Since the beginning of the year, our weather has been unsettled, or maybe I should say unsettling. We’ve had snow, extreme cold, and now rain. Glancing out the kitchen window this morning, I noticed an empty hopper feeder. Slipping on my jacket and boots, I sloshed out and refilled the feeder. A short while later, I spotted this little critter on the tree stump enjoying a feast.
As you can see, the squirrel is not on the hopper feeder, but on a nearby tree stump. It makes no difference to him, just as long as someone treks out to refill the food supply, and I imagine he is pleased to find his snack on the stump, instead of in the puddles that surround it.
Two weeks ago, the stump was covered with snow and the backyard looked like this.
When Bob carried out the bucket of birdseed to refill the feeders, he had to sweep off the top of the stump before scattering the birdseed and pouring seed in the feeders. That was on January 27th.
For a few days, a joyful crowd of sledders, had a grand time on the hill in Chagrin River Park (See my recent post “When the Snow Finally Fell”). Unfortunately, a few days later, during the first week of February, our temperatures topped out in the sixties, with 63 degrees on February 4th, and 61 degrees on February 7th. The snow melted, and the sledders vacated the now-barren sledding hill in the Park. Then, on February 9th, when the high temperature once again plummeted to 21 degrees, our brief taste of spring ended; the rains came; and the river almost reached flood stage, prompting warning calls from the authorities who keep a watch on such things.
Currently we are in a holding pattern. I can hear cars splashing through the puddles as they drive past our house, and I have no incentive whatsoever to take my camera to the park or the Arboretum for a trail walk. Who knows when spring will actually put in a real appearance. After all, it is still February. In Cleveland, we don’t hold out much hope for sunshine and flowers until at least April…or maybe sometime in May???
SEEN ALONG THE TRAIL 
Oh, my gosh! What weather! Too bad the rain came to take away the snow. So wonderful for kids to be out sledding.
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Great shots! The weather has been unsettled here too. We go from temperatures in the 30’s to the 80’s and now we’re having ran and more cool weather slipping in!!
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Ah squirrels – my favorite critters in the world and they always pose so nice for you. I feed them at the Park where I walk most days and I have a gray squirrel and a fox squirrel that I feed on my porch every morning … it started with tossing out a couple of peanuts when I came back from walking and that has morphed into feeding both squirrels, two cardinals and a jay who all bop by for peanuts. Not this morning though – we had a horrid ice storm (and another one is tonight) and the ice sealed the front door shut and I didn’t venture outside as it was treacherous out there. I hope my squirrels stayed in their respective trees and didn’t venture out. This Winter has been erratic with the weather and it IS unsettling.
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