Merry Christmas!

North Woods Visitor, by Kelly Riccetti

White-throated Sparrow with Snowflakes...

I think our little White-throated Sparrow has just settled himself for a long winter's nap.
(...or maybe he's watching for Santa!)

Wishing you the happiest of holidays

filled with love and cheer. 

Merry Christmas...and a Happy New Year! 

Winter Birds
White-throated Sparrows are one of our first winter birds to arrive in our back yard each autumn. Rick and I watch for them, along with White-crowned Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos as soon as the leaves start to turn colors and a chill hangs in the air. These sweet birds leave their nesting grounds up north and head south to live with us during the winter. They are special guests, and their musical calls and beautiful plumage brighten dull gray winter days. It's always exciting to spy the first to arrive for the season. This year, Dark-eyed Juncos won the contest, showing up on October 21. White-throated Sparrows were right on their heals, making their appearance on October 23. White-crowned Sparrows sometimes skip our yard altogether, but this year, they dropped in on November 14. We're still waiting for our musical little American Tree Sparrows to show. They usually blow in with a winter storm in January. With all the snow we've had in December, however, we were hoping they would show up sooner. We will keep watching. Maybe they will hitch a ride with Santa, and we will see them at the feeders Christmas morn...

Chiggy decks the halls...and don't forget winter roost boxes for cavity nesting birds!

...according to Chiggy no doorway is complete without boughs of pine and sprigs of holly!

Wishing you the happiest of holidays 

filled with love and cheer.

Merry Christmas!

Winter roost boxes for cavity nesting birds...
In reality, you wouldn't see a chickadee using a birdhouse as a nest box during the winter (of course, you wouldn't see a chickadee hanging pine rope on one either!), but you might see a chickadee venturing into a small roosting box on a cold winter's night. Many cavity-nesting winter birds roost together at night to conserve heat in roost boxes. Bluebirds, titmice, winter wrens, and white-breasted nuthatches are all known to roost communally and will even use birdhouses as a roost box, but chickadees roost individually and prefer tiny crevices or very small roost boxes to help them conserve heat and make it through long frigid nights.

Nesting boxes and birdhouses are open and drafty. They are designed to dissipate heat because they are used in the spring and summer when temperatures can soar. Since heat rises it only makes sense the entry hole on a nesting box is at the top of the box, but roost boxes are designed to hold heat in. They are well sealed and have the entry hole at the bottom of the box. Communal roost boxes are designed with multiple shelves or perches staggered throughout the box. Click here to download instructions and plans from the Missouri Department of Conservation on how to build a communal winter roost box.

It's hard to find a single-bird roost box in a store, so you might need to make a tiny roost box for a chickadee if you want one (or 10) in your yard. Scott Shalaway, in an article titled "A winter roosting box for chickadees is a tight spot" (click here), suggests making a small roost box with the inside dimensions of four inches wide, three inches deep, and three inches high...with an entry hole of 1.25 inches at the bottom of the front panel. He doesn't supply the plans, but it doesn't seem too hard.

Cynthia Berger, in an article titled "Providing Birds with Cozy Winter Roosts"(on the National Wildlife Federation's site, click here), talks about cavity nesting birds using birdhouses and roost boxes in the winter. Bluebirds do not roost on perches. They like to clump together at the bottom of a nest box, so you might want to winterize a few birdhouse nest boxes for the bluebirds. She also reports that a zoology professor named Chuck Kendeigh did an experiment (research was performed from December 20, 1949 to January 11, 1950) to confirm winter roost boxes really do help birds survive freezing temperatures. He found that during the day when the bird was not in the roost box the temperature was the same inside as it was out, but at night, the temperature inside the roost box rose from 18 degrees outside to 29 degrees inside. The colder the outside temperature, the greater the difference in warmth inside. He concluded that winter roost boxes really do help winter birds brave the cold.

For a detailed account of how Black-capped Chickadees survive northern winters, check out the book Wild Bird Guide: Black-capped Chickadee by Susan M. Smith (page 69). I love this book! You can order it on Amazon, here

Leave a peppermint stick for old St. Nick...

Wishing everyone a very Chiggy Christmas

filled with love, peace and joy.

The Carol of the Birds

(a traditional Catalonian Carol)

When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far,
in that full night of glory.
With one melodious voice they sweetly did rejoice
and sang the wonderous story,
sang, praising God on high, enthroned above the sky,
and his fair mother Mary.

