Monday, December 1, 2025

Petrified Cranberry Sauce


This may look like some semi-tropical scene from Tenerife, but as you know by now, it's just our bird feeder with our resident, noisy parakeets. They and/or the squirrels have figured out how to remove the lid, so that top suet ball always disappears faster than the others. I could try to wire it down but I should really just get a new feeder. That one was here when we moved in and it has certainly done its duty over the past 11-plus years.

Yesterday was very quiet. I did laundry, including Dave's new pink shirt. I had visions of it staining everything else in the load pink but it didn't. I don't think that's really an issue anymore, is it? I think fabric and dye technology has improved beyond that. But I do still separate lights and darks, just like my mother taught me.

I pretty much caught up in Blogland and also managed my media, a never-ending task!


We've had an ancient can of cranberry sauce in the pantry for a while now. I have no idea when we bought it, but it expired in July 2024. Still, canned cranberry sauce won't really go bad, will it? I told Dave I was determined to eat it, and I opened it up and put it in my grandmother's special cranberry sauce dish, just as we always did during the holidays at home. Last night I had it with dinner (chicken) and it's perfectly fine.


And I put up our Christmas lights on the fiddle-leaf fig. This is as good as decorating gets around here. Merry Christmas!

Finally, I downloaded the weekly haul from the Garden Cam. We had very few videos this week, possibly because in the middle of the week I moved the camera to film the patio right outside our back door. I thought it would be interesting to see what critters venture close to the house. Answer: both Pale Cat and Q-Tip.


I first had the camera in the garden, where we see a couple of passing foxes and Pale Cat.
-- At 0:41 we get a peaceful garden scene of a pigeon, a flock of starlings and a squirrel rummaging through the fallen leaves. That lasts about a minute and it's my favorite part of this video.
-- After that, more foxes, including one moving very slowly at 1:45. I can't tell if it's injured or just being cautious and smelling the smells. It looks healthy when standing still.
-- At 2:05 the action moves to the patio, where Pale Cat wanders past.
-- At 2:25 a cautious fox spies the newly relocated camera and clearly doesn't like it.
-- At 2:43 an industrious squirrel buries a hazelnut. (Note to self: dig up nut so it doesn't grow!)
-- At 3:02, a daytime "Loch Ness" view of a passing fox's back, in the middle of the afternoon.

Now I've moved the camera back to the rear of the garden. I'd like to get more evidence of just how many foxes we're dealing with, and that's the only place I've ever obtained footage of two at once.

11 comments:

  1. I recently accidentally put a new pair of black jogging trousers in the same wash with P's light cream cable knit jumper.
    He now has a tasteful pale grey jumper .

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  2. The clips with the squirrel and all the birds made me think of Disney’s Cinderella. Maybe they could "go up and do the attic and go down and do the cellar.” I LOVE Loch Ness fox! Thanks for that description.

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  3. There are Monk Parakeets living in Chicago. I'd see them when I went to the Field Museum. It winter, it seemed like their bright feathers clashed with the Midwestern winter grays and tans. They were great fun to watch.

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  4. I've heard that squirrels deal with acorns by nipping out the growing points...that probably doesn't happen to hazelnuts!
    Jays don't..which is why Jaybirds=oaktrees !
    I'm being careful about putting out fat balls when it gets very cold.. apparently it is then too hard for small beaks..but that probably won't be a problem 1. In London 2. For squirrels 3. For parrot family birds!!

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  5. I like the Festive Fiddle-leaf Fig - very jolly.

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  6. I love the lights on the Fiddle-leaf fig! I want to do something very simple like that and call it a day as far as decorating goes. :)

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  7. I like the fig version of a Christmas tree. I wouldn't be too sure about dye fastness. The red hospital socks they sent me home with bled pink. I hand washed them just in case, and was glad I didn't get a load of pink clothes.

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  8. I still separate things for washing, but my lads don't and chuck it all in together into the washer, and the world doesn't end. Dyes seem to hold fast now, but clearly with the exception of JayCee's black sporting wear.
    I'll risk most things out of date, except for sunscreen lotion.

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  9. One mark out of ten for your cranberry sauce presentation. Just plopping it into the dish is not enough. You should have forked it over. Instead, it looks like pet food.

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  10. Some things just never seem to go off do they, but I will be making every effort to eat the three year old Christmas pudding this year!!

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  11. I love Fig Tree Lights!!!
    I might have avoided the Ancient Cranberry Sauce but then you're a braver man than I.

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