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.

December 31, 2012 - A Winter's Day

Warbler in a Russian olive tree

Winter in the Blocks

Today we headed out north to see what could be seen.  The sky darkened dramatically, the temperature dropped, and there was a bit more snow left on the ground.  After driving across higher ground, we dropped down into Ringold, looking for whatever birds might be found.  There were lots of robins, the occasional waterfowl, and several of these warblers (what type, I don't know.)  The tiny birds together with the olives left on the branches was a delight.  I've never much cared for Russian olives - they're not native, they have long, very sharp thorns, and I ran into one on my bike when I was a kid.  But as shelter and a food source for songbirds...well, it's difficult to complain too much. 

December 30, 2012 - A Day Filled with Light

Sunrise

Midday

 

Today the light kept changing.  The sunrise this morning was a gorgeous light pink, that faded to gold.  Throughout the day, the sun played hide and seek with me, casting shadow and light, often with a faint gold tinge.  Finally, at sunset, the clouds were completely lined with gold as the sun sank behind a bank of clouds.  A simply lovely day.  The fields were filled with Canadian geese, the skies with ducks, and the great egrets remained in the field they seem to have claimed for their own, at least for the time being.  A white pelican flew overhead as we drove the church, and a kestrel sat on the telephone wire on the way back home. 

 

I am, at the moment, thankful for a number of things.  First, my healing, though slow, continues.  Second, I have the privilege of seeing this beauty daily.  Third, I have a wonderful family and good friends who surround me.  And so much more.  All this draws me into the presence of God.  And casts me back into the world.  I want all things healed, all things made well, all things brought into God's presence.  This is not for me alone.  Wholeness is God's desire, God's yearning, for us all.