Winter Mists

Last week our weather turned misty and with that came a lovely other world feel that sometimes comes during the winter.
 

Kojo checking out the terrain. 

Don't let the grizzles bite.

Enjoy the beauty around you, Naomi

Shake Your Tail Feathers

             Last year for our 10^th anniversary Terran and I took a trip to Santa Fe, NM to celebrate. One of the first things we did was join a morning hike with some birders at a local bird sanctuary. We felt a bit silly raising our hands announcing to the group that we had never before birded, while most of the group had gone numerous times and were old hands at it. We set out with our borrowed binoculars and a more experienced birder as our guide. We made it several feet before spotting our first winged friend and the hunt was on from there.  We walked the trails looking for some movement in the sky or the sway of a branch to lead us to our prey while listening to our guide call out, “Who cooks for youuuu” mimicking the dove call that echoed around us. We were both hooked, but haven’t done much birding since then other then lamenting every time we can’t see a bird clearly, because we didn’t bring binoculars on our hike.

This past month that all changed!!! We took our first camping trip since our move to Reno a couple weekends ago and headed out to California about an hour and a half up the road. Sunday morning we woke to a bird that sang nonstop while we breakfasted. After coffee and eating we set out to find the little fellow. The Winter Wren was the first bird of a successful day spent peering through binoculars and snapping pictures of small dark objects that were hopping around in trees; hoping that one picture would come out clearly capturing the beauty of our avian friends.

Winter Wren Singing

Winter Wren Dancing

Naomi

2011 Pictures

This weekend is turning out to be one of those unique weekends for me, because I don’t have an over whelming amount of homework there feels to be an abundance of time. In that abundance of time I am accomplishing bunches of things that have been waiting for me, while not feeling rushed or stressed. This post is one of them. I have, since the beginning of the year, wanted to post a picture for each month, but between holiday travel, school starting early and weekend plans plus homework each week there haven't been many spare minutes. The spare minutes I have had I decided to devote to sleep in hopes to beat the first cold I have had in over a year. I did not feel getting sick during the first weeks of this year was an auspicious start, but now that I can breathe again life is looking up.

Now with great pleasure I present for those still checking this abandoned blog a peek into our life in 2011.


Like many people we started 2011 by stuffing ourselves with goodies.

We flew to San Diego in February to pick up a car Terran bought and enjoyed our day in the sun.

Lunch on the pier in the sun.

In March we got to show our property to some very special people. Our nephew Kaiser liked the dogs and water best.

We took a weekend in April to go to Santa Fe, NM to celebrate our up coming 10 year anniversary on May 12. (Tried bird watching for the first time and loved it.)

We also visited the folk art museum while there and saw some beautiful toys.

In May we cheered for our niece Aleah at her gymnastics competition.

I got a new toy in June.

Terran was baptised by our niece Lily when my family visited in August.

September rains doused us at a favorite event the Meeker Sheepdog Trails.

I got to run with our nephew Keagan, when he competed in a triathlon with his brother Kaden and cousin in October.

Terran built a long awaited shed in November (it is already packed with stuff).

Of course we couldn't spend all our time at home working.

In December we spent Christmas with my family and a couple days on the Oregon coast.

Babies can fly!

Oregon was stormy and beautiful.

Catching Up,

Naomi

Photo Shoot

My parents, sister and her two girls just left this morning after a spending some time visiting us. We had such a nice time together hiking, swimming, and meeting Lily for the first time. While here my sister, Salome asked if we would take a few photos of her, Kaitlyn, and Lily. So, one afternoon I got to play photographer and take a few pictures of some very lovely ladies. We were all pretty excited about how they turned out. The lighting was perfect and the girls were pretty smiley for the most part. I simply had to share a few of my favorites.


This is the only one I took of all three of them together and it's a keeper.

Salome asked for this pose, it came out so nice and clear. Now I wish we would have done one with their hands in the grass too.

Lily's smile is precious. She loves her Mama!

This is my favorite of the bunch. I love how natural both Salome's and Kaitlyn's smile is. This isn't the pose that we were going for, but worked well.

At this point Lily was tired of having a big grey thing in her face, even so she is pretty cute with her "leave me be frown".

