Aspirations

I don't know this lady, but I watched her shoot eagles for a long time. She was there before me, and stayed after I left. She wasn't actively shooting, but observing calmly.

I want to be this lady someday. Shooting when my hair is grey. Maybe not with the dog though :)

Any hobby you want to make sure you keep up with as the years pass?

Sand Piper

Shorebird festival is over and done, but I caught this little guy a few days after, hopping along the beach.

Sea Otter and a Boat

It is probably a bad thing, but much of the wildlife here is a bit desensitized to humans. The black dot in the water is a sea otter. The boat went right next to it and it did not dive under.

I just found it interesting! I want to be in the boat, shooting the otter!

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I have been taking daily trips in different parts of my new yard lately to see how the plants are doing (the weeds!). I have been taking my camera and macro lens around for many of these jaunts so I can capture what I see. Last night, I wandered to the property line and was quite happy with what I found - ferns, watermelon berry plants, raspberry bushes, and several other plants I did not expect to find! Unexpected blessings :)

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Today is the first Memorial Day off I have had since I started working. So weird, but it is nice to have a 3 day weekend with C! We don't get too many of those together. We don't have any plans as of yet, but definitely to enjoy this weather! Did you do anything special for the holiday weekend?

Mom Caught a Fish!

I was on the beach the other day, watching people fishing. I have seen people fishing there for years, but have never seen anyone catch anything. In the span of 10 minutes, I watched 3 fish being caught! This one was caught by the mom in this family.

The dog was not sure what to think of it! He kept running away, then barking at it.

:)

Mandatory photos :)

Sending him back off to sea!

It was fun to watch the little boy and the dog excitedly running around. It was even more fun when I saw this family the next day at my work! I don't know them, but it was fun to see them.

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I was out working in our front yard 2 nights ago when a neighbor across the street came outside in his underwear and proceeded to wander around his vehicles and such. I was a bit amused and horrified and wandered elsewhere for a few minutes! The reports from someone who knows him is that he is rather...eccentric. Guess so!

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The green has finally popped! I love seeing all the color after so many months of white and brown. I wandered through a friend's garage sale yesterday morning and she gave me a Columbine start....we'll see if I can get it to grow! I love Columbines and would love to take more photos of them. Eventually I would love to cultivate flowers and a vegetable garden, but it won't be this summer.

I like the idea of a rock garden as well. I think I have more ideas than I have time and money, though! How many of you are avid gardeners, or don't have a green thumb at all?

Temporary Resting Spot

A typical day off the Homer Spit, when suddenly, seagulls came from everywhere and started flying around one spot. They soon settled and all landed on the water in a line. A boat came through soon after and they all flew in different directions yet again.

Horse Tail Grass

This is an obnoxious weed that grows like crazy in some places...it was the first thing to really thrive in my new yard, so I have taken quite a few pictures of it.

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Well, Thursday, I had to work due to being short handed, and I was miserable. I crashed when I got home and did nothing of worth. But Friday, I felt much, much better, and today I am feeling about the same. Except I apparently shared it with C :( and so he slept really poorly last night and so did I. *sigh* So I am on the mend, but he is just getting started.

Too Much Butter

I like lots of butter on pancakes and muffins. C likes to mock me for it....so the other day he asks, "Is this too much butter for you?" Disgusting.

He put the butter back in the container, but he was quite pleased with himself :P

Lake Reflections

 Beluga Lake is often beautiful, but when I saw these clouds hovering over it, I had to stop and turn around. There was some new ice that had formed as well, creating a bit more interest on the lake surface. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and this scene just made it complete!

Print available

Pheasants

Two pheasants!

I love the male's coloring, but the female really blends in well. She was very hard to see.

Three?! Never saw a second male, so I don't know what this means!

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I have spent the last 2 weeks fighting off some sort of cold...The first week, I just had a sore throat, and was coughing pretty bad. I didn't feel poorly or anything, and after a week had gone by and I started to get concerned, it started to go away. I was happy, and went on. Monday evening, I felt a tickle in my throat, which annoyed me. Tuesday morning, however, I woke up feeling terrible. Full on sore throat, stuffy nose and a cough. Wednesday my head felt like it was in less of a fog, but still not better. Hopefully this goes away and stays away! I basically did nothing on Tues/Wed (my weekend from work) which felt nice.

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The local high school graduation was Monday night, and I got to see a friend I have not seen since Christmas. She invited me out for a picnic with her family (her little brother graduated) and so I drove off at 10pm for a picnic! Always fun to have a picnic at 11pm!

