Because everyone was wondering...

Here comes the sun (du dn du du)

Here comes the sun

And I say 

It's alright

Little darling 

It's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling

It seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun

Here comes the sun 

And I say 

It's alright

Little darling 

The smiles returning to the faces

Little darling

It seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun (du dn du du)

Here comes the sun

And I say 

It's alright

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes (four times)

Little darling

I see the ice is slowly melting

Little darling

It seems like years since it's been clear

Here comes the sun (du dn du du)

Here comes the sun

It's alright

George Harrison wrote it.

Here Comes the Sun

"And I say it's alright...."

For more SkyWatchFriday pictures look here.

An Irish Blessing

"May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.

May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.

May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.

And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through."

Another kind of Monday Morning

I looked at Esther Garvi's wonderful and interesting blog this morning and thought, "Well, I feed the animals before I go to work too."  Only it looks just a little bit different a continent away....

Peaches crawls out of her heated house to see what's for breakfast.

Brogan likes cat food for breakfast too.

The little finches are hungry and wondering why the deer ate all the bird seed last night.

Arlo would like a bird for breakfast but they are hard to catch.

The ducks are floundering in the snow and wondering where their swimming pool went.

I exchange a bucket of water for the frozen one.  At least they can get a drink.

No one goes to school or work without the road getting plowed.

Wally is checking me out.

The llamas don't mind the snow.  Their fur keeps them pretty dry.  They have grass hay for breakfast.

My hat keeps the snow out of my face.

Brogan prefers to sleep inside today--what a spoiled dog.

There are lots of other kinds of mornings at MyWorld.

Red Instead

Still Not Blue

"The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist." --Rabindranath Tagore

Not Blue

A gray, foggy day.  It feels heavy and dense, the roads are icy.  It would be a good day to stay home if I could.....

Natural Beauty

Blue sky, trees and canyon rocks, can it get any better than this?  Not when it's only 5 minutes away!

For more spectacular skies, see SkyWatchFriday.

Inauguration Day

What a momentous day in our nation's history, watching brought tears to my eyes.  

I grew up in the DC area, witnessed race riots in the 1960's, lost faith in our country over the years, starting thinking I lived in an alternate universe, and almost gave up until a handsome, young man starting talking about hope and change.  

I want to believe.

After Breakfast Still Life

For more shots from around the world, see MyWorld.

Dusk

"To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality.  It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy."--Henri Cartier-Bresson

Sunrise Skywatch

I actually took this picture Tuesday on the way to work.  This morning I left the house at 6 a.m. and it was dark.  I had to drive 150 miles to a meeting in Provo, sit in that meeting for 5 hours and then drive home.  It was dark when I got home too.  I could barely get out of my car when I parked in my garage because I was so stiff from sitting.  I am very grateful that I don't have to do that very often (once a month).  I wouldn't be cut out for a truck driving job that's for sure.  

In the state of Utah there are massive budget cuts about to hit the vulnerable people of our Milk and Honey Beehive state.  They are discussing cutting services like Meals on Wheels and autism pre-school along with mental health services and substance abuse services.  So if we are in an economic crisis, it makes sense to cut services that help keep people fed and emotionally supported, right?  If you don't agree, call your local state legislator and the governor's office and tell them that you think the budget cuts should go across the board.  Or not.

For perhaps more energetic and optimistic posts, check SkyWatch here.

Reprise

Different cows.

"As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists." --Joan Gussow

So do I.

Maeser Cemetery

"People living deeply have no fear of death." --Anais Nin

Home on the Range?

Oh, the things I'll do for a blog these days.  

I headed to town on my way to work with my camera.  I don't usually take my camera with me, but now that I have the fever for posting on My World Tuesday,  I thought I'd change my ways. As luck would have it, there was a cattle drive right down the middle of the road.  It's not an unusual occurrence and I have seen many of these in my pre-blogging days, but this was an opportunity.  There was a "cowboy" on his horse and another one on his four wheeler (quad).  I knew I could possibly be subject to ridicule.  "Sho, nuff." I got out, shutter blazing, and they started laughing at me.  

I wanted to tell them that I was not a tourist and I had certainly seen cows before and didn't they know about blogging?  But I didn't.

I did get back in the car though.

The trick to getting through is just keep driving and let the cows move out of the way.

I swear this cow is not photo-shopped into the picture.

Butterfly Award

It must be a milestone in a little blogger's world when the first award is received. I'm so flattered. So thank you, Cherie (from Baba Yaga's Mirror)....and now I'm willing to pass along the praise and encouragement to:

(1) Janie and Steve's Utah Trails helps keep me up to date with my friend, her husband and their horse rides

(2) The Tim and Tess Archives because Tess is creative and funny and Janie's daughter
(3) Esther Garvi has the most radiant smile and is teaching me about life and service in Niger, Africa
4) Lisa's Ramblings reveals magnificent inner strength , she is so open and honest with her feelings
(5) In a Soft Light has beautiful pictures with quotes, what's not to like?

