Sunrise
Natures
Red tulip
Yesterday, while driving back and forth to town by myself, I kept thinking of brilliant things to post. I need to find a tape recorder. Even making some sort of mental note to recall the brilliance failed. As usual. Oh well.
So, today, I say Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. Am I the only one who has never been out to dinner to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Most likely. Oh well. I have spent most of my life either being passionate about a cause, to the exclusion of normal everyday life, or caretaking various family members. I have been in love once, infatuated several times. Love and courtship are not something I am familiar much with. I have never been out on a real date. Just the idea scares the stuffing out of me, which would explain why I have never dated. When I was younger, I would go out with a bunch of people. I just do things backwards. Married yes, date no. Just weirdness. I like that word. It describes a lot of my life, even the weather. Seems that our mild winter may give way to some fluffy white stuff. That is fine, for a while. Like perhaps take some photographs as I usually do, then it can leave. After experiencing sliding backwards on Highway 395 at 3 am on Christmas morning one year then off the road (I was going to the hospital to pick up my husband from the ER) I am so over ice/snow. I know that God has saved me for a reason, first the broken neck (should have been dead- or at least toast), then the “should have been a bad wreck” icy slide.
I am just still getting up each day, being grateful to be able to do so. Working hard and looking to make this situation we are in turn around.
Hope your day is what you want it to be, enjoy it!
Tulips in the front garden
Where does time go? Really? Age has never made much of an impression on me, until the past year or so. Now I hear that age old clock ticking. Time is suddenly limited, not unlimited as the young feel.
Many years ago, I saved a mare who was in foal from the auction at Hollywood Park racetrack. Bought for $300, the other bidder the kill buyer. Less than two weeks later, the baby, Rusty was born. Beautiful, perfect, sweet and oh so busy. My first auction rescue, the foal Rusty will be 24 years old on Saturday. Once again, how did that happen? She is not young any longer – and she gave me a pretty good scare health wise on Wednesday. But today, she is eating and begging for carrots as usual.
One never knows how long we will be here to do the things we do.
We have had just a bit of snow, a bit of rain and the weirdest winter since we moved here 9+ years ago. The lilac trees? I won’t even LOOK at them. I know they will be budding. Oh well.
Hope all is well out there in the world, take care, and tell those you care about you love them.
The past week or so, the snow geese have been so busy. Our land is bordered on two sides by a large ranch, 340 acres or so. They grow rye hay, and the geese love to land and forage for feed there. Just like the photo. I took lots of images. They all were junk. On our way to town Friday, mom and I saw them up close. One would never have imagined that they were such a mixed bunch. Adults, youngsters with immature feather patterns. All sizes. All LOUD.
Thousands and thousands of them. Last week, I walked to the back of our place and tried to get some photos or video but they took a look and sounded the “intruder alert” call and walked far away. At least they didn’t fly.
I was in the back barn, which is metal. Once they flew over and it sounded like some sort of huge aircraft droning over. Deafening. My barn cats ran and hid, it was quite interesting. Now that they are settled in, great waves of them take off and circle over our place, flying very low. They sometimes collide with each other which makes them even louder, telling each other off.
Just another perk of living so rural.
Ice in one of the metal birdbaths
Another fascination of mine. Ice. Freezing anywhere. I feel giddy each day I go outside to be greeted by mild weather. I consider it a personal gift.
That is all, goodnight all!
The barn in back at dawn. January 24 - rosy pink
I have always been within perhaps an hours driving time from the ocean. Here, the beach is but a dream. I have a friend who lives on a bluff above the pacific ocean. She posts lovely things, sunsets, cats, lemon trees. It makes me feel homesick for the beach and the ocean. She too loves owls and I get her back by posting about our Great Horned Owls here 
Our last visit to Port Orchard Washington a couple of years ago was wonderful. Got to meet face to face several “internet” friends. I got sick but was up before dawn with my camera. That time, that light was magical.
Dawn on the beach, Port Orchard Washington
The last 20 years I have been running – emotionally of course, but beating my body up as well. I am not doing that now. Lots of changes, much more understanding of things. I will never get that time back for a do over, but I can do things differently now, and I will and I am.
Now I am off to check the new wild cat and the domestic cat who has taken up residence under the house. Our woodstove heats the underside crawl space, and a very emaciated black and white cat came to stay. Now brilliantly dubbed “Fireplace Cat” (as my woodstove would begin to meow when I would work on it, cat under house hearing me) I have been feeding her. She is recovering.