Kitty!

 

This is Kitty. She is one of my favorite "adopted" cats. She came along for part of our walk into the woods.

A good companion most of the time....

But she is a typical animal and has to stop and check things out. Then RUN back to us :)

Apparently the long walk wore her out :)

Golden Supper

My squirrel friend greatly enjoys pinecones for its dinner. I have watched it devour many of them now. The trash from these feedings litter the stump below him, and they weren't just from this session either!

Kite Surfing?

Hopefully I did not mislead anyone by the title! On my walk through my friend's woods, we came across this sign on someone's property.......hmm.

Horses!

I went to a friend's house the other day and we had all kinds of adventures outside, but I had to share a couple horse photos I took. Fresh grass :)

Horse eye photos are rather cliched, but I still think they are fascinating!

Hidden Debris

Found this chain on the beach, rusted and obviously worn by the tide. It was fascinating to watch a chunk of metal get pushed around by the majestic waves like it was a feather. Don't worry, I took it off the beach with me!

Floating Flower

It was after midnight and we were ready to hit the hay. C says something along the lines that I should take some pics of the flower in water.....and it led to this. Love having him giving me idea and being willing to lose sleep over it!

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It's official that the summer tourist season has started. I had 3 customers on Friday appalled that there was very little made in Alaska merchandise (because most of it is all made in China). That may one day be a post all its own.

Then yesterday, we finally were busy, if for only one day: the first cruise ship of the season! It was nice to have the work day go by quickly! Had a moose in the vicinity too, and the tourists were ecstatic :)

Tomato?!

Neither C nor I have ever liked tomatoes, but as time has gone on, we have started to incorporate diced ones into our recipes, with good results. We finally bought a couple of our own the other day and chopped them up, but not before I got a picture of this pretty one!

Debris

The clouds were not as interesting as they could have been for this shoot, but I still like the hints of pink they give off.

Chocolate Snob

I am a self proclaimed gourmet chocolate snob. Or it could just be that I am not used to the other tastes of other gourmet chocolates, but either way, they never measure up to my standards. Godiva is rather boring. Lindt is pretty good, but not great. I do like a couple kinds from Rocky Mountain Chocolate, though. See's is rather boring and uses too many weird nuts and nut pastes. Most of the problem is the chocolate itself. The filling might be ok, but the chocolate is never creamy enough for my taste.

My boss has gone on and on about this one type from See's, and I thought she was just saying it. Then someone brought her a small box back from the states, and she let me have a piece of chocolate covered divinity. YES. Yum.

When the same person offered to get her another box, I begged for one of my own. Now I have a pound of divinity at my house. I have been good at limiting myself to only one a day, though I would like to have them last a bit longer!

The candy has nuts, and coconut in it (I HATE COCONUT) but it is really, really good and creamy.

Even though I am a snob, I won't pass up testing out new chocolates....C finds it obnoxious when I go new places and have to buy a bunch of expensive pieces!

No Such Luck

I have written before on how evil pushki is. So, I was hoping against hope that it would avoid my new house. NOPE.

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Now that I am much more active on DeviantArt, and (I like to think) my photography has improved, I get featured on someone's journal fairly often. Never more than one shot, but it's nice :) I was featured in one journal recently, but I really wanted you all to see how fabulous the images are and how they all fit together. It's obvious the author took some time and thought about how it should go together. I feel honored to be a part!

Cloud Contrasts

As I learn to pay more attention to the ever changing sky and light, I am always fascinated by how some clouds are lit up by the setting sun, and other clouds are dark from the lack of light. So interesting how different layers are affected differently.

Chain

I found this chain on the beach the other day and had to make use of it for a while.

It ended up being a cool prop!

Don't worry, I took it off the beach :)

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Yesterday I found a fascinating blog. Katie blogs about Christianity, but she has some fascinating insights, and I found myself drawn into every post she made. Several statements really resonated with me, like :

Be passionate about something.
Whether it’s photography or mowing lawns, writing stories or making jewelry, building houses or making coffee, playing music or singing or cooking, being a parent or preaching or traveling.
Whatever it is, be passionate about it. Care about it. Refuse to settle.
And invite other people into your dream for life. Share your vision. Give the rest of us the joy of seeing you come to life when talking about your dream.

Found here
And how stacking blocks is one way society forces our perceptions.

I've had a couple interesting comment conversations already and I plan to keep reading :) Just wanted to share!

