The deer continue to stop by, and some of them are quite distinctive.
This is Petyr Little Antler. He is possibly related to Einhorn von Stag (brother, son cousin?) as I sometimes see them together. But Petyr has the harem.
This is the crooked leg doe. She is part of the harem and has a fawn that follows her around.
This is the red-eared doe. She does not have as much seniority as the crooked leg doe, so she defers to her elder.
Here the girls are in a group with their fawns.
Winter in Colorado is a mixed bag, periods of warm weather then brief (usually) periods of snow and cold. People think of skiing in the plentiful snow in Colorado, but the snow stays mostly in the higher elevations. And the ski areas also make plenty of fake snow. We just got a major storm, so people were freaking out and buying enough milk, bread and eggs for the apocalypse. Now comes the clean up.
I measured 8 1/2 inches (or 21.25 centimeters for those who think in metric.)
This is my favorite snow removal tool, a leaf blower. It creates an instant blizzard on soft fluffy snow. This snow had crusted over, so it didn’t work very well.
That leaves the trusty ordinary snow shovel to do the job. It is plastic, so one needs to buy a new one every few years.
Unlike the aluminium grain shovel, which is about 35 years old. It’s great for heavy wet snow.
I also use paw-safe de-icer for the frozen bit. Not pictured is the ice scraper, the brush on an extension pole for the satellite dish, various brooms, and the snow roof rake (because the hardware store sold me a box with just a handle in it).
However, these methods of snow removal pale in comparison with the technique of Miss P.
She uses her nose and entire body to smash the snow out of her way.
After noticing the infestation of dragons in Santa Fe, I suddenly realized that my house had plenty of dragons laying about as well!
This dragon was supposed to bring good luck. I bought it in a shop in Boston many years ago. I think for the most part he did his job.
I love old maps because when the mapmaker was unsure as to what was actually there, that is where one puts either a snake or a sea monster. The actual locations of sea monsters is uncertain.
This dragon is a pin cushion and lives in my sewing room.
This dragon netsuke was bought in honor of Miss Dog. When we used to take her to the dog park, she would fetch tennis balls for a while, then she would start a hoard. She would have a great pile of them, all hers and no one had better mess with it.
This dragon is a bit of art on the wall, it’s a silk screened card.
This baby dragon is crocheted and comes from Galaxyfest which is a local fan convention.
If I am not careful the dragons will completely take over my house.
I thought it might be interesting to take pictures of some of the signs in my neighborhood. I live in a middle-class area, and it’s pretty safe. But, when I looked at the signs that are around I started to wonder???
Maybe I’m not so secure after all! (Especially from those bears. But they’re asleep until April.)
I did get a load of new toys at Christmas time, so I thought that I would share them today. But first is an old toy that I have had for a number of years.
I bought this in Boston. I was walking down the street early in the morning, when I saw a neon wind-up key hanging on the front of a building. Well that got my heart beating faster, then I saw the owner taking out the trash and I convinced her to open up just for me. Of course I made lots of purchases including this fellow. You put a coin in front of him and he (I’m not totally sure he’s a guy, but it seems logical;-) reaches up and takes the money. It’s a totally cool toy and every kid that I’ve shown it to wants one.
This year’s version is not as cool, it just has a hand that reaches up and the skull just bobs a little. But it’s still interesting and so I had to have it.
I got a new selection of pterodactyls (and a pteroducktyl).
Gummy dinosaurs.
Swimmers.
It was quite the haul and now that I’ve photographed them they can go to their proper places in the cabinet.
Today was that most American of holidays, the Super Bowl. It’s a holiday that almost everyone observes, because it involves food and booze. Almost everyone likes that and/or the actual sport.
This is not my stadium made of food, it’s a picture from the internet that captures the spirit of the event. This would be quite a boring post without a picture.
I was invited to a friend’s house for an impromptu party. Almost as important as the game is the advertising, companies spend millions of dollars to get people talking about whatever they’re flogging. So we had to pay some attention to both the sport and the commercials.
Last year the Colorado team was playing (and they were roundly defeated). You could have rolled a bowling ball down the main street and it wouldn’t have hit anything. Even though the Colorado team didn’t make it to the finals this year it was still an occasion for lots of parties. There was not much traffic on the road and you could tell who was hosting the parties by all the cars parked nearby. It is both interesting and a little disturbing that sport has replaced religion or patriotism in people’s lives.
Next holiday is Groundhog Day (Feb. 2nd) in which a prognosticating rodent determines whether there will be 6 more weeks of winter or not. Booze is optional for this holiday.