The eagle left his lair, came winging through the air,
his message loud arising.
And to his joyous cry the sparrow made reply,
his answer sweetly voicing.
"Overcome are death and strife, this night is born new life",
the robin sang rejoicing.
When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far.

(addendum...I forgot to mention this was painting 100 in the 100 Painting Challenge! I've completed two years of the challenge and now have 200 paintings to show for it. Time to start year three...no rest for the wicked!)

What IS that cat looking at???

Bip, our Cornish Rex cat, looks scary, but couldn't be sweeter. He seems to have spotted something...

What IS that cat looking at???

Mice--lots of them!! Oh no...

Unfortunately, I think I ate more of them than Bip did...

...and here's the baker!

Rick makes fab Night Before Christmas mouse cookies...and looks great in my Christmas apron too!

Night Before Christmas Mice Cookies

3 cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond extract)
1 large egg

Sliced almonds (for ears)
10 feet of red or black licorice laces cut into 3-inch strips (for tails)
Small tube of black and pink icing for nose and eyes (or 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk flour and salt together in a bowl.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy (about 2 minutes on medium-high speed). Add in sugar, beating until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add flour mixture gradually, mixing on low speed until blended.
4. Scrape dough onto large piece of plastic wrap and cover completely with wrap. Refrigerate until firm enough to roll into balls (about 2 hours, or overnight).
5. Form the mice: Roll small pieces of dough into 1 ¼-inch ovals. Bring one side to a point to form nose. Gently pinch bridge of nose to form eye sockets. Place 2 sliced almonds behind eyes to make ears.
6. Place mice 2 inches apart on the parchment-covered cookie sheets, and bake until golden brown on bottom and edges (about 15 minutes).
7. Form the tails: Immediately insert skewer into the rounded side of the mouse about ½ inch deep. Remove skewer and insert a strip of licorice tail as far as it will go. The tail will melt a little and stick to the warm cookie. Pipe small eyes (black icing) and a small nose (pink icing) onto each mice (or use melted chocolate placed in a parchment cone; if you use melted chocolate to form eyes and nose, refrigerate until the chocolate has hardened).

Mares eat oats, and does eat oats...but little lambs eat ivy!

(...continued from the Krohn Conservatory Winter Solstice posts.)

The lambs outside the stable at the live nativity at Krohn Conservatory were so sweet. They made the old song "Mairzy Doats" pop into my mind (which continued to run through my mind the entire day)...

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
...If the words sound queer and funny to your ear,

...a little bit jumbled and jivey,
Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.
A kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you?"
(by Milton Drake, All Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston, 1943)

"Where's the ivy? Bahhh... All I have to eat is hay!"

I don't know what Cow-Lambs eat. Do you, Dad? ;-)

"Mmmm...ivy...eating ivy in my dreams..."

The stable with a live nativity at Krohn Conservatory.

Snow frosted trees and a view of Eden Park from the stable.

...and on the other side of the street in a hazy, snowy, river fog stands a beautiful Victorian-Eclectic building officially called the Eden Park Stand Pipe, often called the Eden Park Water Tower, and mostly called the Huge Red Brick Castle Tower Across from the Krohn Conservatory.

I looked it up and learned it was a stand pipe for the Cincinnati Water Works. Its period of significance was 1875-1899 and the architect was Samuel Hannaford & Sons. (Click here for more info on this historical building.)

Merry Christmas!

Painting 98. The stockings were hung on the branches with care in the hopes that Chiggy Nicholas soon would be there!

Birds flock to huge tree at the Krohn Conservatory...

Regional variations are detected!

Holiday cheer abounds...

A beautiful Great Blue Heron hand painted by a local artist looks up trying to see the top of the towering tree. Note the soft pink highlights, which are a winter plumage variation only found in Cincinnati in December...and then again, only in Eden Park at the Krohn Conservatory!

Officials at the Krohn have put out bird houses to handle the influx of birds here for the Holiday Season. The houses are claimed quickly. Here a Forked-tail Spiky Red stakes out its territory. You can only find this variation in December in the towering pine in Eden Park.

Oops...not birds, but super cute. These two Christmas mice needed to be photographed.

A beautiful Ruby-throated Hummingbird sips nectar from an equally beautiful Morning Glory! In most cities with snow, the hummingbirds have long since headed south, but the Cincy variations are tough. Note the pronounced white-tipped feathers. This adaptation helps the bright beauties blend into the snow-covered branches in this microcosm of the north.

