January 11, 2013 - What to Do on No Photo Days?

Today was a beautiful day.  I awoke to a bit of clear sky, with quite a few clouds, and some pink around the edges.  I worked out, checked my computer, did devotionals, went back out to the kitchen and an open window to see...snow!  Followed later by lots of sun, blue skies, and a gorgeous sunset.

A friend took me to PT, where I am mercilessly made to move, then on to another friend's house where we played games and talked.  By the time my husband picked me up to join our son and daughter-in-law for a late birthday dinner and a movie, it was too late for photos outdoors, and I had so enjoyed what I watched that I wasn't inspired to take a photograph inside. 

Hmmm...maybe I need to pay more attention to the beauty around me indoors, as well as out-of-doors.  Another day, perhaps.  Today was wonderful, and tomorrow involves a trek out to the Hanford area, on what promises to be a beautiful day!

(Alright, I'll include a photo taken of the sunset yesterday...)

January 10, 2013 - Cold, clear - with snow...

Would someone tell my roses it's still winter?

Immature white-crowned sparrow

Birch trees and Wallula Gap

Another beautiful day today.  This morning there were at least six immature eagles by Foundation Island, and a couple of adults, trying to avoid the kids, it seemed.  No swans today, but lots of pintails. 

 

In the afternoon I wandered through the back yard - all two acres.  The deer have been beating down pathways through the trees, and rubbing some trees hard enough to begin knocking them over.  There were juncos and sparrows near the ground, robins in the trees, and the occasional magpie.  My crocus have begun to sprout, and the garlic, shallots and cilantro just keep growing.  I'm a bit concerned about what a real cold snap could do at this point - the roses are even beginning to show new growth already!  Usually I put off any gardening until February - but this year may not wait that long.

 

The light today was beautiful - clear, slanted to pick up color, lots of contrast.  And there were even a few snowflakes, blown in on a light breeze.  A lovely day...

January 9, 2013 - A Very Good Day

Rattlesnake Mountain

A sunbreak - with windmills

Winter robin

Today was a blustery day, with winds keeping the river whipped up and many of the birds on the ground.  It got into the mid-50's - though the temperature is beginning to drop precipitously now.  I enjoyed being driven to PT by a friend, then sitting and chatting, doing a bit of scheming.  On the way home, an eagle flew over the highway and hovered, just in front of the car.  Delightful! 

 

I had a good conversation with an eye doctor today - nothing needs to be done about my increasingly poor vision for a couple of months.  This conditions sometimes spontaneously remits!  I was ecstatic!  (Surgery on your one good eye is never the best possible option - until it's absolutely necessary...)  So, to celebrate, I went out both the front and the back doors to see what would greet me.  Rattlesnake Mountain is iconic in this area - always the first and the last to have snow.  The ridge across from our house is a wonderful place to watch the sunset, especially in late winter.  And the trees in the back had plenty of birds visiting.  (You should see the cute photos of the house finch sitting on the fence!)  I am blessed - and am fully aware of that, this evening.  God is good.

January 6, 2013 - Epiphany!

Made by one of my professors - an ecumenical crucifix

Ducks and geese at Wade Park, along the Columbia

Coming in for a landing!

Today is Epiphany - the day we celebrate the coming of the Wise Men to visit Jesus.  It rarely falls on a Sunday, which made today, for my liturgical heart, especially joyous.  And it is a day we celebrate light in this world - light blazing into the darkness.  It was also a day of literal light - I had sunglasses on most of the time I was outside, enjoying a slow wander along a pathway with my husband.  The geese were in plentiful supply!  The widgeon I had gone looking for were swimming out quite a ways from shore...another day, for them.  There were mallards, pintails, and buffleheads, and a white pelican soared overhead.  In the midst of all this, I took photos, knowing I can take them home, put them on my very large computer screen, and see much better what it was I was looking at!  (My husband had the foresight to purchase a large screen for me a year or so ago - and I am thankful!)

 

 

The cross at the top of these photos deserves special note.  It was made by an instructor I had at Claremont School of Theology.  He had the most generous, most giving heart.  While I was still pastoring, I asked him to make this cross for the church I served, as we had rotated the direction we sat, and the chancel cross would no longer fit.  Since that time, a new sanctuary has been built, the old chancel cross restored to its central place, and this cross installed in the prayer chapel.  I think Don would have like that.  He called this an ecumenical crucifix.  I doesn't have the form of Christ on it, but with the curved arms and feet, it has a very human feel, almost as if it is embracing you.  For me, it is always a reminder of light in this world.

January 4, 2012 - A Not So Very Good Day for Seeing Things

Rock hounding is fun - chert from Utah

Capturing wildflowers on film was a passion for my parents

Adding flowers of the sea to the collection has been fun!

Today I had a PT session, followed by a very enjoyable lunch with friends (yes, we played bananagrams) followed by a visit to my opthamologist, where I discovered my good eye now has 20/60 vision due to a new problem.  So, I am no longer driving, until this gets resolved.  The day was hectic enough that I didn't get any photos taken - but let me tell you about what I saw.  First, it was another, beautiful, sunny winter day.  The sunset was orange and gold.  My friend's house still has a Christmas tree up, and she has a quilt of incredible color she's preparing to make.  The PT room has exercise balls of all colors and textures - I'm not sure why I never noticed that before, but I did notice them today.  And I decided to add some favorite photos that have been taken at other times.  The top one was taken just yesterday - the rock was collected a year and a half ago.  The bottom photo, of raccoon butterflyfish, was taken in November, shortly before I began this blog.  And the photo of the lily was taken on a rockhounding expedition this past June to Red Top Mountain.  These things will not stop me from seeing the beautiful - it still surrounds each of us, if only we will look and listen, if only we will attend.

January 3, 2012 - A Sunny, Cold Winter Day

Pond at McNary Wildlife Refuge

Sunset off the deck

Peninsula Unit of McNary Wildlife Refuge

Today was a beautiful day - sunny, cold (but warming up a bit later) with lots and lots of birds to be seen.  I actually got out and did just the smallest bit of hiking, cross-country, very carefully.  I found lots of wigeon, teal, a few mallards, plenty of coot, and a number of robins.  There are little birds that flit about near the ground - too fast for me to really see, and they won't let me get in visual range when I'm on foot.  (It's amazing how the car can make a useful bird blind!)  I saw a pair of harriers, bald eagles, and a single roosing raptor of some sort - too far off to discern.  There was ice on the ponds, but still plenty of birds.  And the colors were vivid!  The browns, blues, and the green-gray of some very tall sage in that area.  Sunny winter days - some of the best!

1 January, 2013 - New Year's Day

Great Blue Heron

Today was a very relaxed day.  I got a good workout in the morning while breakfast was cooking.  We took a quick drive into town to get a car...and here, right on the side of the road, was a great blue heron, roosting in the top of a tree.  He didn't mind us much at all.  We turned the car around, we talked, we got lots of different angles...and he moved his head just once.  He was where he wanted to be, and we weren't going to frighten him away!

 

The amazing thing about the photos are the things I can't see with my bare eyes.  For instance, on the top photo, if you look to the left of the heron, you see a mass in a branch.  It's probably an oriole's nest.  I have one just like it in my maple tree in the back yard.  In the lower photo, you can see the two feathers that jut out at the heron's neck.  I couldn't see them, either - but now I can.  This project is giving me more than the gift of noticing what's always been right in front of me - it's also giving a gift of seeing more clearly, of finding detail I can't otherwise discern.