I want to thank Janie for opening my eyes to a whole new world and thanks to all the others out there voraciously taking pictures and blogging away.  It's so fun and addicting to read about other people's lives and experiences, to check out pictures from faraway places and to feel connected in creativity.  Who knew?

Most awards come with some directions, here are the one's for the Butterfly:

1.  Place the logo on your blog

2.  Add a link to the person who awarded you

3.  Nominate other blogs for this award

4.  Add links to those blogs

5.  Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

6.  Give a reason why you consider their blogs cool

Spectacular SkyWatch Sunrise

The other morning I looked outside the window and then ran for my camera. These shots were taken quickly because it was so cold.

One last shot from inside my warm house.  Still, it was so cold that ice formed on the inside of the window!

And in honor of SkyWatch from John Muir:

"The grand show is eternal.  It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising.  Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."

Wild turkey being a turkey

"I hate turkeys.  If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys.  There's turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami.  Someone needs to tell the turkey, man, just be yourself."  --Mitch Hedberg

My World Tuesday

"Winter is nature's way of saying, 'Up yours.'" --Robert Byrne

OK, I could wax poetic about sub-zero temperatures and sparkling snow, but not today.  It's just too cold.  It's only January and we will be freezing well into April most likely.  Look at my 2008 post and the winter pictures, it might explain my attitude problem.  I'll work on that.....

In the meantime, in just a few hours, I'll check out pictures from southern hemisphere blogs and pretend it's summer at My World Tuesday.

"I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood." --Bill Watterson

Experimenting with camera settings

"Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning." --William Arthur Ward

2008 in Review

Each year has its joys and sorrows, its frustrations and accomplishments.  2008 wasn't any different in running the gamut of experiences with family, friends, animals and nature.

Although he had cancer, Chester still lived to be nine years old which is the normal life expectancy for his breed.  We lost him right at the beginning of the year.  Like every animal he had a unique personality.  If you have ever seen a movie with a mellow bloodhound lounging on the front porch, that wasn't Chester.  He was totally hyper.  His liked to play ball, but if someone wasn't out there to play with him, he would throw the ball in the air and chase it by himself.  

The winter was unbelievable.  It went on and on and on.  I have never seen so much snow.  I have never moved so much snow.  We had a flock of wild turkeys move in under the bird feeders.

The snow piled up on the patio.

The snow kept piling up on the patio.

The llamas could barely get into the shed for their hay.  I had to shovel a path for them.

The elevation in Vernal is 1,000 feet lower than where we live so the people in "town" started to see some ground in March.  We didn't.

The kids who ran track were very, very cold.

A sunshine smile on a sunny spring day.

At then end of March we escaped to faraway lands where suddenly the climate was hot.  We saved for a long time to take a dream trip to Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan for three weeks.  In July I started my blog in order to share the pictures and memories from our trip.  

I loved getting to meet elephants up close and personal.

One of a million scenic views in Bhutan.

When we came back the snow was blessedly gone.  It took some time to recover from the travel and the strange post-travel malady I brought home.  It was wonderful to see the columbines eventually bloom on the north side of the house.

In August, we traveled again, more locally.  Our friends' daughter was married in the LDS temple in Salt Lake and we were honored to take pictures of the happy day on 8/8/08.

We traveled to Colorado to visit dear friends and enjoyed seeing Maroon Bells in Aspen for the very first time.

We returned to Colorado to witness the joy of my niece getting married.

What would my life be without animals in it?  Truly, I don't understand people who say they don't like having pets.

My daughter in lovely fall light.

This duck, named Duck, was so much fun.  As the lone duck, she roamed the yard all summer. Whenever anyone went outside, she called, "QUACK!"  We would quack back at her and had very entertaining conversations. Sometimes she liked to hang out on the patio with the cats in the afternoon sun. Unfortunately, a wild animal killed her and the yard is much quieter now. 

As I became more addicted to blogging, my photography increased exponentially.  I enjoyed many beautiful walks this fall, camera in hand, and began experimenting with composition, light and texture.

Alyson Wonderland and the 3 of Hearts.

Just up the hill is an abandoned farm building.

My last walk of the season on the Flume Trail.

We finished out the year with another frenzied holiday season!  My sister and her husband came to visit for New Years but did I take pictures?

So what have I learned?

*That I need to practice taking more people pictures.

*I love blogging and connecting with people all over the world through interesting sites,

*I knew I loved to travel but as I get older there's more of a physical price to pay (but it won't stop me from going new places!)  

*I want to go on safari in Africa.    

*Practicing meditation more frequently would be a good activity, along with more consistent exercise (but I'm not making a "Resolution" of the season.)

*How much I love my family and friends, the place I live and all the critters in the neighborhood.

*I can still take risks but they are more calculated.  I can confront my fears and overcome them.

*I need to be creative and express myself artistically in some form or another.

*I love learning new things.

*The sky is ever changing from moment to moment, just like life.