sometimes...

the chaos slows to a nice manageable pace.

... and in colour

 

 

portraits in sepia

long weekend

i sure wouldn't mind a string of days like this all summer long.

in our backyard

~ three white-crowned sparrows give me a perfect photo op ~

~"chippy" sitting on my lap allowing the camera (on macro) to be a mere inch from his little nose

~two "wild" housecats wishing they could get in on the action~

{this moment} may 20

when mama is a photographer

... it seems completely natural to hold the pretend camera like this.

{this moment} may 13

a little something special

I came across this folder of images from December 2008 and I hadn't done anything with them yet. So while the kids took a good nap today, I put this together. Enjoy!

backyarding

cause and effect

this...

equals this...

some friends of ours

So far we've recorded 18 different types of birds at our feeder or backyard. And Anderson knows most of their names:

Mallard, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Hairy Woodpecker, American Crow, Black-Capped Chickadee, Common Redpoll, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, Red-Winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, European Starling, American Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Dark-Eyed Junco, Brown-Headed Cowbird, House Finch

I try to get snapshots of each bird so that we can figure out what they are in our bird book, especially if we are trying to figure out exactly what type of sparrow. We've learned many things watching them.

The crows drove away the blue jays, but then the red-winged blackbird showed up and claimed our yard as his territory, so the crows keep their distance now. The juncos like to eat the seeds off the ground. The chickadees only take one seed at a time and fly away. The tree sparrow lifts his head feathers like a mohawk to flirt with the ladies. The female goldfinches are yellow and green. The male house finch is so red that the first one we saw, we thought it was an injured and bleeding bird. The brewer's blackbird seems like just a plain old blackbird, but in the sunshine it has a lovely purple shiny head, a green shimmer to its body and sharp, round yellow eyes. The nuthatches stand backwards on the trees. The woodpecker (which we are pretty sure is a Hairy not a Downy) does the funniest head bobbing at the suet and has really funny splayed feet when standing on the deck railing, they truly are a quirky bird.

It has been good entertainment watching them from our kitchen, especially through rainy days, and sick days. I'm sure we'll meet many more as the seasons change. Who's at your feeder these days?

oh how i love this silly, silly girl.

this is why i never miss the opportunity to take a peek at him before going to bed each night.

and just like that, she isn't a baby. but a girl. i'm full of excitement. and just a little bit of sadness. i soak up so many moments of it all and it still slips by.

some evening sunshine. some quiet, contentedness.

days upon days full of interesting scenes like this. even though some of those days are utterly exhausting.