Wolf Haven

About two weeks ago my husband was lucky enough to go on a photography tour at a wonderful place called Wolf Haven. It is about 25 miles south of us in Tenino, Washington. I say lucky enough because there are only two photography tours a year. One in January and the other in March. The tours are limited to winter time because as we later found out that is when wolves are the most active. They set off after breakfast at around 9 am. On the tours there is a guide and a professional photographer. My goodness what a day he had. I hope you enjoy his beautiful photos as much as I did.This is Bart.This is Cadeus. Cadeus was raised by humans as a pet which of course is never a good idea. He was turned over to Wolf Haven when he just got to big and a bit unmanageable.This photo with one of the people on the tour will give you some idea of his size. He still enjoys humans and hubby was lucky enough to get slobbered on. He returned the greeting with a tummy rub.This is Spruce and Cricket, brother and sister.
This is Ladyhawk.

Want to howl with the wolves? Yep, they even have Howl-Ins. You can howl to your hearts content. Pretty good way I think to get rid of the stresses of the day.

Wolf Haven is a lifetime sanctuary for wolves. Since 1982 they have been helping these wonderful creatures. Most of them are rescued from private ownership. So if you are thinking about owning a wolf.... don't!

As hubby was about to leave all the wolves got up and started howling. The end to a simply perfect day. I hope you have enjoyed hearing all about the wolves at Wolf Haven.
All the photos can be made larger if you click on them.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Finally!

At last I can now sit comfortably once again at the computer and do a blog post. I am so happy that my back is now back to normal. Thank you for all your good thoughts. They were much appreciated.

Not to much has been going on around here. I am getting a jump start on Easter by doing a little egg decorating. This idea was from Martha Stewart Living. I brought some natural colored eggs at Michael's added a few stickers and within minutes I had some sweet looking eggs. Wish all projects were this simple.

I spent the weekend with my daughter again making soapy things but on returning home, look what was waiting for me....... this lovely book that I had ordered. I had actually forgotten that it was coming. What lovely cute things there are to knit and crochet.I am super pleased that I ordered it.Along with this book I also ordered this one...... it is so nice to come home after a long working weekend and have little surprises waiting. After taking a warm bath I put on my jammies and fluffy slippers and curled up on the couch and devoured them both from cover to cover.I think I am a bookaholic as well as a chocoholic!Shame I didn't have some chocolate to munch on while I was looking at them.... I ate that before I left for the weekend. Must plan better next time!

See you soon!

Down but not Defeated!

Sacroiliac Joint Inflammation has been my not so nice friend for the past two weeks. It makes it quite difficult to sit or lay comfortably. Hence no bloggy posts from me for a while. Bending to put on socks or shoes usually takes a good five minutes and a few choice words. Not to worry though with the help of my wonderful chiropractor I am finally on the mend.

How did that happen you might wonder. I would like to say that it happened while I was sky diving in Hawaii. Or when I was bungee jumping off the San Fransisco Bridge. I am afraid it was nothing quite that glamorous. I was bending down one morning to put on my underwear and I felt a funny little zing in my lower back. It really didn't hurt that much but by days end I was looking like a gorilla trying to walk upright.
With the help also of some not so lovely smelling creams I finally look like a human again.
I am not very good at sitting around doing nothing. I tend to drive me and hubby crazy. So I started a hexagon lap throw. At least thank goodness my brain and fingers still worked OK. It is quite amazing how doing something helps you to forget about the pain for a little while.Of course right in the middle of all this the rest of my fabric came to add to my colorful squares quilt. I was sorely tempted to go and sit at my machine a while but I didn't want to undo all the progress that I had made with my back. So patient I will be... ho hum.We still on occasion get some snow and pretty cold temperatures. All kinds of little birds are flocking into our garden. We have the feeding station set up next to our pine tee. They love using the tree for shelter from the cold and wind.The amount of bird food and suet we go through is quite astonishing. But it makes us feel really good that we can help them through the winter.Hector our little hummingbird still comes to the feeder and still puts up a fight if any other hummingbird tries to use it. I wonder how long he will be with us.

Well I have typed all this out while I have been standing up and my legs are getting just a bit tired.

Have a great day everyone.
I'll be back soon!

Quilting and Snowing

Our weather was so yucky and very unpredictable today. One minute it was snowing hard and that next the sun was out and the sky was blue. It has been doing that all day. So it was the perfect day to stay inside and have fun with my new sewing machine. I have started working on a quilt. Nothing to elaborate just a simple sew squares together kind of quilt. I am loving this fabric from Moda. In fact I am loving it so much that I ordered more so as I can make my quilt just a bit bigger. Hopefully it will be here in a few days so I can continue on.

