A Real Beauty

I had to cover the morning ride to school today. My friend, who graciously picks up First Grader every morning, had a field trip with her daughter, so I got to be the bus driver today. Boy am I glad I did. I spotted this guy sitting on top of a utility pole on the way. I had no camera and no time to stop. But I was pleased, this time around, to see he had waited for my return.

I took these pictures in the baseball fields behind our house. The pole sits right next to the first base dugout of the field farthest down from our house. I was standing on the pitching rubber- Thursday, February 16.

 There was a flock of little birds on the grass right below this pole. They didn't seem one bit concerned about who was sitting at its top. I, on the other hand, kept having images of this guy swooping down at me as I stood helplessly with only my camera to defend myself. I was even a little bit nervous to turn around to walk back home- Thursday, February 16.

I am happy to report that I did make it safely to the back deck, and I spotted these guys on the way. I really dislike black birds, but this pair was so cute sitting there on the branch I couldn't resist taking a picture- Thursday, February 16.

*A general note about my bird identification skills: Except for obvious species, like Cardinals, I have not reached the level of actually having any clue whether a bird I am looking at is male or female. So when I refer to a bird as he or she, it is just because I need a way to type about them. Again, to any secret bird watching experts out there, if I have offended you in any way by my mis-labling of birds, please feel free to contact me. I will be happy to express my true remorse in person as you share with me your knowledge that will show I was way wrong. I'm not too proud to admit error or ignorance, in fact, I would really like to be given the opportunity to do so, preferably someplace quiet, wooded, maybe with binoculars hanging around my neck...

Settling for a Sunset

I've missed it twice now. And I'm really not too happy about the whole thing. Two times I have driven by an amazing bare tree that has a couple of gnarly branches sticking out the top of it. Both times there have been three vultures perched on top of those gnarly branches, just waiting to have their picture taken. The first time I had my camera, but no time to stop. Today when I drove by I had plenty of time, but no camera! Arghh. I even bought a purse big enough to hold my camera bag, so I would never find myself in such a situation. My purse actually was sitting on the front seat, doing a great job of holding my camera bag, just no camera in the bag. So the second time, since there was nowhere I had to be, I turned around, full steam ahead to grab my camera. But by the time I returned to photograph the vultures, the tree was empty. I am guessing someone must have run over a squirrel or something for them to have flown from their perch. Oh well. There's always tomorrow. So today, I settle for a sunset picture. At least there are trees in it.

Sunset looking out from Conewago Chapel- Wednesday, February 15.

Trees and Birds

Earlier this week I was shopping for a new 4x6 frame to replace one that had seen better days. I was looking for simple dark wood, which I found, but I also found a really cool cut-metal frame depicting a scene with a bird sitting in a tree. Not convinced I would like it on the bookshelf with my other dark wood frames, I brought both home. I am sure glad I did. I didn't end up liking the metal frame on the bookshelf, but I do like it on top of the desk sitting next to the cool stone bird I bought a couple of months ago. At different points in the same shopping trip I also had in my hands both a framed picture of bare trees and another one of silhouetted birds on a clothes line. I put both of them back on the shelf, even though I had a really good coupon and they were on sale.

As I pondered my purchases, both actual and potential, I started to realize something, something I hadn't seen before. I really like trees and birds. My living room walls currently hold two different pictures that have trees in them. One of my favorite things to photograph is trees, specifically bare branches against the sky. There are certain bare trees that I really like, but I'll save that for another day. And birds. Well, you already know about my budding passion for bird watching. But I hadn't stopped to realize until now that I am also drawn to birds in art and decorating. **Important Side Note: I am not sharing this information as a sneaky hint that I want to start collecting bird and tree knick knacks. I've seen it before, someone says they like something and before they know it they are suddenly surrounded by figurines, throw blankets, you name it covered with the thing they thought they liked. My college roommate and the squirrels is a perfect example. She happened to find the squirrels on campus very amusing. She must have made mention of this to more than a few people and before we knew it we were sharing our tiny dorm room with stuffed squirrels, resin squirrels, squirrel magnets, I  think I remember squirrel socks. On the whole, I'm not real big on knick knacks and maintain a less-is-more kind of approach when it comes to stuff. I haven't always been this way, but being married to My Husband, who gets a literal high from throwing things away, has helped to solidify this characteristic in me.**  The reason I am sharing all of this today (yes there is a reason buried somewhere in here) is because of the card My Husband gave me this morning for Valentine's Day. The first line read, "I saw this card & knew it was for you because there were trees and birds on it." Trees and birds, he nailed it. How did I not see this before?

