Nature

Thank you all for your wonderful, caring, and kind comments on my last post.  Though it saddened me to know that so many of you have been through accidents with similar injuries, your thoughts and suggestions as I navigate a new way of doing things were greatly appreciated!

In other news, we are part of the furlough affecting so many government workers right now.  I won't get all political, because who knows what I might say, so instead I will simply say that my heart goes out to people living paycheck to paycheck who will be so greatly affected by the nonsense in Washington.  How selfish for those in power, those with money, to be so flippant about people's lives and the well being of those they claim to represent.  Ok, rant done! 

Instead of lamenting the time off without pay, we have decided to spend it together catching up on things around the house and just enjoying one another's company.

I have also ventured out over the past week and taken a few shots of wildlife in the area, like the gorgeous Egret above who seems to enjoy hanging out on some dead branches of our maple tree.  This tree overhangs the water and is actually not far from our dock, so it's an ideal spot to hang out in between tides, ie. meals.  I was amazed that it let me sit on the dock in a chair and snap away, only looking up when nearby herons would squawk.

This morning there was lots of fog hanging over the fields, so I took advantage of the misty conditions and took some shots of a deer family nibbling on the freshly mown grass.  We have several sets of twin fawns right now, some of which are still fairly young, so I hope they will grow quickly before wintertime sets in and the temps drop.

Nature truly can be a soothing reminder that even under the harshest conditions life goes on.  I hope each of you can find some time to spend in nature this week!

Don't Wait...

Spread your wings and soar...

I love this song and the powerful lyrics...like this line

*See in your hands, the world is yours* 

I hope this weekend you all spread your wings and soar!  (P.S. Thanks Kate!)

Duck, Duck, Goose

I hope you all had a lovely St. Patrick's Day weekend!  The weather was picture perfect here and we spent as much time outside as we could.

Mr. Tide worked in the yard, while I ran errands and had lunch with Ms. M.  It was good to see her and have some time to chat about nothing in particular.

Most of the Canada Geese have headed back up north for the summer months, but there are a few hangers on, like the two pictured above.

Many people find them to be a nuisance,  but they don't really bother us much.  They simply fly back and forth between the creek and the field next door.  I love hearing them honk all throughout the winter months, they add a little noise when so many of the other birds have gone.

The two that are still with us seem to be a mating pair and they also seem to have set up shop in the wetlands across the creek from us.  So maybe we will have a few goslings in the next month or two.

I hope you each have a wonderful week!  Work will be calling my name most days, but not so much that I won't take a peek at the happy feathered couple from time to time.

According to Plan

Thank you everyone for your wonderful birthday wishes, I had a great day!  It started with lovely cards from my family and a special gift from Mr. Tide.  He bought me a teleconverter for my big lens.  It is a special piece of equipment that can give your lens even more range, so it's great for trying to capture wildlife or things that are far, far away.

I slapped that puppy on just as soon as I could unwrap it and get it out of the box.  But there was a slight problem, it wouldn't work unless you were using manual focus.  This particular teleconverter overrides the auto focus feature on my camera.  Now that wouldn't be a problem except that the whole point of extending my telephoto lens was so that I could capture better shots of wildlife, like eagles, swans, herons, etc. 

All of those feathered friends I just mentioned aren't too keen on just sitting still and posing for portraits.  They are constantly moving, even if it's just a tiny head movement, so trying to use manual focus on something that is forever in motion just doesn't work.  And on today's digital cameras there isn't even a really great way to make sure you have sharp focus.  Remember on old film cameras when you could line up the two halves of the circle to make sure you were in focus...well those days are gone!  I would like to say that I can see as well as I did 20 years ago, especially for distance stuff, but the truth is I can't, so even on things that were sitting stock still I couldn't get a nice sharp photo. 

That meant that the only present Mr. Tide had gotten me for my birthday was heading back from whence it came.  I was fine with it, but he was really bummed.  It all worked out in the end though, and I ended up getting a few other lovelies to make up for it which I will show you soon.  In the meantime, I am back to long distance shots of eagles...these two were in my neighbor's tree today and I'm pretty sure I overheard them snickering about my eyesight and the fact that my teleconverter didn't work according to plan.

And another little hiccup of late, the winners of my last giveaway, I know you think I have forgotten you and left you in the lurch.  While I was sitting here thinking your photos were winging their way to your respective homes I got a little shock on Saturday when the mail was delivered.  I had carefully entered your addresses into the website of the place where I get prints made, only to have forgotten to click the "drop ship" button on each one.  So that means that it defers to my address as the default address...huge sigh!  So, your photos are all at my house and not with you...another huge sigh!  I braved Walmart (have I mentioned how much I hate Walmart?!) and bought some photo mailers so that I can get them in the mail by early this week.

Sometimes life just doesn't go according to plan I tell ya!  But hey, no one died, so it's all good in the end!

Take Wing

I took these shots of the juvenile eagle a few days before I left for Europe.  I was sitting down by the water enjoying the beautiful weather when he or she graced me with their presence by flying down the creek in search of lunch.  We have since found out that there are several juveniles who nest somewhere way up at the head of our creek...at least that's where we think they nest since in the 4 years we have lived here we've not been able to locate the actual nest.


 

I have a new appreciation for wildlife photographers and the skill it takes to nail a shot, especially when what you are trying to shoot could care less that you want to take their picture.  And swinging around a heavy telephoto lens, and trying to get a good shot while something is flying all around is a talent I've not yet mastered, but hope to.

Still, I loved this second photo, something about it just spoke to me, so unlike the first photo I didn't do anything to it but crop it and convert it from color to black and white to give it more visual impact.  For me, it embodies strength, grace, and an almost angel like quality, and I feel peaceful when I look at it.  I thought it would be fitting to post it today, since today would be the 34th birthday of my dear friend Dan who passed away a little over a year ago.  I'm sure his angel wings are equally as strong and majestic.