Hanging Out

Was chatting with my dad in the front seat of his car when this car pulled up with this big guy hanging out. Grabbed the camera and shot a couple frames before he looked my direction. Cute!

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I was looking forward to today greatly. It's C and I's weekend, and time to relax, run errands, and hang out with friends. Not this week! C called me yesterday afternoon to announce that he had to work today. I grumbled inside for a bit, but then realized that this was one way God was helping provide for our new house and new bills. Overtime is nice! So, I am restructuring my day today, and keeping positive!

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Yesterday, I had a rather quirky customer at work who had an interesting personality. He bought a box made out of chocolate from me, and then suddenly looked up, "You have brown eyes!"
"Yes, I do."
"Kinda like that box!" *leaves*

Kind of strange, but amusing!

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I have a bit of a rant against my favorite company. I love Amazon.com. I have had very little complaints at all from them over the past several years, and I buy from them a lot. Even have the credit card.

Free shipping to Alaska is amazing. But, because of our location, we cannot utilize Amazon Prime. I have tried to sign up for it in the past, and the system would not let me. Last evening, I wanted to buy several birthday books for someone who lives in the Lower 48. I ended up with a $25+ order and proceeded to checkout. I am almost sure that I have been able to ship to 2 different locations and still get the free shipping, but maybe not. Either way, Amazon was going to charge me shipping.

Enter the Amazon Prime button all over the page. They would allow me to sign up! Against my better judgment, because I knew they would still not ship to Alaska, I signed up. My out of state purchases had free shipping! But the item I wanted was not, and it would cost $10 to ship a $13 item. NO.

I went back into my account and cancelled Prime's auto renew at the end of 30 days, hoping that would get me out. Nope. Now I just won't be charged for it, but I still have access to the service for 29 days! Amazon has no way to cancel it, because they want me to "enjoy" the trial.

The problem? I will not be purchasing anything else to be shipped Outside, and I cannot get the free $25 order shipping until Prime runs out!!! So I cannot get the item I want until June 17 because I refuse to pay for shipping, and cannot find it elsewhere at a better price.

I sent them a couple customer service messages, so hopefully they understand my reasoning and cancel it. Sometimes user friendly is exactly not that. :)

A Splattering of Pink Paint

The sky was lit up with all shapes, sizes and colors of clouds the evening this was taken. There were so many interesting clouds, but I had to pick just a few to focus on.

Splat

Full on portrait!

It's amazing how he blends in to the gravel!

He loves, LOVES pinecones. I have observed how it devours them.

I love my new friend!

A Squirrel Called Splat

It is a terrible thing to love squirrels, as they are such pests, but I could not help but be delighted that this one is my new neighbor! He/she has proved to be around constantly. I don't think it likes me really, but I think it is getting used to me.

It ought to be getting used to my camera by now....

A friend wanted to know what we named it....we tried to come up with a name, and when we were looking at this shot, we tried to come up with a funny one...and Splat stuck :P A bit undignified, but silly!

He/she is beautiful in its own way :)

More photos to come :)

My Squirrel Friend

I have a new photogenic friend! He/she is wary of me, but still manages to sit still a lot of the time for me to get the images I want :)

Sea Sponge and Seaweed

I found a sea sponge on the beach at the sunset a few nights ago. I wanted to capture it, so I changed my perspective a little and took some long exposure shots of it.

Seaweed makes for an interesting subject with long exposures as well.

It is so ghostly looking, or something.

I enjoy how abstract this one looks!

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I have had a couple of busy days!

On Thursday, I met up with Ashley to welcome her to town, and I believe I speak for the both of us when we hit it off :) It was fun getting to know her for a couple hours in the sunshine!

After our un-coffee date, I took a drive onto the Spit for one last hurrah before the tourists come out in force. I spent some time walking the beach with the goal of shooting some eagles. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day, and the wind was calm. I stood on the beach sand for a second and just soaked in the warmth from it, finally!! It was wonderful to stay on the beach, in flip flops no less, and not get cold. Summer is on its way!

I came home from there, and sat in my yard in my lawn chair and read a book for a while. I came inside and immediately realized that my face was sunburnt! Slightly regretting not keeping an eye on it, but oh well! I don't usually tan, so I will likely go back to pasty white.

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Yesterday evening,  we went to a friend's house and watched the new Narnia movie: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I have to admit, I'm glad I didn't pay money to watch it in the theater =/ The deviations and added things from the book kinda messed up the story, as well as the message. Some of it was awesome to see though.

I'm not sure I will be adding it to my collection either. It would have to be a really good deal for me to do so.