Hubby was working from home because of the bad weather. During lunch he spotted this lovely male House Finch.He was sitting up high in our pine tree. He just happened to appear between snow showers. The sun was out so it made for perfect picture taking. All the male birds are starting to get quite colorful in hopes of attracting a mate. Ten minutes later the sky turned black and down came the snow again and all the birds took shelter. I hope he stops by our garden again. Maybe he just might have the Mrs. with him next time.

Well dinner is calling and I still haven't figured out what we will be having yet!

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Sewing Roses

I was out in my garden yesterday looking at my roses that soon will need pruning back. I cannot wait until they bloom again. So until they do I satisfied myself with two little rose pouches. First this pink spotty one.Then this green spotty one. I really felt like sewing yesterday so I also made this one...It's really fun to sew when you have lots of ideas rumbling around in your head.... and you feel like sewing.

We have a wonderful weather weekend coming up. Lots of sun on Saturday, so a good long walk is in our plans.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend in your little corner of the world!

Wishing there was two of me!

I really do wish that there was two of me so I could manage to accomplish everything that I need to do. Most weekends I am staying at my daughters making soapy stuff. During the week I have to play catch up and I am not always successful. I try to squeeze in sewing time wherever I can. I was thrilled when I actually managed to finish this little pouch just for me. It will come in handy on my weekend trips.One of the things that I miss doing at the weekend is walking with hubby. I miss seeing all those wonderful birds and animals as well as walking in that great fresh air. Last weekend he went for a walk and took some lovely photo's. So thank goodness at least I have those to enjoy. This little shore bird is a Greater Yellowlegs. Pretty good name I think!He finally managed to get a pretty decent photo of a Kingfisher. These little birds are a challenge to photograph. Just when you think you have them in the lens they fly away.

Time for me to go and catch up on all your blogs and find out all that you have been up to.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

... and all before breakfast!

All winter long we have been feeding our little resident hummingbird. In fact hubby has named him Hector. Some days when it has been below freezing the feeder needs changing almost every hour. We like to think that we have aided in his survival this winter. Hector is a hummingbird with a bit of an attitude. He lets you know when you are getting to close or that you better hurry up filling his feeder. I say his feeder because he chases everyone else away that tries to use it. He makes the loudest chirping sound when he is mad or not happy.

So this morning it was below freezing here and when I looked out I saw that the feeder was frozen solid. Still in my pajamas and before breakfast I thought I had better see to the feeder before I saw to me. Normally hubby does this duty before going to work so I don't know why he didn't. It is a whole lot easier for him as he is quite a bit taller than I am.

I took the chair from the kitchen so as I could climb up to reach the feeder. Once inside I thawed it out and then filled it with nice new sugar water. Outside I went again. I climbed up on the chair and I guess I wasn't watching what I was doing and proceeded to spill this lovely sticky sugar water all over me. It is really quite amazing at how fast it pours out of those tiny holes!

By now I was feeling quite cold and sticky and Hector was getting a might impatient.

In I come again, repeat the process of filling the feeder. Out I go again, climbed up on the chair and could not get it hooked onto the hanger. Even more spilled out this time not only covering me but also the chair. Apparently there is some kind of trick to getting the feeder onto the hook which hubby hasn't told me about. I actually stood there in disbelief that twice now I had dumped that lovely sticky stuff all over me. Adding insult to injury Hector appeared around the corner of the house and gave me what for in his loud chirpy little voice.

So here I am freezing cold, sticky, still in my pajamas and so far no breakfast. Not even a cup of tea!

If I told you I did it a third time you wouldn't believe me so I won't!

Finally the feeder got filled. The chair and the deck got washed down. Me? Well I am still sticky and cold. I did decide to have a quick cup of tea though before I went upstairs to take a hot shower.I even used my brand new cup that I brought myself over the weekend. So there I was standing in the kitchen looking out at Hector drinking away at the feeder while sipping on my warm delicious cup of tea. The phone rings... its my mother-in-law. "My furnace isn't working" she says. Sigh... I knew I should have just stayed in bed this morning.

As a side note if any of you want a punk rocker spiky hairdo I highly recommend hummingbird sugar water... it sets up like concrete!

