Ice Storms

We have had two different ice storms already this winter. The following photo illustrates what essentially every branch and twig on every tree and bush (and every power line) currently looks like.


Naturally, this adds quite a bit of weight to everything, but it can also add some beauty to the overall scene.



In addition to power outages and slippery conditions, some of our trees have taken quite a hit. Our big white pine suffered some damage in last February's storm, but it recovered fairly well. This time, however, the damage is pretty severe. Most of the upper branches have broken, and there are broken stubs all the way down. Lots of the broken pieces are still hung up on branches that survived (for now), and there is a huge mass of bent and broken limbs at the ground. These are currently frozen down, so until it warms enough to melt the ice, I can't really clean up the mess.


On the other hand, the bush that I decorated with four strings of lights is now completely encased in ice and drooping to the ground, but when the lights come on each evening, it is quite the sparkling show.

You Won't See This at Your Bird Feeder Every Day

We have been paying lots of attention to our bird feeders the last few weeks. With the snow and ice, birds have been around in large numbers, and numerous species have graced us with their presence. For example, we have seen dozens of juncos, chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches, bluejays, cardinals (lots and lots of cardinals), mourning doves, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, common flickers, and many others. The heater and bird bath that Will and Sandy gave us a couple of years ago seem to be a big attraction along with the food we put out. Sunflower seeds and suet blocks are the main feeding attraction, though the finches still prefer the thistle seeds.

However, in the last week, we have witnessed a real first. About a week ago, we spotted a bird of prey in our linden tree, which is very close to the feeders. Naturally, while this guy was around, everyone else was gone. I managed to get the following two shots with my 400mm lens. At first, we thought this might be a peregrine falcon. The bird is relatively small as local hawks and such go. It might be 14-16 inches from head to tip of tail. We have used whatbird.com to try to identify it, as well as our own bird books. Now we think it might be a broad-winged hawk. However, your suggestions as to other possibilities are welcomed.



The big surprise, though, occurred this morning, when my local nature photographer, Kathie, came to tell me what she had just seen. I was working in the shop and missed the action first hand. The usual array of birds were feeding, when Kathie saw a large bird, probably the same one above, swoop in and catch a male cardinal. It held it down until it died and then flew away with its prize. Kathie managed to get the following picture before it took off. She had to use digital zoom to get close, so the picture is pretty blurry, but you can clearly make out the hunter and its prey.



When we started feeding birds, we had no idea we would begin to create a natural food chain. In prior years, we have had wild turkeys and even deer at the feeders. So this has been a pretty interesting source of entertainment. On the other hand, I hope we don't continue to progress to other kinds of predators. We don't need wildcats or other such critters here, even though they might be fun to see.

Eleanor Time

Kathie volunteered to entertain Eleanor on Sunday in order to give her parents a chance to get various things done. What a treat for us! Naturally, I had to take a few pictures. Here she is looking all serious while keeping her teething octopus away from me.


One of her new tricks is sitting up.


We played together quite awhile before Kathie pointed out that she was the one who had actually done the volunteering! I can take a hint! So, Kathie took over the entertaining. Obviously, she gets more smiles and laughs than I do.


Great Grandma Novy also spent some quality time with Eleanor.

Lunch with Bob and Lola

I recently received a phone call from Bob and Lola Severin. Bob is my first cousin once removed. For those of you not up on genealogical terms, "once removed" means "in different generations." So, in this case, for example, Bob and my mother were first cousins, making him my first cousin once removed. Bob's children and I would be second cousins.

Anyway, you may recall my dinner recently with Maryann and Barbara. If not, you can click here to read about that. Bob is Maryann and Barbara's uncle, and we had discussed getting together with him sometime. He and his wife, Lola, had to come to Iowa City for an appointment at the VA, so they invited me to meet them for lunch before the appointment.

We had a great time catching up with each other. I doubt that we had seen each other for 25 years or more. Bob used to operate a farm that his father first owned that was just north of the one we lived on near Lowden. So, when I was growing up there, we saw each other from time to time.

Here is a picture of the three of us.

Thanksgiving and Snow Therapy

Many of you readers out there will know that Kathie's mother has relocated here to Iowa. During the months of September and October, she had some health setbacks from which she is recovering nicely. However, everyone agreed that all of us being nearer each other would be a good idea. Florida is nice, but the distance was making regular togetherness difficult.

