1. I’ve been sick with some sort of gastrointestinal malady the last couple of days.

2. Today I managed to take Finn for a quick walk. Isn’t he cute? Pretty good for 13.5!

3. I’m going to be 40 tomorrow. If anyone makes an over the hill joke, they will loose an eye. You have been warned.

4. Monday was groundhog day. Punxsutawney Phil predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Here in the Pacific Northwest, Whiskers predicted an early spring. This matches my prediction. I’ll go on further an predict a drought of a summer; there has hardly been any rain this winter.

5. Monday night there was the most awesome moon with all sorts of plane trails. I tried to get a picture of it, because I thought it looked like an painting in the making, but this was all I ended up with.

6. I’m up to 30 birds on my list of birds seen this year. Next weekend is the Raptor Road Trip, so I hope to increase that number. My goal is 150 species this year.

This weekend my friend Lea and I went down to Seaside to enjoy the MLK weekend. Lea and I have been friends for over 10 years and this is the first time we have attempted any kind of overnight trip; I’m thrilled to say that we had a good time. We snuggled up in our little two-bedroom condo and enjoyed TV, a jigsaw puzzle, and a winter beach storm.

In fact, except for an unexpected flat tire, the weekend went perfectly. Lea is an opera buff (an understatement) and we went to the Met HD presentation of “The Merry Widow” with Renee Fleming before heading down to Seaside. We blew into town just as it was getting dark and after checking in, we foraged for food and settled down in the condo to be warm and dry and listen to the wind and rain.

Sunday morning we got up and attempted a walk on the beach. The wind was really blowing, so Lea turned back quickly, but I walked along the beach for a while, then cut over to the parallel road to avoid the sand in my face.

After I returned to the condo, we headed into downtown Seaside and had a great lunch at Tsunami Sandwhich before doing a little window shopping. Lea was tired after this, so I dropped her off and went to visit the Nacanicum Estuary. There I added seven species of bird (I’m up to 27 for the year…) to my Oregon Checklist for the year.

I also played with a couple of dogs and threw a stick. It brought back great memories of my first dog, Sean, a lab. He loved the ocean. Finn stayed back at home with my mom, who decided to come up for some errands and to dog-sit (he would have had fun at the beach, but Lea is intristically a cat person).

After returning for the evening to the condo, Lea and I watched TV and finished our jigsaw. We are such party people.

Monday I got up and ran down to Les Schwab for tire repair, then we headed out for a final walk on the significantly less stormy beach before packing up and heading back to Portland. I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon and both of us had a variety of things to accomplish in the last hours of the long weekend.

It was nice to get away for a weekend. My parents had their house at the beach before I was born, so in spite of living in Oregon essentially all my life, this was the first time I ever stayed at the beach anywhere except Lincoln City (not counting painting conventions and church camp.) It was nice, but I think I’ll be okay to stick with Lincoln City (free) lodging for a while now!

My New Year’s tale, actually begins very late in 2014. December 31 I stayed up late to finish the sweater I have been working on the better part of year (since February 28 to be specific.) My goal was to finish it in 2014, and I did… if I had been in Hawaii. Actually, I finished it at 1:30 am and I’m calling it a 2014 finished project!

I slept in a little, then headed off to Knitted Wit‘s “New Year Shindig” to hang out and party. I saw friends and lots of yarn and broke a New Year’s Resolution to go on a yarn diet by buying more yarn. My plan is to use it for the Rose City Yarn Crawl’s Mystery Knit Along, so that’s my excuse.

After returning from this event (where I tried Hoppin’ John (it was excellent)), I took Finn out for a hike at Canemah, where I encountered “my” Great Horned owl. I was delighted to see him still in the area; he hasn’t been at his usual perch the last few times I’ve been looking for him, and I was concerned he had moved on or found a mate outside the area. But he was there; no sign of a mate, though. Of course, I’m lucky just to spot him!

I also noticed some insect scrolls on downed logs that caught my fancy. I wonder if there is a way to incorporate this in an art piece?

When I came back, I was feeling good so I took out a Christmas present, Veg Power!, and decided to try out a recipe. I selected lasanga and invited my friend JJ over for dinner. We ended up eating a good meal and watching sitcoms for the evening.

Two parties in one day! Now that’s a good start to the year!

For obvious reasons, this has been a very low-key holiday season for me and that trajectory continued in my Christmas celebration. I arrived at the beach to spend the holiday with my mom late on Christmas Eve, and then we got up on Christmas Day and drove to Yaquina Head to do some birding.

It was an excellent day; while it wasn’t a clear day, it refrained from raining until we were heading back home, and admission to the park was free.

Our first stop was Quarry Cove.

