Happy New Year~

Happy New Year

When I say those words, I always become more than a wee bit nostalgic. 
It takes me days to get used to changing the dates on checks and other paperwork...
I think it is something in me, holding me back...in that which has become comfortable...and the desire to stay that way...
Life is but a journey, hour to day, to week, to month and to the years...and we should all be forever grateful that we have made it this far, when so many others have not. 
So to that...
I must say once again...
Happy New Year!
There that's better ;)

It was not even Winter yet, when we had our first icing of the season. 
Many of the Honeysuckle berries and Rose hips were still glowing red and ripe~


Remember to double click on the image, to view a larger slide show of the images shared

   

I will be linking up with Sylvia and friends at:

"SkyWatch Friday"

I invite you to check out more 'Skywatch Friday' posts from around the world at:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/ 

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 I will also be linking up with Mary at:

"Mosaic Monday"

at: 

  http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.

 and
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As well as I am linking up with Stewart at:

   Wild Bird Wednesday

(http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/)




Can you see the tiny bud formations, already awaiting the coming of Spring in 3 months~ 

We have company...the Winter visitors are here...  The Dark-eyed Juncos are present! 

The neighbors had gone to New York and I was watching their place. 
Walking back up my driveway, as the sun came up, I saw the gems sparkling on the fronds of our Pampas Grass and had to take some with me~

 

I guess there was reason to be happy about having to drive to the pharmacy to pick up a script. 
I never hardly see the sunset, but this particular evening...
Whoosh, magical.
We have tried to think of what that special glow down the center of each of these images might be called...it was such a wide sky of colour, there was no way to get it all in~

The Eastern Towhees are not just Winter visitors to our acreage, for they are around most of the year, hiding deeply in brush and bushes, only to hear their voices, when not in view.  During these colder months, they come in closer. 
Below is a handsome male~

This bush is in my side garden and I am the one who planted it, but I have yet to recall the name. 
It has these wee tiny berries on it and they became iced in from the glazing recently~

 

 

 

Above are the berries of our Fire Bushes and below is another Winter visitor, now present and accounted for...
the White-throated Sparrow~

 

 

 

We had been outside with the dogs and I heard something chirping and making quite a fuss...
They flit so quickly,  I was sure that I would miss it. 
Grabbed up the camera and got a couple of images of the little one...
the Golden-crowned Kinglet~

 

In the 33 years of living here, I must say...I have only seen and photographed a Fox Sparrow, maybe less than half dozen times. 
I had peeked out into the garden, through glass and saw 2. 
This one had just hit the window and was stunned, but it was fine. 
I watched it a while, before it flew up into a bush to join the other one~

 

 

The very last of the leaves, holding on for their last days...as when the thaw came, they finally floated to the ground.
This is my lane, my driveway leads off to the left. 
Many times a day, we walk our dogs down this lane. 
Come Spring, I will walk a million miles, in pursuit of the
Red-Shouldered Hawks of Tingsgrove and Beyond.
It will be a New Year, a new season for the birds as well as for us human kind.
New hope, new life, it is all good, all very good indeed~

Sometimes I do it on purpose, other times, I accidentally
 do it...this it was an accident, but I liked it.   
The upper right hand image below was inverted...
fun~