Good grief things are getting interesting around here!! Wow is popping out of my mouth seemingly every hour. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but not by much. Flowers are popping up out of the ground and trees are one day bare with some buds, and the next day--flowers. As promised though, plenty more to discuss. Beginning with a super fun photo of a Pine Sisken holding on for dear life in the rain. Note the feet which is something I only just noticed. No wonder they can hang on!
Unfortunately we have had a casualty. On Tuesday of this week, I noticed some unusual behavior from this little one who had just been drinking from the collected water in our sweet sundial given to us by Jonathan and Alissa for our anniversary.
Do you notice anything unusual. I kept my eye on it and the next day I noticed this outside the window.
I became even more puzzled. Unfortunately yesterday Bruce buried this little one in spite of us taking it indoors with the intention to nurse it back to health. Actually it didn't last long at all.
Perhaps there are some amongst you that have already identified what I was seeing, but it was all new to me. Apparently when a bird is sick or injured they ruffle their feathers. If only I had known perhaps we could have saved it. So that is one piece of sad news.
As we were heading home from practicing pb last Sunday afternoon, I asked Bruce to stop the car, not for the first time as you well know! Anyway, I was dying to get a shot of a huge blooming tree. This, my dear readers is the last photograph I took with my six year old trusty Olympus OMD. It has been by my side for lots of adventures and it is a wonder it didn't conk out when I fell on it and broke my wrist.
Literally I pushed the shutter button and it never opened again. Naturally I was diappointed, but fortunately I was able to order a new camera and the wonderful folks at B&H and FedEx got it to me in less than two days from New York. Now that is some fine service! Below is the first photo I took with the new camera, an updated version of the old one. I believe these are plum blossoms?
I'd learned of the bush from our friend Angela and actually by the time I took this, if you can imagine, loads of the blossoms had fallen off already..
That my friends is the very definition of "pretty in pink", or maybe this is more your idea of that term?
Maybe two or three weeks ago I photographed this tree and wondered what the buds were going to be and now I know in spades as there are actually four of these Pink Magnolias lined up in a row!
Here at Charlotte's Cottage, where the lucky Pecks are living, we've had one Crocus so far,
one of the trees has begun blooming,
as has the Forsythia.
I've begun seeing Forsythia around town and it is going to be pretty spectacular, probably before we know it!
And, of course there are the birds.
I believe I counted 25 in the shot above, a fraction of who was in attendance at the time as there are another thirty or forty on the ground. Those are the Pine Siskens and Goldfinch that hang together for now, but I'm thinking I read somewhere that the PS will be moving on. Of course where else will they get this kind of treatment??
The Dark Eyed Junco are another bird that I believe will be migrating, so I am enjoying them while I can.
Hey you, get off of my perch!!
The weather has been mild with rainy days and sunny days in equal measure. We are good with either. I was surprised when we saw the spider webs come out in full force the other day.
Had enough of nature have you? Well let's do some people stuff, shall we?
My sweet friend Brittany, the fab book editor and fab Christmas gift giver, whom I had not seen since Christmas. She is a woman on a mission and has no idea I am taking her photograph!
I love playing with her not only because she is so good, but she is equally as good to me when I make bad shots. Sadly, way more than I like. Let's put it this way....I do almost everything better than I play pickleball. I still try though. :)
Last Thursday we met up for lunch with our friends Jackie and Mike in Blue Ridge, GA, about twenty or so miles away. We ate at the General Ledger and it was delightful.
We had so much to say, catching up with everything happening at church in Winter Park, that I nearly forgot to get a shot of them. As it was, I had to holler and ask them to pose for a moment!
So, that was a good time, as was our dinner over at Hank's house. He served his favorite beef stew and we had round two of the day for good conversation.
He is loving it here in North Carolina and if I had to describe his life it would be that he is thriving in his new environment. Not that he still does not miss Carol that's for sure. But he is learning to live without her.
Tuesday, because it was not raining, we went for a walk on top of the Lake Chatuge dam. Overcast and slightly chilly, the scenery is so special whatever the weather, it is still beautiful.
One thing I have been loving is the appearance of very tiny wildflowers, mostly on the ground. So tiny that I put my shoe alongside them to demonstrate the size.
Aren't they adorable? While I may not describe the yellow one below as adorable, cheery comes to mind instead. I am seeing these in abundance as well.
While we were at the dam, it won't surprise some of you to learn that we had a nice long chat with Kim and Missy pictured below.
I'll have you know that we did not initiate the conversation, but we sure did jump in with both feet! Or, make that sets of feet. Turns out we had a lot in common. Missy on the left was a carpenter, so there's that. Kim loves photography and birds, and she also has twins! That's one thing about being retired, you can stand there and talk for 45 minutes and it is all good!
Mr. Peck has begun working on the chicken coop.
Per his conversation with John, we will have four chickens and they will be free range, thus Bruce is removing all of the wire that encased the framing. According to him, they will march in at nightfall. This is going to be an exciting new experience for sure.
On the new experience topic, Senior Games is very popular here and most folks we know are participating in one way or another. For example: Bruce is playing men's doubles with Cobby. Bruce and I may pair up but that will definitely not be to Bruce's advantage! See above. Anyway, there are art categories including photography and writing. Now we are talking! Yet, having never entered, I have no idea what to enter. There is a popular photographer around here who usually has that category sewn up. Her photographs are very dramatic with heavy editing that I just can't compete with. I think it was just yesterday that I thought perhaps I could enter something in black and white? What do you think?
This, of course, would tie into my newfound obsession with mushrooms, right?
Just an idea. My other idea is that there is a category for life experiences and for that I am thinking about writing an piece on what it is like to blog for so long. Does that sound interesting? I've got time to ponder on it, but seriously, the days are speeding by. It is hard to imagine that we have been here nearly eight months. What an experience!
Let's do dramatic ourselves. To God be the glory, great things He has done.
I don't know, I do love color photography.
your friend,
Gail
No comments:
Post a Comment