Enjoy the day all!
I apologize for not blogging.
The end.
No, really, I do apologize. I came to the same conclusion that many others who blog eventually come to. That is, why am I spilling myself over the pages here, and really, who cares? Aside from my mom, my friend Carol and occasionally friends from here and there. Really.
So, instead of the typing sort of blogging, I am going to try and at least post a photograph. Which is a bit of a touchy subject for me, and has become increasingly so really. I have Rheumatoid arthritis. I now have shaky hands. I don’t know if it is age shaky hands, or R/A shaky hands. It can’t be coffee related, because I really only drink a bit in the morning. Yeah it is high octane, but I don’t shake then. In the afternoon, yes. I don’t drink, so it isn’t that. Point being that photography is not fun like it has always been. I did some digging around online and there are some Kodak cameras like mine that do have a program to compensate for shakiness. Down the line I can tell you I will be purchasing one.
Who knows once again.
Anyway, here is a photo for you all. The colors of the sky here in far northeastern California is so different than the Los Angeles area. Or central California. The sky goes on forever, and if you can catch it just right, you will know you will never see a sunrise or sunset quite like it.
This was the morning of my mom’s birthday, Tuesday January 24th.
A brilliant sunrise over the lake
and now I am going to take dinner to mom’s house. My son is there already, so I better get moving. Have a nice evening all!
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the states. We are happily having spaghetti, stuffing, pie and corn. Oh and maybe bundt cake. Or not.
I was without my computer for nearly 3 weeks, which made blogging something that I could not keep up with. Admittedly I have not been keeping up with it WITH access to the computer, but that is beside the point – because I say so
I checked into three blogs that I faithfully follow. None had been updated in that timeframe either, so I don’t feel too bad about it.
Enjoy the family and friends today Only a bit of snow left today.
Lilacs 2011
Well, I will try this again. WordPress, the hosting company for this blog has been wonky lately. Like type a whole blog, saving it along the way. Automatic saves too thanks to WordPress. Click “preview” and there is only the title. No blog. Switch back to the edit page, and it shows ZERO word count. Aghhh!
Their support is out until today. I checked the forums and since no one else noted this particular glitch, guess it’s me. Or rather the electricity in a box that sits here by my feet. So, cache cleaning, cookie ejecting, you name it. Now I am typing and I have no idea if it will save to publish or not. Maybe I will just bypass the preview stage. Yeah, that is a good idea (so I hope) We shall see.
So, lilacs to start the day, have a good one all!
Good day for a birthday. That is nice. This morning, I went to my friends to take care of her critters. She is out of town visiting her mom. So, my son came along to go to do a bit of shopping with me. I have had my eye on an outdoor chair cushion forever it seems. However at $35 each, it wasn’t gonna happen. Today, we swung past the outdoor area at Walmart. AhHA! The cushions weren’t just on sale, they were getting rid of them as fast as they could. Above the racks of them, a sheet of letter sized paper “All Cushions $1″ Really? OMG!
The second seat of my Chevy
We had fun. I mean really fun with this! Two cushions for my son’s tent. One for my beloved iron chair that I sit in next to the lilac trees-yes the one I have been hoping to have. One for the garden bench. One for the wood bench I bought for ten dollars and have repainted several times. It has always needed a cushion. Now it has one! Plus some matching very soft puffy pillows. A bench cushion for mom’s swing. We made quite a haul! Several hundred dollars of cushions/pillows for under $20 bucks. YAY!!! All because our WalMart is making room for Christmas. Here in the remote reaches of northeastern California, I have discovered several things. One, is that the day after a holiday, when all the GOOD chocolate candy is 50% off, you can buy it that day and the next few weeks because we always have extra at the stores. Also, Christmas decorations appear in October, and are in the garden shop until at least April. Pretty silly, but fun anyways. I know I have been living where there are no department stores for a long time because of the following. I am actually excited to see what decoration/motif will be on the microfiber throws that WalMart will sell for Christmas. I love these things. I bought one two season ago, a bright Chevy red with good-looking reindeer in white. It is thick and just lovely. It usually is on my bed all winter. I admit I did get it out and put it on the bed a few weeks ago. While it has been lovely not to have to put on all sorts of gear because of the weather, I do miss being snuggled down and comfy. Summer just isn’t it for me. I love fall, and have had a good time recently taking photographs. Ahhh.
Maple - fall 2011
Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes. It has been a good day!