Naomi

Little Friends

It is the last day of July and I am finally getting to my July post. Yes, this is how far I have fallen in the blogging world; a single post each month is my goal. Now I would love to exceed that goal, but I make no promises to myself or anyone else.

This last Spring for one of my classes I had to give an informative speech on a subject that I researched. My choice was hummingbirds and I am so glad that I chose to study and learn about that little bird, because they have added to our summer.

After researching them I decided to put out a couple feeders and to see what happened. We now have a male and female that fight on a regular basis for the sugar water that hangs outside our doors.

Black-Chinned Hummingbird male enjoying a little sweet drink. He is so shy that I haven't been able to get any other close pictures of him.

The little female deciding whether this is good food or not. Hummers are always on the look out for food, because they burn an average of 10,000 calories a day. Some burn more and some less depending on their size and weight. Because they are always on the look out for food, it makes them quite curious and fun to watch zipping around.

Enjoying God's Creation,

Naomi

Mountain Flowers

Over Memorial Day weekend Terran partially tore his MCL, a ligament in his knee. We were so bummed over this injury; because we had a weekend full of outside hiking and biking that he no longer could do (he won’t be able to do anything intense for about 6 weeks). The dr. told him to stay off it a week and he could then go back to work, after a couple of weeks he should start walking on it more. We took advantage of that piece of advice and went to the mountains yesterday to look at the wild Iris. There weren’t any blooming yet, but we found other lovely wild flowers, some fun for the dogs, and escaped the garden that needed a little more weeding.

Enjoying the day,

Naomi

The Property

Since Terran and I first talked about dreams one of ours has been to own a little piece of land outside of town. We weren’t particular about the city or state this piece land fell into, weren’t too particular about the size of it a couple acres or 50 acres, we just wanted a little space to spread our wings and let our dogs run.

Terran grew up with a lot of space to play in Canada, being able to hunt, run, and explore right outside his back door, so it seemed natural he would want the land. For me owning property was always the ideal dream. To not have neighbors a stones throw away, to have a garden any size one wanted with a few fruit trees was the dream my parents had and it passed to me.

Last fall we bought our property. After looking and looking the last few years and a few false starts on other pieces of land Terran and I found the piece that is all we wanted. Terran wanted some wild area that would stay rough, while I wanted some places for grass, a garden, fruit trees, and a goat. Our place has it all and then some extra.


Standing at our gate. We had to wait almost 6 monthes for our closing to go through. We waited a long time for this moment.

Walking up our long bushy driveway.

Kojo running through one of the wild areas. We haven't exlpored all of the hidden places yet.

Sitting in one of our large cottonwood trees that were a huge draw for us.

We are so glad that we waited for God’s perfect timing and for His best for our future home. It would have been so easy during the last few years to have pushed for something that seemed great to us, but wasn't the best. God really does bless waiting on Him.


Proud owner of 8 acres,

Naomi

Saturday Snapshot: Bird Nursery

Terran and I in May spent a week vacationing in New Mexico. It was a nice blend of camping and staying in hotels, giving us a bit of rustic and comfort.

One of the nights we stayed in a state camp ground that was a lovely surprise. We had SHOWERS, space to ourselves, and the cool desert night to aid us in sleep. What we hadn't counted on was the bird nursery right outside our tent. 4 am dawned with the screeches, squawks, and chirps that would have done a chicken farm proud. Unfortunately as the sky went from dark blue, to lighter hues of blue and pink our little winged alarm clocks only got louder declaring the day officially started.

After sleep's blurriness had left our eyes we watched the busy parents feed their never satisfied young. Flying back and forth from the nest in their effort to fill growing bellies. When the caffeine from morning coffee kicked in Terran and I agreed it was a wonderful start to the day.

Naomi

The Originals

Here are the two photos I posted last time. Now you can see the difference between the photoshopped and the originals.

I think this one of my sweet, niece Kaitlyn in much better with all it's colors. I like her cute pink shirt and her dark hair... all the colors capture her personality.

This photos can go either way. The color is nice, while the black and white draws your attention to the leaves. Terran did a great job with this picture.

Naomi

More Pictures

We are learning some pictures don't work with photoshop...

And some photos are all the better with it.

Naomi

The Butterfly and The Camera

Playing with photoshop, which is fun and unique.

OR

The original full of color and life.

I can't decide which one I like better. Can you?

Naomi