CELEBRATING ~~ SPRING HAS SPRUNG ~~ LOOKING BACK ~~ PARTING SHOT

CELEBRATING

This past week Linda's sister came over for a visit so we could celebrate Linda's birthday. We always have such a good time when she's here, sitting around talking for hours (mostly those two, I sit back and listen), drinking wine and G&T's, and going out to eat. This year was no exception as we had a fun time, much different from last year when I was sick with pneumonia.

Linda opened a few presents on Saturday during our drinkiepoo hour, and then the rest on Sunday, her actual birthday. That way we got to celebrate twice! I'm not going to run through the whole thing, but I did want to highlight a few of her gifts. Of course, we all know Linda has to get a flamingo at any celebration, if at all possible. This was a little charm that I got from Mimi's Charm at a local craft fair. Mimi is a super nice lady who has a very wide assortment of charms, necklaces, keychains, etc. at her booth. Check her out if you ever go to a craft fair near Yakima.

Charming

Everyone probably knows by now that Linda loves to read. I do believe it is her favorite thing to do. No birthday for her would be complete without books as gifts. Wendy and I both took care of that this time as we each got her a book. Here she is opening the one from Wendy, entitled The Salt Path.

YAY! A book

She only got two books this year, but not to worry. Emily sent her an Amazon gift card that will keep her supplied with books for some time to come. Here are the two books she got for her birthday.

Left from Wendy, right from me

Not to be outdone by mere books, my sister sent her a new bird feeder. This one is so cute, and will come in handy for the back yard in the winter, so Linda doesn't have to trudge through two feet of snow to fill it up every day (like she did this winter). It is so cute we are going to put it in the front yard for now, and move the old green one we had out front to another spot.

New feeder for our birdies

Since all the snow melted, we have been looking out the front window to a scene of brown, brown, and brown. So I decided to get her a little color for the front yard, until the flowers bloom. We love to watch these little whirligigs as they blow in the wind (which we have an abundance of here in Yakima).

The last gift I will highlight is one that I "made" for her. I didn't actually make it, but I spent an entire afternoon putting it all together. It's a puzzle that I ordered from an online company called Shutterfly. I uploaded pictures from the computer and then arranged them around to make the puzzle grid. Then Shutterfly made the puzzle and sent it to me. I did all this during Christmas, so I had to hide it in the closet for the ensuing months. I think she was quite surprised when she opened it.

A small puzzle, but special

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

Something we have been impatiently waiting for has finally happened...flowers are starting to bloom all over the place. Right now we just have daffodils, but the tulips will not be far behind. It is so nice to see some color out in both the front and back yards.

Beautiful daffodils

Another big indicator of Spring is the way the birds are behaving. They are starting to form up pairs with the males vigorously courting the females. The males are also starting to get their breeding colors, as you can see in this picture of the Red-Winged Blackbirds below. Their wing bars are still apparent during the winter time, but they aren't nearly as brilliant as they are in the spring. Also, I'm happy to report that the female Varied Thrush is still around, but is hard to spot now because she blends in with the background so well.

Trying to impress

LOOKING BACK

I'm still working hard with all the pictures I moved over to the Mac from the PC. Right now I have two photo projects going, one on the Mac and one on the PC. These projects are taking up the majority of my time, so I don't have any new music to share with you this week. But I decided to include a picture of my father from my Mac project. This picture was probably taken in the early 1950's. He caught this Sailfish on one of his many fishing trips to Florida. He was so proud of it he had a taxidermist mount it and he had it hanging in his office. It was a beautiful fish.

Catch of the day

PUZZLE UPDATE

Linda and I went to the Harmon Center, our local senior center, a couple of weeks ago and picked up a few puzzles and books. I was very excited to get this one, because the name of it is The Alpine Northwest and it's by Charley Harper. As soon as I saw this puzzle, I knew it was by the same guy that painted a poster we picked up at the Toppenish Wildlife Refuge soon after we moved here. The poster was done to celebrate the 2002 International Migratory Bird Day. Even though it was 2007 or so when we got the poster, we both loved it and have it hanging in our garage to this day.

Puzzle

Poster

PARTING SHOT

I don't think there has ever been a lazier cat than Summer Girl. She knows that I need to take her picture every Wednesday for the blog, it's her only job. But week after week I find her piled up on the bed, snoozing away. Then when I wake her up to take her picture, she gives me one of "those" looks. I am sure if cats could roll their eyeballs, she'd be doing that.

You woke me up

That's all for this week, folks. Check back again next week to see what's up!