Now onto a picture. Yes, the picture for today has both a tree and a bird in it, though you have to look really closely to see the bird. I thought it an appropriate image for today since it tied in nicely with both my tree & bird babbling and the theme for the holiday, love.

This is a photograph (with annoying watermark) of a collage I made at the end of last year. It is called The Good Soil and is based on Scripture found in the books of Matthew and Ephesians- Tuesday, February 14.

"Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” -Matthew 13:8, 23 (NIV)

"that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" -Ephesians 3:17-19 (NKJV)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Meat

After dropping Little One off at preschool this morning, I drove by the same sign I pass every morning I drop her off at preschool. I think it a funny sign, and take notice of it most mornings, but today, the sun was shining through the trees behind it and I grumbled at myself for not having my camera with me. I could see a great picture in the making, but no way to make it. By the time I arrived at home I had forgotten the sign and the picture that didn't happen. But then The Oldest and I settled down to work on Reading and suddenly the sign was flashing in my mind again. We read a story called Ingersoll by Gail Fitzgerald. Ingersoll is a pig who comes to live with the Otis family. The story is told with witty sarcasm from the point of view of the younger son, Harold. The family is made up of animal lovers, except for Harold who says, "The only way I like animals is on the table- fried chicken, barbecued pork chops, and hamburgers." I can relate to Harold. I have never been an animal lover and I do enjoy a good piece of fried chicken. Which takes me back to the sign.

I decided the convergence of the regretful sign sighting and the story focused on meat was no coincidence, so I purposed to leave a few minutes early, with my camera, to pick up Little One. When I arrived at the end of the alley to take my pictures, the bright sun that had been shining so perfectly through the trees a few hours before had not waited there for my return. (I guess the sun really does not revolve around me. How disappointing!) I eyed up the scene without the sun and decided to shift the focus from the trees to include the buildings in the background- Monday, February 13.

The sign is for a little store that sells locally raised, grass-fed meat. The store is in the brick building to the left, which used to be the carriage house for the big building in the background, hence the name of the store- Carriage House Market. The big building is The Sheppard Mansion, a fancy place to stay over and eat the locally grown meat advertised on the sign. With meat on the brain and no reservations for dinner, I find myself day dreaming of KFC and some bacon. Do you think a high of 38 degrees is too cold to grill pork chops?

P.S.

I was wearing this shirt yesterday afternoon. Another coincidence? I think not- Monday, February 13.

Little Women, Little Men

At a small luncheon after church today, I spent a couple of enjoyable minutes observing the boys and the girls who had gathered. I watched as the boys claimed a table by the wall and the girls circled up at their own table near by. The boys' table was quiet, except for the arcade-style background music and a few questions and comments all directly related to one of the video games being played. The girls' table, on the other hand, was full of words, giggles, and more words. I wasn't surprised in any way by these findings, but rather chuckled at how truly different men and women are- even the little ones.

A picture of the boys gathered around the glowing screen. I swear it is like moths to a light- Sunday, February 12.

Same boys, same glowing screen. Just add a dad with his own glowing screen- Sunday, February 12.

Little One focused intently on the words of one of her female friends- Sunday, February 12.

Now it's her turn to share- Sunday, February 12.

Breakfast

This is a picture of my breakfast smoothie. I could have poured it into a fancy glass and added a sprig of something for a better picture, but the real beauty of this is that I can mix and drink the smoothie in the very same cup. Just insert straw.

The item lying on the counter in the background is a blender stick. I don't actually know its real name; in our house it has come to be known as the blender stick. I got it for Christmas and I LOVE it! I didn't, however, love any of the pictures I took of the smoothie-blender stick scene this morning. There was something wrong with every one- too much space between the cup and the blender stick, shadows too dark, light too blue, background not blurred. I could go on, but I won't. I actually liked the composition in this image, except for one major thing. I didn't close the curtain in the background and so I had an annoying slice of light along the back left edge and a shiny corner of counter under the blender stick. I couldn't just crop it out because then I lost part of the blender stick and the whole thing looked off. So, I went to work in P.S.E. creating more curtain and dulling the shine on the counter- Saturday, February 11.

This is the picture right out of the camera. To get to the image above, I cropped this one, adjusted the color, and messed around with the clone stamping tool to close the curtain and get rid of the shine that would not have been on the counter if I had thought to shut the curtain in the first place. And I did all of this while enjoying my wonderful breakfast smoothie- Saturday, February 11.

