Thinking about early winter vegetables

I missed the window of fall planting for early over-wintered vegetables.  The spinach didn't germinate because of drought while we were away (and maybe the seeds were a bit old).

But I do have collards, parsley, herbs, chard, garlic, and leeks (currently covered with unexpected snow).

We'll be traveling this winter so I'll have to rely on early March sowings, I suppose.  Not a bad thing.

The red-bellied woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, and titmice, not to forget about the doves, are visiting the feeder behind the house in a constant swooping parade.

It was fun to check out posts about red-bellied woodpeckers from previous years; they're regular inhabitants of the ravine woodland below the house, so I've seen them many times. (Click on green for the link).

There are other woodpecker posts included towards the end!

Sighting in 2012

Hmm, clearly, I need to get out my "old" SLR (or get a new one) to get a reasonably decent photo like this again -- my iPhone wouldn't have gotten this shot (or the other ones I posted at the time, too).