Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Critter Christmas

Blankets usually cover things, conceal them, hide them away. But our unusual, thick blanket of snow uncovered some amazing insights to our local critters. The crisscross of tracks around the marina in all shapes and sizes have been such fun to decipher. It's like a secret decoder ring, revealing what's been wandering around at night. Secrets told in soft, white crystals.

And of course it takes the heart of a child to think what these tracks are looking for. "They're hungry," he worried. "It's so cold and dark and all of the plants are dead. We need to feed them." We started with the classic, cranberry and popcorn strings.

Then a friend offered a recipe for "bird seed glue" - a way of binding the seed together in a safe, edible way.

3/4 C flour
1/2 C water
1 pkg knox gelatin
3 T corn syrup
mix in 4 C of bird seed

We smooshed the mixture into everything from silicon molds to plastic cookie cutters. Pack it in hard, layer some twine in the middle, and then set them out to air dry for a day.

Trudging out in the thigh deep snow (on me!) and following the tracks, we picked a tree that seemed to be in the heart of the animal highway. We left our offerings...




 
... hoping the shadowy friends who tread so lightly through our whitened world will stop and take their fill.

9 comments:

Cam said...

This is just the best idea! I love it! If it ever could snow here, I would do the same thing...

Happy Holidays to you and your beautiful family!

Naturemom said...

Love this!! So would my little guys. :)

Nancy said...

so so pretty & fun! beautiful birdseed treats, we will have to make some!

Joy said...

I love the critter footprints. We have a chunk of snow in our freezer right now with critter footprints. Those birdie food decorations are SO cute! :)

5orangepotatoes said...

The footprints are wonderful! Love the bird feeders, have never seen that before.

Happy holidays and warm wishes to you and yours!
lisa

boatbaby said...

Thanks for the holiday wishes everyone.
Joy - how cool that you saved prints in the snow in your freezer. You'll have to let me know if that keeps or not.

gardenmama said...

sweet little prints!
i *love* what you made for the animals, what a beautiful idea!

boatbaby said...

Gardenmama - the prints were truly amazing, I had no idea THAT many critters were sharing our space.

elizabeth ~ so wabi sabi said...

a lovely offering indeed! very inspiring.

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