Christmas Eve picnic

It was a perfect day to be in the woods for a picnic. December 24, 2015 and 17C. What??

First order of the day? Eggnog!

With a fresh dash of nutmeg on top, right?

I found an old bottle of whisky at the back of the liquor cabinet.
Man, that's old hooch! Dad likely got it as a gift and never drank it.
No time like the present.

Perfect!

 Hors d'oeuvres in the woods seemed like a good idea.
Hot Genoa salami, brie and Edam cheeses, olives and hard-cooked quail eggs.
Chocolate truffles and clementines for dessert.

It was pretty yummy.

 Cheers.

 Christmas tomorrow but today we bask in the warm, windy air. So crazy for the Great White North.

We had to navigate our mighty stream with all our belongings, but this year we didn't need snowshoes.

Happy days!

Merry Christmas to Ewe!

And here they are...this year's Christmas cookies. 

Merry Christmas to ewe and ewe and ewe!

Oh no! Melting snowmen cookies...

I did these fun cookies for a Christmas cookie exchange a few years back. They remind me of the old skit "Mr. Bill" on Saturday Night Live where the sad Plasticine character was always being pulled apart or in this case, melted.

Christmas cookies

 I love baking...mostly cakes but sometimes I make cookies too. 

These are from my sister's famous whipped shortbread cookie recipe. Light and airy and buttery.

 I love to decorate cookies and give them as gifts at work. One year I made snowflake gingerbreads.

Last year I made polar bear gingerbread cookies with red and green scarves. This year? Just wait!

Cat lover's birthday

My friend, and former next-door-neighbour Barb turned 80 today and we helped celebrate by joining her husband and daughter from L.A. with bagels and champagne. Barb has been involved with her local feral cat program for years and has even taken in a kitty or two. So her husband suggested I make a coconut cake, with dark chocolate and keep to a cat theme. Here's the result. Barb was tickled pink, I think. 

A nature photo a day

 On Facebook, my sister challenged me to post a nature photo for seven days.
No pets allowed. I have so many I didn't know where to start! 

I found this polyphemus moth last year. To get an idea of its massive size, I carefully placed my fingers under its feet.
I managed to take one photo and then it flew away.

Check out those spots...they are see through! You can see the cement ground right through them.

 An influx of redpolls at my feeder a few years ago.

 Chippy. The cutest of critters loves peanuts and was very tame.

 I saw some critters playing on the dirt road ahead of me. I slowed down and they ran to the field.
Turns out it was a mom and her two does.
She was as curious about me as I was about her!

 I heard noises outside my window one night and thought, oh, there are squirrels at the feeder. At night?
Then I realized that squirrels sleep at night and these were flying squirrels. Oh my!

 A merlin our local grocery store. Apparently it had driven a sparrow into the glass door, and a staff member put it in the garbage pail. 

When he told me, I asked him to take it out and give it to the waiting merlin.
The fellow went to the pail, pulled out the dead sparrow, threw it and the merlin caught it mid-air and flew off to eat his lunch.

Driving on the back roads two years ago, Richard noticed this great grey owl. We got out of the car and took a bunch of photos and then left him to catch his supper. What a beauty!

Tales of a former barn cat

 When this little soul showed up in my barn in 2013, I had to feed him! 

He was shy and beautiful. In the fall of that year, I got him fixed and brought him inside.

 He's so happy  indoors, particularly because he's found the love of his life, Cookie, 10 years his senior. 

They are pretty much inseparable -- particularly in winter.

Matzo Man is very shy and doesn't hang around when visitors are here. 
But the rest of the time, he's king of all he surveys.