PUZZLE REVEALED ~ MORE WALKING ~ NEW FEATURE ON THE BLOG ~ PARTING SHOT

PUZZLE REVEALED

The puzzle is finally finished! It was very challenging but we both so much enjoyed putting it together. Here is the final picture and as you can see, it's a butterfly-shaped puzzle.

Rainforest Butterfly

My good friend Linda H. read in a previous blog about the butterfly-shaped puzzle we put together back in North Carolina, so she thought that we needed to do another one. She showed up at our front door one evening bearing this as a "just because" gift. I must admit that I think this one was way harder to put together. Normally the outline of the puzzle is pretty easy to do, but the intricate design of the outline of this particular puzzle was one of the hardest parts to get together. It is a beautiful puzzle, as the closeup video below of the entire puzzle shows.

We would like to thank Linda H. for all the hours of enjoyment we got from putting this puzzle together. Of course, now we are on to another one so stay tuned in future blogs for progress reports. Here is a picture of the new one we've started.

Any guesses yet?

MORE WALKING

This past week we took another walk at Randal Park. It was once again a dreary day, but we decided to take a walk anyway. The ducks and geese were there to greet us as usual. They actually didn't pay us much attention because they were busy eating.

We like this park so much because it has a pond. The department of Parks & Recreation is in the process of planting some shrubs and grasses along the edge of the pond, so there are orange barriers up in certain places. There are also plans to resurface the pathway around the park, which is a good thing because it is very uneven. The pond has a large paved viewing area at one end and that is where I like to go to take pictures and videos of the ducks and geese. Here's a short video of a duck taking a bath, a visual rendition of the expression "like water off a duck's back."

Sometimes the obvious subject of a photograph is not the only thing you should be looking for. A lot of times the photographer's intention is to take a picture of something else, but sometimes this intention is so subtle that you really have to look at the whole picture to see what the photographer was aiming to capture. Take a look at this picture, what do you see?

Ripples in the water cause a ghostly image of the trees on the edge of the pond

A couple of days later the sun came out so we decided to take a walk at the Arboretum. When we left the house it was still quite chilly, but as we walked along the path we actually got very warm from being in the sun. 

There are always a couple of flocks of Canada Geese at the Arboretum foraging around in the wide open spaces, under the trees and shrubs, and on the pond. They were dabbling around underneath the trees when we arrived, finding little morsels or insects for their breakfast.

Three up...three down

I got a few pictures at the bird blind so you can see the set up there. 

Yakima Arboretum Bird Blind

Above is a picture of the back side of the blind, where you stand to view the wildlife on the other side. 

Open viewing slat in bird blind

This picture above shows one of the slats dropped down so I can take pictures through the hole. Below you can see my view of the feeding area (note the shadow of my head in the middle).

Linda spread out a couple of containers of birdseed around the area and it wasn't long before we had a customer. He wasn't the only one as there were birds and squirrels all over the place within a few minutes.

The bird blind is just wonderful for taking closeup pictures of the birds and squirrels as they come there to feed. I am so glad the Arboretum constructed this feature for the benefit of the bird-loving public. Now, if I could just figure out a way to make them stay still...

NEW FEATURE ON THE BLOG

I decided to add a new intermittent feature to the blog called "Arty Photo of the Week." From time to time I will share one of our photos that we think is worthy of being called "art." As justification for being able to call our pictures "art," I cite the French saying from the early 19th century: "L'art pour l'art" which translates into English as "Art for art's sake." This expression embodies the idea that the foremost aim of a work of art is the self-expression of the creator of the work.

PARTING SHOT

This time of year it is very hard to get an action picture of Summer Girl. Lately she has been spending a lot of her time in the house, sleeping in one or the other of her favorite spots. She has become quite good at ignoring me. Nevertheless, she is so adorable. Just look at those little paws!

That wraps it up for this week, be sure and check back again next week!