Knotty Laundry, Naughty Squirrels, and Perfect Children

I'll start with the perfect children. Obviously I do not have perfect children, nor do my children have anything close to a perfect mother. But there are moments every now and then, that cause me to smile with the satisfaction of a mother who is witnessing something as close to perfect as I think I'll see this side of heaven.

This is The Oldest having a tea party picnic with his littlest sister and her Bitty Twins. The best part is that the whole thing was his idea. Instead of asking to play Wii or running up to his room to play Legos when he finished school today, he found Little One and asked her if she wanted him to play Bitty Twins with her. (Insert sappy mom smile). The real kicker- they cleaned everything up when they were finished, with no reminder. A little slice of perfection, right here in my living room- Friday, February 10.

Now for the knotty laundry.

This is a load of laundry after I took it out of the washing machine today. The usual yank and shake method of separating only made matters much worse. This was so tangled that it reminded me of one of those puzzles where there are pieces of metal all twisted together and you have to figure out how to get them all apart. I finally succeeded in separating the 14 pieces of laundry that had decided to become one during their spins in the washer. I love doing laundry- Friday, February 10.

And lastly, the naughty squirrels.

I must start this rant by saying I haven't always disliked squirrels. In fact, I was remembering that a roommate from college really liked squirrels and had numerous squirrel items in our room. I never thought twice about it, nor did I walk into our room and suddenly feel like throwing things at the stuffed animal squirrel on her bed. 

My recent dislike of squirrels actually started over Christmas. You see, we had the back deck all wrapped with lights for the holidays. I love Christmas lights. They make me happy. Except when a certain naughty squirrel decided to nibble on them for a Christmas snack. The first time it was kind of funny. Ha, ha, a squirrel was eating our Christmas lights. The second time that I had to restring half the deck because naughty squirrel always chewed on the strand right in the middle, causing it to short out, it wasn't really funny at all. The third time I caught him in the act, and if I had had something heavy to throw at him, I would have. Because I couldn't take out my anger on the naughty squirrel, I sent an irate email to my husband, who happened to be at a very boring class for work and proceeded to show the email to his equally bored co-workers, who now think I am insane.

 Here is naughty squirrel perched at his favorite spot to nibble, right in the middle of the middle strand of Christmas lights- Wednesday, December 7, 2011.

This is our deck after a visit from naughty squirrel. I finally gave up replacing the ruined lights and tried to enjoy a deck only half-decked out for the holidays- Wednesday, December 7, 2011.

After sending the email, I stewed for a while, but then realized my general anger about the squirrel would get me nowhere, so I decided to channel it and put it to good use. I started devising a plan to get rid of this squirrel once and for all. While I favored my first plan, which featured me dressed very similarly to Rambo, my husband intervened and persuaded me to go with plan B, which involved getting my Dad's box trap, filling it with peanut butter and bird seed, and waiting. Though I still regret not getting to wear the camouflage head band, I have to say I'm glad we went with the second option. The squirrel was in the trap less than an hour after setting it on our deck. Later that same day we dropped him off in a field along the edge of some woods a few miles from our house and peace and order was restored to the back yard.

Or was it? A few weeks after the relocation, I caught sight of this guy sheepishly peeking out from behind our neighbor's fence.

He was acting a little strange for my liking and wait a minute, where did that rip in his ear come from? Could it be from an afternoon spent in a box trap? Now, I have no way of proving that this is in fact the same naughty squirrel. But I do wonder if chewing on those Christmas lights might have given him some sort of mutant squirrel power that allowed him to track his way back home- Saturday, January 14.

So why the ranting about squirrels today? Good question. You have this guy to thank for my mini tirade.

He spent a good part of the morning trying to get some of the birdseed that had spilled on the deck when the girls somehow knocked down my bird feeder a few days ago. The best part of this whole thing is that Little One stood a faithful watch at the back door and ran outside yelling every time a squirrel paw hit the deck railing. If only she had a camouflage headband- Friday, February 10.

The attempted visits of the squirrel today caused me to step back and reflect on the naughtiness of squirrels as a whole. No, I do not like squirrels trying to steal the food I have set out for my lovely little birds, but as I thought, I was able to acknowledge that squirrels have to eat too. And when the bird seed is spilled all over the deck, practically shouting an invitation to all of our back yard wildlife to partake of its goodness, how can I really be angry? I guess what I realized is that I can't blame a squirrel for trying to fill his belly with some yummy food. And when it comes down to it, I guess I really don't mind having squirrels living in our back yard. Their acrobatic leaps from the swing set to the trees can be quite entertaining. But be warned, come December, if any squirrel so much as looks at my Christmas lights, I haven't forgotten plan A!