)
This year, she's the one who puts out seed for the birds each day, so perhaps I'll have a counting partner...we'll see.

Who are we expecting to see? Well, here is a list of birds we've observed  from our kitchen window as the winter season has passed:

I wonder who will show up to be counted?

Winter Hike

This little trooper hiked a steep 3 mile trail (with a few icicles to keep her going) smiling all the way, the day before receiving a blood transfusion at the hospital.
Her beautiful life unfolds into this beautiful world and she just walks forward with her arms flung wide. I love this baby.

Chinese New Year

Good luck coin in a red envelope

We are taking extra careful measures with Toucie during this season of colds and flu. Our ventures into public  places are pretty rare, but for the Chinese New Year we made an exception. Sporting a mask (just as good at keeping people at a distance as it is as protecting her from germies), we stepped out on the town!

Toucie-dragon at a New Year celebration at our library with food, crafts...

...and a Chinese dance performance...look at the little bunnies :)

Best seat in the house...perched on Daddy's shoulders

we loved all the bright costumes!

older girls performing a beautiful scarf dance

back home it's time to get cooking!

ambitiously attempting spring rolls from this cookbook

Toucie works on the filling...

...Mado takes on the job of rolling spring rolls

she's a genius at stuff like this

we wanted to try this recipe too

here's how ours turned out

a lovely spread

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Anticipating Imbolc...

This year our celebrations seem to be  much more focused on what is happening on the land around us at this festival time...and less about the feast of Brigid and the tradition of candle dipping. Some years festivals just seem to have a life of their own! I've learned that its best to go with it :)

What we've been experiencing outdoors is a lot of cold, gray, wet, mossy days intermingled with a happy handful of frosty, sugary, snowy, white days all winter long. But lately we've been sensing something different in the air....we can tell that the land is waking...we call it the "stirring of the seeds" (a perfect phrase gleaned years ago from this book). This, to me, is the essence of Imbolc/Candlemas season.

Anxious to see signs of this "stirring" that we knew must be going on under our very feet, we engineered some visible signs of our own:

planting bean, corn & melon seeds in a bag 

taping it to a sunny window

We learned this trick here

starting some seeds for the garden

broccoli seeds...the tiniest seed babies ever!

sweet potato

"Bottle Acorns"- learned from these great chapter books

Now we watch and wait....

Snowy Zoo Visit

Winter Color...

We've been fortunate this winter with more snowy days than I can remember having in many years. But now that the snow has melted away, we find ourselves immersed once again in the muted, gray-brown landscape that signifies winter in this part of Tennessee.

On our walk in the park today, Toucie and I kept a sharp lookout for other winter color. Here is our gallery (starting with our own garish raingear!)  :)