Wordless Wednesday: Wood Duck Babies!

I have a brand new computer and this momma wood duck brought her babies to the pond. There really are no words!

Wordless Wednesday: Wood Duck Comes Calling

Sometimes The Weather...

...overwhelms everything. Demands your attention and won't leave you alone. It's an entity that must be dealt with. We think about it, plan for it, have the snow plowed or shovel it ourselves. We must shop for food with the weather in mind; we carry a shovel in the car when we head out; we pack extra boots and heavy jackets, just in case. We keep a pot of water on the stove in case we need to boil it for hot water in the morning. The extension cords stay in place now for quick attachment to the generator. Yes, we've had another storm, and another extended power outage.
The weather. It has whupped our butts this year, and not only ours but our entire county's; the PG&E crews constantly trying to restore power, and the telephone companies keeping connections humming. Tree crews, road crews, and law enforcement are all working non-stop. There's hardly been a day since mid February that we haven't seen some work truck on the side of the road with a cherry-picker bucket high up in the trees or the top of a pole, and some person doing his/her damnedest to solve a problem.
The weather. And there's more on the way. Out of the Gulf of Alaska (thanks, Dave!). One storm ends, another begins, with hardly a breather in between. It's the trees that seem to take the brunt of it. Limbs strewn everywhere, tops blown off like they were nothing but insignificant toothpicks, and whole trees spread across roadways as if they had always planned to fall just this way.

The weather.
So sometimes, we take a break and head out to watch the Wood Ducks in the snowy pond. It almost balances the madness, but not quite.

Wordless Wednesday: Finding Color in the Endless Rain

A Sunlit Tuesday With Wood Ducks

After three days of heavy rain, the sun came out briefly Tuesday afternoon. The world brightened with leaves that looked like they had been painted with diamonds and grassy hillsides swathed in gold. I grabbed the camera and headed out to look for rainbows. I didn't see any, but that doesn't mean they weren't there.
I did spot this rainbow of a duck in the pond again. What a pair these two beauties are. I try never get too close because I don't want to scare them off. I want them to feel completely safe and welcome. Roger is going to build them a nest box. We hear that Wood Ducks are very fussy. So, he plans to build something they simply can't resist.

Then the sun disappeared after this very well-lit respite.

I went back to unpacking boxes, finding things I had completely forgotten we had. And, OMG one was a jewelry box full of my crazy big old earrings. Style can be a very strange thing, in retrospect.