Anyway, November and December have been months of transition. It had been quite a long time since Mother and her two girls and their families could be together around a Thanksgiving table. This year was different. Gail and Greg, Vicki and David, and Kris and her friend Tom were all able to be here with us. Also, Jessica flew in from Nashville. Only Travis was unable to be there. Although I failed to take a picture of all ten of us around the table for the dinner, I did get a number of other shots. Here are Jessica and Kris:


Kris and her grandmother spent a little time catching up with each other.


Tom, Kris, and Vicki posed for me.


Here are Gail and her mother.


We guys, meaning Greg, David, Tom, and I, were done in by the turkey and several football games and found it easy to nap. As a result, I had too few opportunities for pictures of everyone. However, I did find David catching some Z's on our couch (he claimed he had been up late the night before finishing a computer programming assignment at the university--I wouldn't know anything about that).


Of course, there was lots of game playing to be done too.



Since Thanksgiving, we have also treated Mother to weather with which she has been unacquainted in the 23 years since leaving the Chicago area for the warmer climes of Florida. We have had an ice storm and two or three good snowfalls. Among other things, she has enjoyed watching all the action at our bird feeders, though we usually let her do this from the confines of a cozy chair in our warm living room.


As part of her recovery, Mom has been doing lots of therapies--physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, for example. We thought she needed some additional work, so we have put her on a snow therapy program, as you will see below.

Henry's 3rd Birthday

Betsy has reported on the series of birthday parties Henry had last weekend. Although it probably doesn't qualify as another party, I did make a trip to see Henry last Tuesday so that I could deliver birthday presents and spend a little time with him and his parents. When I arrived at the house, Betsy was just ready to drive to Poko Loko to pick him up, so I rode along. It was fun to see how excited he was at the opportunity to show off his day's activities and to hear him describe the observance of his birthday during the day (it was his day to bring birthday treats, to be sung to, and to receive a specially decorated birthday visor that he proudly wore).

Before we got back to the house, he announced that he wanted to play, so we spent the time prior to his Dad's return from work playing with new toys and games. Henry loves the Wiggles and decided to play one of their CDs while we played. When a song called "The Flap" came on, he immediately got up to demonstrate the dance that goes along with the music. This picture attempts to capture some of his moves, although his mother and I wondered if he had been watching a few too many Mick Jagger performances.


When his Dad arrived, and before we went out for a yummy sushi dinner, which Henry thought was a great choice, I gave Henry his gifts. This year, I chose to restore two old toys of mine for him. The first was my Flexible Flyer sled, and no, I didn't call it Rosebud. It had badly rusted and had several broken boards, all of which I repaired and restored as best I could.


I explained to Henry that you could lie down on the sled and steer it down hills, so he gave that position a try.


The second gift was a wooden puzzle of the U.S. that I must have received when I was about five or six. That was prior to 1959, of course, when Alaska and Hawaii entered the union, so this puzzle only shows 48 states. Two of the tiniest pieces had gotten lost over the years, so I made new ones with my scroll saw and painted them to match as best I could. Grandma made a nice slipcase to keep it in, so we hope the puzzle will stay intact now. Before we went out for sushi, Henry succeeded in putting the puzzle together for his first time. I hope he enjoys, as I did, learning all the names of the states, their geographic locations, where the Great Lakes are, and many other things that make maps so interesting.


I'm a very lucky grandfather!

Happy Birthday to My Best Little Sister

Today is my dear sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Paula!


Finding gifts for each other as we grow older can be a real challenge. We tend to already have everything we will ever need. So, this encourages one to find something really, really, really special to mark the occasions. This year, I learned of an artist who specializes in making one-of-a-kind bobble head dolls. Naturally, the idea of presenting Paula with a doll in her own likeness was just too good to pass up. The artist who makes them needs months of lead time, so I committed to the production of a doll in June. This morning, Paula called to let me know that the doll had arrived safely. Her laughing and funny comments indicated to me that I had made an excellent choice. So now that Paula's birthday is here, I can safely share the results with you too:

Travis's New Puppy

After weeks of waiting, Kathie was today able to drive to Stuart, IA to pick up Travis's new English Shepherd puppy (a male). Here is Kathie with Darlene, the person from whom the puppy was purchased. The puppy was born September 12th.


