The Weekend Roundup: G

This weekend's prompts from Tom the Backroads Traveller are: Starts with G, Green, and Favourite.

Starts with G

Goldfinch starts with G.  This is a picture of an American Goldfinch at the feeder last week.  It is, obviously, wearing its winter plumage, not its bright yellow summer outfit!

I don't see them every day, but I do see them with some regularity.  In 2017, the finch populations of Atlantic  Canada were decimated by a very contagious infection called trichomoniasis, caused by a parasite.  People were advised to take down their feeders all summer because the parasite is spread easily between birds.  With the onset of winter, feeding could occur again because the parasite doesn't live very long in the cold, so it seems to have abated now.  I hope that the finch populations will rebound this coming spring and summer.

Favourite

Early this week we had a first egg from my cream legbar hen, Lady Charlotta.  She lays pale blue-green eggs.  The very first one was very thin-shelled and it broke when it was gently cleaning a bit of dirt from it.  She laid her second egg today and it seems to be a more solid shell.  I am sure you can see which egg is hers.  The blue-green coloured eggs are my favourites!  They taste the same but they are just so pretty.  I love all the different colours of eggs we get from our flock.  Today was also our first 6-egg day since having chickens here at our current home.  How eggciting!

Here's a "bonus" favourite shot.  Yesterday was a lovely day - much warmer than normal for February at 6 Celsius, or about 43 Fahrenheit.  I could not help but go for a quick walk in the middle of my day so I went to the local waterfowl park.  I didn't see many birds - just a few chickadees and a crow, but I did see beautiful blue sky and the lovely trunks of the birch trees.  This particular point on the boardwalk is one of my favourite spots with all the trees making a kind of living tunnel to walk through. It will be a while before anything begins to turn green, but it was still nice to be out on such a sunny day that was, comparatively speaking, warm(ish).

Green

Things remain mostly white (or brown) around here, but of course, the evergreens are still green, although a less vibrant green than they are in summer.  Here's a cone on one of the trees in our yard, with lots of green needles.

Friday's Hunt v. 4.08

I had a lovely visit from my parents for the past 3 days, so I didn't get around to doing Friday's Hunt on Friday, as I prefer to do.  However, I'm still doing it before the deadline.  I have had a busy week and anticipate another busy one ahead, which has limited my ability to visit other blogs and to do my usual comments on other Friday's Hunt participant blogs.  I will try to catch up soon!

Today's prompts from Eden Hills are:  Starts with H, Simple and Green.

Starts with H
Marc found a shed snake skin on the pile of barn boards that he is using in his garage project.  I decided that the skin looks like a husk of a snake.  Husk usually only applies to the outer covering of fruits or seeds, but I am using a little poetic license and applying it to this outer snake covering! It is most likely from a garter snake - the only kind we usually see around here.

Simple
I think most of us could use a few more simple pleasures in life, and focus a little more on the things that really matter.  It is difficult for me not to get all wrapped up in my work and my other responsibilities and not take time to just be, and enjoy the moment.  This weekend I enjoyed many moments on my parents' visit - just experiencing the simple joy of their company.

We had a lovely walk in the local waterfowl park, and here is my mom smiling with delight as we went on a simple walk in the park with my parents' dog, Bella.  Bonus points - my mom is wearing a green sweater and Bella has a green collar!

Here's another simple delight - watching young ducklings (late in the season!) zooming around on the pond at high speed.  They looked like little motorboats - look at that wake!

Green
Although the leaves are just starting to turn colour around here, there is plenty of green still visible. On our walk in the park, I took this photograph of a sleeping duck surrounded by a whole cast of different shades of green, including the greens reflected in the water.

Finally, here is the pale green seedpod of the wild cucumber vine (Echinocystis lobata).