Waterlily

Possibly a Sioux flower, but I didn't trace the stalk down to the pot to be sure.  What a difference 6 months makes.  It's been in the eighties, and not a bit of snow in sight.

Feeding Birds

This was all started by my Mom. Months ago I dumped the last of the peanuts into my homemade peanut feeders, and I left them. Last week Mom started complaining about the woodpeckers that kept landing on the feeders, wandering around then looking put out and flying away. I said I was out of peanuts. Three days ago someone bought more peanuts. I sucked it up opened up the gnarly feeders and dumped out the leftovers, refilled with new, and the woodpeckers showed up within hours.

A pair with three babies showed up and have been by hourly. A red bellied woodpecker with fledgling in tow shows up several times a day as well. The feeders had been on various hooks around the driveway, but I got tired of the squirrel trying to gnaw through the feeders. Since the big trees are gone I strung a wire across the driveway from the porch to a convenient pole. Following this idea I strung cut pvc pipe on the ends of the wire and now I just have to wait for the squirrel to try again. If it doesn't work I'll swap out the wire I have (free) with a thinner wire as recommended here.