Pincushions and Twilight

I finally was able to get around to making myself a couple of new pincushions. I was going to make just your old run of the mill pincushion. But then I thought why not make something pretty and sweet so I finally settled on a couple of cupcake pincushions. I have a tendency to not take to much time when I am making something for myself. Don't know why that is other than I have so much other stuff to do. Well from now on I get some of the pretty stuff too!I have been meaning to blog about a trip I took with my daughter and niece last October. My niece Chloe was visiting from England and is a huge Twilight fan. So we just had to make a trip to Forks Washington the town that the movie was about. We set off very early and very excited. It was a wonderful trip and a wonderful weather day. The scenery was spectacular. Around every corner it just kept getting better and better. We finally arrived at Forks around lunch time. We stopped on the outskirts of town by the "Welcome to Forks" sign and took some photo's. Of course apples were brought along to re-create the front cover on one of the books. They were of course promptly eaten as by this time we were quite hungry.Forks is quite a small little town but we found a restaurant and had some lunch. This was one of the items on the menu. After much laughing we settled on something else for our lunch. I guess a lot of the businesses in Forks were cashing in on their new found fame.Lunch over with we took in a spot of sight seeing. Here is one of the trucks that Bella used in the movie. I say one because further down the road we came upon another one. So we will never know for sure. It was still fun anyway.You can even have your photo taken standing next to these cardboard cutouts of the characters in the movie. Not going to tell you if we did or not... it's to embarrassing!
Down the road we went to the Cullen house. Edward wasn't there of course but we took a photo of his mail box.It took a bit of searching but we finally found all that is left of the high school that Bella and Edward attended. Just the front fascade is still standing. They are building a new high school so they pulled that old one down. Apparently they are trying to raise money to save and I think move this piece. I hope they manage to do it.Last stop in town was Bella Swans house. I stood there wondering how many times a day this little house gets photographed. I wondered too if the owners got fed up with all the cars pulling up out front.
Anyway on we went with our trip.After driving for what seemed like forever we finally ended up in La Push. My goodness what an incredibly beautiful place.... and incredibly windy too! This is the place that they all went swimming or surfing. At least that is what they would like us to believe.
What a day we had! We still had a very long drive home but on the way back we decided to cut out some of the driving and take the ferry part way.The sun was starting to set as we got on board the ferry to take us back home.
Hope you enjoyed our little Twilight trip, we certainly did. In fact I can't wait until I go back again. Want to come along?

See you soon.

No Snow Here!

I almost feel a little mean doing this post today. With a good deal of the country battling snow and ice here I am showing you how incredible lovely it was here. The sun was shining brilliantly and the sky was as blue as could be. Although it was pretty cold I took my afternoon tea out on the front porch and soaked up some Vitamin D.Right there, the chair on the left is where I sat. I had actually thought about bringing out some knitting or crocheting but I did have to keep reminding myself that it was February.The Flowering Plum Tree in the front garden is already full of buds.The only plants that are blooming at this time of year are the heathers. This one is in need of a trim after it has finished blooming. Must add that to my to do list.Through the gate and into the back garden I went. I was very surprised to see that the Daylilies had already popped through the ground. The temperature difference from the front to the back is quite amazing. Sometimes it can be almost 8 to 10 degrees cooler back here. It does make it nice in summer though when it can be blisteringly hot on the front porch.My Flowering Currant Bush is also full of buds. This is one of the first plants to bloom in Spring. The returning Hummingbirds are all over it once the flowers come out.Last stop in the garden... my little bench. Looking a bit sad without the Honeysuckle vine in bloom. But watch out in a few months, it will be buzzing with Hummingbirds and Bees.... and of course I'll be sitting there sipping tea and sewing something or other.

So I hope that my little garden tour has brightened up your day if you are dealing with lots of snow and ice. Just remember it won't last forever.

See you soon.

Cheswick...

... the Great Horned Owl! I am sure all the Great Horned Owls everywhere are very insulted by my version but he's mine and I love him! He did give me some grief in the making but he proudly stands atop our bookcase looking down with those enormous eyes.

Speaking of owls so far this year we have not seen the real Great Horned Owls down at the nature refuge. Last winter their tree that they had been nesting in blew down in a bad storm. Everyone is on the lookout for them though. I hope they have found a new suitable tree and will again have young.

Well I am going to take a long weekend staying up at my daughters house. So enjoy your weekend and I will see you all again next week.

Dreaming of Spring

At this time of year when we rarely see the sun I just love it when I am given spring flowers. My lovely daughter gave me this beautiful Hyacinth plant on Saturday. I wish you could smell how wonderfully fragrant it is. I am starting to notice already that there are quite a few spring flowers for sale. Gives me hope that Spring can't be too far away. So far this winter we haven't had too much bad weather. In fact it has been pretty mild here. Not so for the rest of the country. Many places are inundated with snow, poor things. At least we don't have to shovel all our rain!While our daughter was visiting this past weekend we took her to our favorite walking place. Quite a bit of wildlife was spotted. These two Bald Eagles were perched high up in a dead tree scanning the horizon. No matter how many times we see them it is always a thrill.There is always lots of bathing and splashing going on. Now that more and more ducks are returning there is usually quite a bit of squabbling for the best nesting spots. I always love the time of year when all the new babies arrive. Still making those little pouches for my shop. I am also trying to work on some other projects that I have had in my mind for a while. I have been trying to work on a little owl. I just have to keep plodding away until I have it just right.

Wherever you are I hope you are having a great Tuesday.
See you soon!