An Egret tries to hide behind a bright yellow garland made of dried Black-eyed Susans. I think if I could find a beautiful, bright garland of Black-eyed Susans I'd hide behind it too!

Two little Walnut Pixie Owls (another local variation) peep from their home. Let's hope the mice on the upper branches keep an eye out for these adorable, but efficient predators. Looks can be deceiving...

The gargantuan tree itself!

All the ornaments on the tree were handcrafted from natural materials--all made by volunteers.

Celebrating Winter Solstice at Krohn Conservatory

We've been celebrating Winter Solstice with my parents for a long time, usually with a relaxed dinner at my house that is quite and unhurried...and always lovely. It is a night to step back from the hustle and bustle and marvel at the pine boughs and the green tree sparkling with lights, but this year we decided to celebrate the day too. In Cincinnati, one of the most festive and beautiful places to go during the Christmas season is the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park. The "flower house" was completed in 1933 and has over 3,500 plants from around the world, all growing lush and green under the massive glass panes.

Matty and my parents, Jerry and Joni, stand outside the Krohn Conservatory. Tucked into Eden Park on a hillside that overlooks downtown Cincinnati, the Krohn Conservatory is a tiny gem that brightens many a grey winter's day in our town.

Christmas magic sparkles everywhere in our town, but it's especially manifest at the Krohn Conservatory. Where else can you find a towering poinsettia tree growing in natural splendor in the dead of winter?

Poinsettias of every color and style blanket the ground, looking especially festive under orange, kumquat, lemon and grapefruit citrus trees.

Matty in the desert room. When you're in the Krohn Conservatory you spend a lot of time looking up...and down...and around...there are so many unique plants and flowers to see.

Dad with his camera...gotcha!

Inside the glass and aluminum structure, cacti, succulents and other desert plants grow in warmth, while outside, snow falls. An empty picnic table at the base of a massive oak tree is beautiful surrounded by the stillness of a Winter Solstice snow...

Don't be fooled. They are smiling because visions of a Winter Solstice lunch at Maggiano's are going through their heads...

Mom wipes condensation from the glass to look out at a sparkling winter scene.

The conservatory looms behind a beautiful Nativity that has been a part of Cincinnati Christmases since 1939. Originally located in Lytle Park on Fourth Street in downtown Cincinnati, it was moved to the Krohn Conservatory in 1967.

More to come on the beauty of a Winter Solstice in Cincinnati...

Ghosts of Christmases Past II...1992

Christmas Manger with Lamb and Birds, 1992

The idea for this card started in my head with the image of birds landing on a rickety and old manger. It just seemed natural that a lamb would be standing next to it. I also remember when I sat down to create this card I thought I'd never be able to capture anything like the Christmas Angel from the previous year, but in the end I was happy with it. The little birds stole my heart with this one. They are so sweet, and I can imagine them singing for the baby.

Ghosts of Christmases Past...1991

Christmas Angel with Chickadee, 1991

Rick and I got married in 1988, and that Christmas I started making my own Christmas cards for my family and friends. Since almost all of my Christmas cards have birds in them (surprise!) Rick thought it would be a good idea to post a few every now and then to spread Christmas cheer. I decided to start with this card because it's always been my favorite (and my mom's too). I love the sweet little chickadee and the angel's beautiful snow dress and wings. Back then I did a lot with pen and ink using Rapidograph pens and pointillism. I would create the original, scan it, print out copies on nice stock, and hand paint each card with watercolor. There wasn't that much to paint...just the holly and berry crown on this one, but it felt special to hand paint each card, like it was a little gift.

It's funny, but I can remember exactly when the idea for this little angel popped into my head. I was a technical writer back then, and I was consulting at Access Corporation working on a user's guide for an AS/400 image storage and retrieval system. I had just saved a document and was leaning down to get a folder out of a drawer when the image of her holding the chickadee filled my imagination. She was wearing a flowing gown with one leg raised slightly in an upward motion. I scribbled the idea down quickly and couldn't wait to get home to draw her. I remember watching her come to life on the paper and was so happy with her beautiful halo and the chickadee resting gently in her palm. Since then her simple image has always been my favorite--possibly because of the way she came into my mind, and every time I look at her I feel happy. Hope she brings you a bit of Christmas joy too!

Leave a Peppermint Stick for Old St. Nick!

Leave a Peppermint Stick for Old St. Nick! from Kelly Riccetti on Vimeo.

Happy Holidays!

(music, Happy Holidays by Andy Williams)