Snowdrops and a crocus

 It's really happening! spring marching forward!

Lots of snowdrops daring to come out again and even a crocus is blooming!

Birds even, are singing already... inspecting nest boxes...!

Snowdrops

All the snow has disappeared and temperature has gone up. 
No more freezing. 

Today I gladly noticed that the snowdrops are coming out!

I longed for this to happen again...
and here they are! The first small announcements of spring!
 

snow birds

 The birds are really happy with some extra food in snowy frosty weather.

Woody

Mrs Woody is enjoying the nuts in the jar.
Everyday  in this winter cold, he comes for a meal, even more than once.

This third photo, I made this early morning, when the sun was coming out.

Snow and robin

It has been snowing some more, last night. 
Everything is under a white coat. 
I gave the birds some extra food.
Robin is very happy with that.
 

Happy squirrel

Squirrel was very happy to find a many colored nut yesterday.
Today he came back to find some more!
It had been snowing a bit last night and this morning a little more.

He loved to find the nuts and today, he took his time to eat them on the spot. 
Mostly he is running away to store them somewhere. 
Now I was really happy to be able to make some lovely photo's, while he was enjoying his meal.
 

Happy 2026

 

Squirrel and me are wishing you a happy joyful 2026

Filled with lots of wonderful, colorful, amazing surprises every day. 

Merry Christmas

 Robin and me wishing you a happy merry Christmas

Painting woodpecker and sparrows

 

Have been painting last week.  (oil on linen canvas 45x38cm.)

I love doing oil painting and I love birds...so its not difficult to find a subject for my paintings.

Not sure yet if it is finished, but I don't know what to do more and let it sit for a while. 

Its very difficult to make a photo of the painting without a shiny glare, 
I still don't know how to do that. 

Bumble

 I noticed a bumble sitting on the bench outside. He sat there a long time and it looked to me that he was eating from the wood.

However I don't know if they do such a thing like that. I know of wasps seeing doing that too.

Anyhow he gave me some time to make some pics from all sides, without flying away. 

Helleboris

 As the year is running to an end, 

I cannot wait till the days are getting longer and heading up for spring.
I don't like the short days. 
I got recently this beautiful Helleboris. 
Its acting as if spring already is on its way. with lots of promising buds in the making.

Its so amazing all these white budding buds. 
Its name is 'Winter Angels' which is so lovely as well.

Cashing nuts

 Squirrel busy cashing nuts.

I don't see the squirrels very often, because I forget sometimes to give them nuts.
But today I did.
And he was happy to find them.  And me happy to be able to grab my camera just in time.

Ladybirds cluster

 A cluster of ladybirds have settled themselves in a corner of the ceiling for hibernation.

'Hmmm' I don't think that's a good idea, because when its gets colder the central heating will make it maybe too warm for them, so that they wake up again.

Weird enough, several years ago, another group of ladybirds did the same thing and sat hibernating on the same spot! 
I don't think they are the same ladybirds, but another generation. 3 years ago.
Why do they take the same spot? There are lots of other places....

 I posted in 2022 a post on 24-10-22 with a group of ladybirds sitting there on the same spot. Isn't that weird?

And here I found another group on the same spot back in 2016 

It does not make sense to me at all. Does anyone know? 

Squirrel

 Squirrel visiting again to cash nuts.

Squirrel

 It has been a challenging time for me, after crashing and some broken and bruised parts. Hospital, rehab and finally home again. Was n't able to do some doodles, cause my ipad failed to upload the images, for whatever reason.

Doing a lot of doing nothing...Time to reflect and process. 
Squirrel in the meantime is cashing his nuts. I'm happy he comes back, after he discovered there are still nuts, without the neighbors nut-tree. 
Every day I throw some nuts outside and he is happy finding them. storing them in pots and between plants and in the ground in the grass. I love watching him as always.