Kathie took an immediate liking to him--what a surprise! The puppy (name yet to be determined) does not appear to be so sure about this transition in his life.


Here he is at a rest stop along the way back. The plan was to deliver him to United Airlines Cargo in Des Moines for an immediate trip to Denver and to meet there his new owner, Travis. However, United has some silly rule about not allowing pets to be delivered to a location where the temperature is below 45 degrees, and it just happened to be 42 there today. So, Kathie had to bring him back to Iowa City for the night. She returns to Des Moines tomorrow to try again.


Although not shown in this picture, he is sporting a new Hawkeye collar. There is a new Hawkeye leash to go along with it. He must never have worn a collar before, because he frequently scratches at it, much like he is doing here.


In the car, he learned that the armrest between the two front seat passengers worked well as an attention-getter.


The upside of his not going right to Denver was that Grandma Novy has had a chance to meet the new puppy. As you can see here, she decided to try our red laser light with the puppy to see what would happen. Our dog, Josey, begs us to get out the light and allow her to chase it. Guess what? The puppy is equally fascinated!! It has been suggested to Travis that he should acquire a light too.


Evidently, the puppy is a highly cultured being. As you can see, his favorite spot at our house is near the glass artwork that we bought in Italy last year.


He really likes it!! I don't think it has ever been so clean.


Right now, he is racked out beside it--sound asleep after a new and trying day.

Happy Halloween!!!

Brave Boy

Betsy recently wrote about the so-called baby nook, about which you can read more by clicking here. One of the treats I had while staying with Betsy, Pete, and Henry was a night out at Hackney's, a restaurant that serves great burgers, although I opted for an excellent corned beef on rye with lots of horse radish. Betsy and I also split a heaping pile of onion rings, while Henry opted for a good-ole grilled cheese.

After dinner and a little fooling around with what I think was a foosball game, Henry demonstrated how brave he could be as you will see below.

Estonia, Sweden, Poland

Returning to reports on our recent trip to northern Europe...

After visiting St. Petersburg, we traveled overnight to the little country of Estonia. Our port of call was the capital city of Tallinn. For our tour, we chose to visit the "old town" part of the city, with its narrow cobblestone streets and a lively plaza where we were able to do a little shopping. We found cute, handmade dolls for great-nephew Felix and granddaughter Eleanor there. Buildings in these old cities very often have interesting features, like the clock and the dragon you see here.





Like many of the cities in Europe, old town Tallinn was once a walled city. We rendezvoused for our trip back to the ship at the city gate you see here, where vendors were selling flowers and other items.



Overnight, we traveled to Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholm sits at the eastern end of a vast archipelago, so the last several hours of the trip, which occurred at dawn, were spent winding through beautiful waterways and between islands and other slips of land. For those of us who arose with the sun, it was a beautiful ride. Because Kathie and I had visited Stockholm some years ago, and because we were a bit tired from the many tours on preceding days, we elected to spend most of the day aboard ship, so there are no pictures of Stockholm itself to offer here. But, here are a couple of shots of the trip through the archipelago.



Our next day was spent at sea. Each evening, we dined in a formal dining room and always had four full courses from which to choose (appetizer, salad, main course, and dessert). The food was exceptional. We were assigned to a specific table, and so we became well-acquainted with new friends Johnny and Cindy from North Carolina who were seated at the same table. Here we are. You can see the Baltic Sea out the window.


Following this day at sea, we were in Poland. We docked in Gydania. However, we had chosen a tour of Gdansk, home of Lech Walesa, the leader of the Solidarity Movement in Poland during the late 1980s. Like Tallinn and others, Gdansk was a walled city at one time. Below is a shot of one of the gates to the city. We passed through this gate to enter an interesting little shopping area, which you can see in another photo below.


The above picture was taken from a bridge just outside the gate. From that bridge, we were able to see this medieval port crane, a facility used to load and unload ships. Gdansk was a member of the Hanseatic League, a federation of trading guilds around the Baltic Sea. We eventually learned more about this league in Hamburg and other cities we visited.


The shopping area was filled with bakeries, cafes, and numerous jewelry shops that specialized in amber jewelry. We heard quite an interesting talk on amber and how to distinguish it from the plastic fakes that are sometimes pawned off on the unsuspecting. Did you know that real amber burns or that it floats in water?