Upon arrival, we spotted a mother seal and her yearling pup sunning themselves on the rocks.

She definitely kept an eye on us, and when a few more people arrived, she and her pup slid into the water. We counted a total of eight seals “bottling” in the water.

We also saw a flock of Black Turnstones and a cormorant (probably an immature double crested.)

As we left the cove, we spotted an immature bald eagle (we would later see another immature and a mature, leading us to believe it was hanging around waiting for a handout from mom or dad before another breeding season starts.)

Next we stopped by the interpretive center; Mom had gone on a walk here with the Lincoln City Audubon Society and wanted to show me where the peregrine falcons had nested. We didn’t expect to see them, but as I was looking up at the cliff, both adults came swooping by. It is a little early for nesting, but peregrines mate for life and keep the same nest site from year to year, so they must have been inspecting the site for later use.

After this exciting turn of events, we went to the lighthouse proper. The lighthouse was closed for painting, so we walked down to the cove. We saw a few more seals, a few more birds and talked to an on-duty ranger.

Before leaving, we hiked up to the top of the head. The light to the south was interesting as little squalls were coming in.

Today was a normal, laid-back Saturday. I headed out to the barn to play with the horses, then took Finn for a hike, before coming back home to play with paint and yarn and run errands.

When I arrived at the barn, I spotted this young bald eagle perched in the oak trees surrounding the barn, supervising the area.

Then, during our hike (a new area we’ve been exploring) I saw two new birds: a golden crowned kinglet and a swainson’s thrust. Neither are uncommon to the area, but kinglets are hard to photograph and the book says the thrush should have migrated away by now. Incidently, I’m not 100% sure about the thrush ID (it could be a hermit thrush, but based on the area and behavior, I don’t think so. If you have an opinion, please let me know.)

It was a lovely day and I saw several other birds and enjoyed the dew clinging to the few remaining spiders webs that haven’t been pulled down by the recent winds.

It is painting night, and I am hard at work. But again, I can’t show you anything too revealing.

So I will distract my loyal readers (Mom and possibly the dog has learned to flip on the computer.)

Knitting

I am within a literal inch of finishing the main parts (sleeves, back, and two fronts) of the sweater I have been working on since last February. If I can finish it tonight, I may stay up late and give it a good blocking so I can sew it together this weekend and add the button band (but that will take a little more time.) After 10 months of working on it… well, you can see why I’m excited about getting so close to being done.

My knitting friends have lately been teasing me about how long this has taken. But I’ll have a new sweater soon and that’ll show them! Of course, after 75 pounds (20% of my body weight and 7 sizes) it may not fit. But it will be new and MINE!

This means that for knit night (and a couple of meetings tomorrow) I need to cast on a new project. I want something fast, easy, and with BIG yarn. I feel a hat coming on…

Recent hikes

Sunday I went to Canemah. Winter has set in so everything is so wet. I played with the manual focus features on my camerah to get this photo (and managed to get poison oak…)

Someone had made a little pile of stones at the entrance of the park; it was just one of the many “salient details” I fin charming this time of year.

Birding was mediocre, but I did get these beautiful shots of a Western Scrub Jay.

One last note

Starting tomorrow, I am going to be offering an “online studio sale” for all of my pieces. Please look at my art pages to see if anything catches your fancy.

• Horse paintings
• Animal paintings
• Miscellaneous paintings

I plan to feature a painting a day at a bit of a discount to see if a few paintings can find a new home before the new year.

I hope to hear from you all!

P.S.

It’s ten minutes to midnight and the sweater is blocking!

It has turned cold here, with ice dusting a few shady places and wet spots. More than that, however, it is windy and bright. We went for a hike today, and while it was cool in the protected shady places, it wasn’t until you were exposed to the sunshine that you felt the weather.

Because it was so bright, I got some good bird photos, though I didn’t see as many birds as usual.

Still, it was a gorgeous day. I’m very fond of this time of year. There is still a lot of detail and color, and the angle of the light makes some really stunning photos.

Can you believe it’s almost December?

With October “in the bag” as they say, I’m looking forward to a quieter winter. Today I finished the last of a series of classes and then looked around an realized… well, that I didn’t have anything I had to do.

So, I took a hike and got a pedicure

On my hike (it seems like a long time since I visited Canemah) I noticed over and over the changes that have gripped my favorite hike since fall has arrived.

It was also a really great day for birds. They were active and visible along the trail.

Best of all, I ran across “my” owl again.

He sure looks like he’s settled down for the winter. I looked all over trying to find a second owl, hoping that maybe I could spot his mate (if he has one). No luck. I’d love to know if he has a mate and might breed the next year. I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on him!