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It’s not winter anymore…
Overall it was a record-breaking winter full of below 0ºF days and over 120″ of snow fall. Spring arrived early summer.
the fall of Fall….
There are a few repeat photos in this blog, but since the last few years’ worth of photos were deleted I’m reposting the photos.
It’s a busy time of year full of dance practice until 9 and homework until 11. It’s dark by dinner and cold enough for snow. My fingers are so cold they no longer react with the touch screen on my phone.
If it has a penis, it’s not a spider.
Green Heron
wet, active and unsettled
A weather blog for the local area states the week’s weather will be spring-like and wet, active and unsettled.
And it’s dry enough to bike…for now!
Last March was perfect (more than amazing)
And I thought it was a good idea to set my Christmas tree on fire.
As it turns out it wasn’t a good idea to set my Christmas tree on fire. The tree rolled right off the fire pit and toward the dry wooden shed.
Almost abducted, but luckily it was just a dude killing with crowbar.
May is my favorite month for many reasons.
… and wonder what you are.
It’s still coming this way.
I forgot a death in my last post. Last fall after hearing a thud we went outside to investigate and this is what we found.
How could this turkey NOT see our house? Was it a daydreamer and staring into space as it flew through the air?
Speaking of death, I thought I was possibly going to die last week. I was out running before work.
(Mom, please stop reading now. I’ll tell you this story later…like in 30 years)
It was still a little dark so I stayed out of the woods and on the paved path…ya know…to be safe.
Not far into my run a junky truck slooooowly crept past. At the top of the hill the truck turned into a driveway and parked there for a minute.
I turned around heading back to my car in case the truck was plotting a possible abduction. My plan to dress in camouflage and be invisible to traffic may have failed. The truck turned back down the hill past me again very sloooowly.
At the base of the hill the truck did a U-turn and turned back around heading my way once again. I stopped, dropped a pin in my GPS coordinates, punched in 911 on my keypad ready to call and got my pepper spray situated. The truck pulled along side the side of the road about 50 feet in front of me. I thought, “Oh shit, there’s two dudes in the truck… I wanted to use this pepper spray on a bear not like this….would have been way cooler…and how much pepper spray is in these things anyway? Damn it, a shitty end of the year and now THIS?”
I had to pass the truck to get to my car. I waited for another car to come down the road (ya know for witnesses…) before running as fast as I could past the truck. A man got out of the truck and circled around the back of the truck. A short foot bridge railing separated me from the men and the truck.
As I tore across the bridge, closer to the man, I was stopped by the sight of him leaning over a deer that was sitting along the side of the road.
I heard myself ask, “Oh a deer. So that’s why you stopped?”
The man silently raised his arm over his head and slammed a crowbar into the deer’s skull in response to my question. Crowbar to skull makes a loud cracking sound.
I ran like hell back to my car a half mile down the path beating my HIGH SCHOOL half mile record by a LONG shot in that run.
Even though I logically knew the guys had hit the deer, saw it wasn’t dead and were coming back to do the nice thing and put the doe out of her misery, I was still a little fearful the skull cracking guy may have gotten a taste for death during his crow bar swinging and my skull may be next.
So now I take my morning jog inside my garage and it it totally lame in comparison. But no more running out in the dark, I promise.
The Six Most Impressive Deaths of 2012
If you have a weak stomach stop reading this now.
I saw a zillion amazing animals in the 2012 year. Some of them were dead. Here are my favorites…
CUTEST DEATH
SADDEST DEATH
MOST BEAUTIFUL DEATH
I took an egg out of the nest and cracked it open to make sure the clutch wasn't viable. I surmise the clutch overheated early.
MOST EXCITING DEATH *gory warning
GROSSEST DEATH AND KIND OF LIKE A DREAM I ALWAYS HAD WHEN I WAS A KID
MOST LOGICAL DEATH
Christmas Eve’s Glory Hole
The days are short. There’s only time to run and carry the camera.
My dear friend Alisun breezed into town like a waft of intelligent air and taught me and our chums some glass blowing terminology. She also indicated I shouldn’t use wikipedia to help my kids with their homework. I’m just trying to figure out how you find the number of neutrons in an atom. I need a workshop Alisun.
savor belonging to yourself
…only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself. ~Ruth Stout
The trails are deliciously empty after it snows.
Saturday we woke up to a blanket of snow. Thousands of people took to facebook to announce that it snowed. This is what my Mom posted.
breaking up with birds: harder than you’d think
I haven’t fed the birds the past few weeks in hopes of staying focused. What? What are we talking about?…..
I had a few days off from work and couldn’t stand starving the birds to death another second.
They line up in the deck rail and stare at me.
So I fed them. And then I feel compelled to take pictures of them. And then nothing productive gets done.
caught in the dark
I was caught in the dark running in the woods the other day. I don’t have time for these shorter days.
I made it out of the woods despite the leaf-covered trail.
There were lots of noises as critters ran through dried leaves. I was a little scared I was going to accidentally startle a skunk and get sprayed and less afraid I was going to get stalked and eaten by a mountain lion. It was great to hear the stream since that meant I was close to the trailhead.
Here’s the same video essentially, but taken during the day.