2/6/2026 – Around Colehaus

Not much is growing or blooming outside here at Colehaus but this past fall’s batch of discount Paperwhite bulbs flowered much better than we expected. Sometimes, discounted grocery store bulbs forgotten in some dark corner box are worth every penny. Mom says she thinks she paid $5.99 for 8 of these. Every bulb bloomed. That hardly ever happens.

We’ve had several deep freezes here so far but no snow (thankfully, Mom says). Unfortunately, we’re sorely lacking rain and snow in the mountains. Our area has less than fifty percent of the snow pack we need for this coming summer water use. Skiers on Mount Hood are skiing on and around rocks. Our development and surrounding neighborhoods are on well water and aren’t terribly affected by snow pack, good or bad. But we are conscious of our water use. It might be a bad year for water for everyone.

With that in mind, let’s enjoy some mossy photos. We might want to revisit these and reminisce in late August.

Daffodils are coming up! Most people don’t get too excited about daffodils but, as you might expect, Mom does. We used to have dozens of different daffodils around here but moles, voles, raccoons, age and an unchecked sprinkler repair guy put an end to 99% of those. Mom used to swear she’d replace them all some day. Then she thought maybe the daffodils were the reason for the mole problem. Or maybe the sprinkler repair guy problem. Who knows? Nothing’s been replaced. That’s all we can tell you.

The blueberries are starting to put out buds. Mom needs to get out there and trim off old wood growth this month if we’re to have a good blueberry crop this year. Did you know blueberry bushes can live 50 years or more? Growing blueberries is a lifelong commitment. It’ll be interesting to see if the one blueberry bush that was moved and mangled so much during our arbor build last spring will come back. We think it will.

Nearby, the holly bushes seem very happy, as are the fox sparrows living within them. Sorry, no fox sparrows in the hollies photos. They’re shy.

We’re very happy to see our years of feeding birds seems to have rubbed off on a few neighbors. Here’s a neighbor’s suet feeder with a visiting scrub jay. On the other side of us, the neighbor has mounted an open seed tray on his new deck that attracts our local ringneck doves. Dad still enjoys watching wildlife flying around our yard and Mom enjoys thinking about the bird food costs being spread around instead of coming out of only our own pockets.

Wait a minute. That’s not a bird.

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2025 – No post
2024 – No post
2023 – Monday Menu – Ants
2022 – No post
2021 – No post
2020 – No post
2019 – Snow Day!
2018 – No post
2017 – Sunny Sunny
2016 – No post
2015 – Done with Winter
2014 – No post
2013 – Quint’s Spring 2013 Painting Process
2012 – I tell ya, I’m just exhausted