Winter is Icummen In

.....and I am preparing for it. Today was a nice and balmy late November day, with temps in the low 5os. I Put my Christmas wreaths up, after adding in a bit of dusty miller and some sedum flowers. I still need to find some red berries, as the birds seem to have eaten all my vibrunum fruit. I suppose it serves me right for not having filled the feeder sooner.

Today I had a new visitor at my feeder, a sure sign of winter, my first junco.

Juncos are an unusual bird; unlike other seasonal visitors to Michigan, that come to spend the spring and summer and fly away to avoid our frigid winters, the juncos fly down (from Canada) to winter here. I suppose Michigan, with our cold and snow, still seems quite pleasant to them, when compared to northern Canada.

I've also had some winter plumage goldfinch (not gold, but with a spot of yellow under their beaks) and lots of black-capped chickadees at my thistle feeders, which I've hung right in front of my dining room window, by the table where I am typing. They are quite welcome year-round Michiganders.


These brilliant photos are by Paul Evans; you can see more of his work here.

Oh well, enough of a break. Time to get back to work. There is more roping to hang, pots to fill with evergreens and fake pointsettias, lights to sort, and a plastic illuminated snowman who is missing his nose.....

Note: the title refers to a poem by Ezra Pound

Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,
So 'gainst the winter's balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm,
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.

It is a parody of a Middle English poem about spring.