Cardinals

Is it simply my crazed imagination or is Monsieur Cardinal a cringing chuff as Madame careens away in a huff?  Just what had they been chattering about!

Well, at least I did get to give you more cardinals for this week on ABC Wednesday after last week's bevy of them. 
Please visit a cluster of never cranky, always creative bloggers at Mrs. Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday.

A bevy of birds

They came for my birthday last week.  Too bad a few Blue Jays didn't show up!

A bounty of B's awaits you at ABC Wednesday, so briskly betake yourself there.

Ancestors

Addled was my feeling yesterday about what to post for A as Round 10 of ABC Wednesday began.  Then anxiety set in and anchored itself in my psyche.  How was I to avail myself of an adequate answer of what to post for A?

Should I absent myself from contributing, except to comment on others absolutely arresting additions?  Should I simply stay abed and abjectly abandon, abnormally abdicate, any role in the start of Round 10?  No!  I acknowledge that is not acceptable!  Is there an acquaintance, or better yet! an ancestor I could admit to Round 10?  Whew, ambling around on the keyboard had once more unaddled my brain.  I not only have ancestors, I have ancestors whose name begins with A --  the Archambaults of South Bend, Indiana and Saint Roche de l'Achignan, Quebec.

In this photo from circa 1905 all are gathered around the matriarch and her children and their spouses.  The second person from the left in the front row is my grandmother, Eveline Archambault McCauslin.  She is sitting next to her mother with the beautiful name of Chantal Desormiers Archambault who came to South Bend with her husband Jean Louis Stanislas Archambault just after the U.S. Civil War.  He went to work in the Studebaker Wagon factory.  My grandfather is the first person on the left in the back row, Augustus Holmes McCausland, who came from London, Ontario, first to Chicago, then to South Bend, in the late 1890's.   In addition to the Archambaults and McCauslands are a Bale, a Charron, a Donahue, a Doolin, and a Landgraf. 

For less ancient additions to A, please visit ABC Wednesday.

Winter Zen

Contemplate a world of z-words at ABC Wednesday!

Morning rays

Link up to skies from around the world at Skywatch Friday.

Sun + snow = winter at its best

Yeoman's work

 

I yearn to buck the crowd,  but,  yikes,  I am yielding to the urge to post this photo and join the throng of mellow yellows*  on ABC Wednesday. 

My neighbor at 84 continues to do yeoman’s work,  clearing her quarter-mile long driveway of snow, and this week she did it two days in a row!   This is not the Yukon,  but we do live in the southwest Michigan snow belt.   Lake effect snow buries us when cold northwest winds blow over the warmer  water of southern Lake Michigan. 

We have one of these scoops, too.  We call them Canadian snow shovels,  but I don’t find reference to this name on the web.  We also have a little snow blower and a friend with a plow on the front of his pickup.  Compared to Joanne we are wimps!

*Donovan did a lot with Colours!

Winter pond

Steffe, we took your admonition to heart and didn't stay only by the fire yesterday, but wandered through the woods, oohing and aahing at the beauty of the snowfall which continued all day.  And as requested, took photos.

Our pond is a vernal pond that has lasted into the winter given heavy rains these past months, so this is an unusual sight for us to see it surrounded by snow-covered fallen trees (2011 saw a bonus crop of fallen trees all around us that started with last January's ice storm, became violent with an F1 tornado in May that devastated the Hermitage and Abbey woods, and ended with soggy ground that couldn't hold onto some trees this fall). 

Lake effect snow has been falling since yesterday afternoon and has continued into today.  A winter wonderland is perfect for a holiday when you can snuggle up at home in front of the fire and watch the snow fall through the window! 

Happy New Year!