Showing posts with label White Swans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label White Swans. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Slow Moving


It's been slow going around here since my last post.  I came down with the flu, then our son, then our daughter...their significant others, and so on, and so on until Mr. Tide was the last man standing.




I literally stayed in bed for days, hoping that someone would either shoot me, or that my head would stop feeling as though it was inside a giant vise!




I didn't return emails, so I apologize to those of you who so kindly wrote to me or left comments, but I just couldn't even bring myself to type a few words in return.  Today is the first day I really even felt like a human being again, and I truly can't remember feeling as badly as I have for the past week and a half, for a very long time!  Thankfully I have a wonderful nurse in the form of my husband, who took really good care of me and catered to my every whim.

Now, there is just a bit of a cough lingering, and I'm still easily tired out, but I can live with that, no problemo!




Needless to say, the picture taking has been at a standstill since I came down with my virus, so the swan pics in this post are from a few weeks ago.

The tundra swans were late in arriving this year, by almost 2 months.  We had nearly given up hope that they would come, when one day we looked outside the window and saw a few.  Slowly but surely, over the past 3 or 4 weeks, more have come to join us, even when our creek was frozen over.  They would Jemima Puddle Duck their way from one end of the creek to the other, stopping to feed at any open spot, or sleeping on the huge patches of ice.  It was slow going for them too, but they didn't seem to mind.

In the pictures above, the swans showing a bit of bravado are standing on ice, and giving us their best moves.  Their wings remind me so much of angel wings that I wanted to darken the images and really give them that ethereal, otherworldly appearance, hence the dark and soft feel of these particular pics.

At last count we had 38 swans, including cygnets, gliding along our shores, eating our underwater vegetation, and making a racket after the sun goes down...for reasons we don't yet understand.  We will be sad to see them go when the weather begins to warm, but we are happy they chose to spend another winter with us!

I will be out of pocket for a few days tending to some family/work stuff, but hopefully everything will be back to normal by the end of next week!  I hope you all enjoy your week!


Friday, February 24, 2012

Graceful Landings and A Winner


Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments and concern for our daughter and her friend, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and so do they!  Our daughter and "S" continue to be sore, but both are doing well.




Today was absolutely gorgeous here, we threw open the windows and doors to let the warm breezes and the sounds of peeping frogs and waves fill the air.  I always know it's getting to be springtime when the peepers start making a racket!  I just hope they haven't come alive too soon before the winter is truly over.




The other evening Mr. Tide took the camera out for a spin and captured some swans along with their cygnets coming in for a landing on our creek.  He took all of the photos in this post, hence the MT Images watermark for "Mr. Tide"...I'm sure he would have picked a cooler name, but hey it's my blog.




They really are such beautiful birds and we are so lucky to have them grace us with their presence each winter, if only for a few months.




I hope they will always find a soft place to land here as we would miss them terribly if they didn't show up year after year.

This weekend we will be getting our yard in order...weeding, pruning, and starting our veggie garden project.  We've decided to create some raised beds this year so that we can grow more of our own organic vegetables, something we've been wanting to do since we moved in.

Our neighbor had her whole yard tidied up yesterday so we need to get going so that we can keep up the the Joneses if you know what I mean!  We have a long way to go before our yard even begins to one up hers though, hers is always lovely and immaculate.

But enough about our neighborly yard envy, I need to announce the winner of my latest Giveaway.  Mr. Tide was my random number generator, and the number he muttered while playing Battlefield 3 was #10, which belongs to Deserae who said..."Gosh, They are all just gorgeous.... I really love all three.... but if I have to pick a favorite I will pick set number 2!
~Des

Please send me an email with your mailing address and I will get the images in the mail to you right away!

Thank you all again for your kind words about my daughter and for your great opinions on my photos!  I hope you all have a wonderful and productive weekend!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Spread Your Wings


When was the last time you really stepped outside of your comfort zone?




When you dared to spread your wings while others played it safe, keeping their wings safely tucked beside their bodies?




Do you hesitate because you're afraid you might not soar, or because of what others might think?




Because most of the time others don't even notice.  And maybe, just maybe those around you won't judge you, or think you are crazy, they might even just keep swimming right beside you and offer you support and encouragement.




And even if you don't soar to great heights, you will have at least tried, and reaching the sky isn't always the measure of success.




Sometimes the success is in the trying.  And I just happen to think that people who spread their wings...even just a little, are much more beautiful than those who choose to play it safe and never try at all...wouldn't you agree?