This Morning's Sunrise

I know I've been sharing sunset photos with you all lately. Here's a wonderful sunrise photo from this morning. We have a pretty dry climate, so misty, foggy mornings are somewhat rare. It felt somewhat magical, and hopefully that translated into the photo! Enjoy!

Yesterday's Sunset

I just had to share these wonderful images from yesterday's sunset. It was really rose and purple, even though it looks somewhat surreal! The above and below photos were taken with our neighbor's horse corral in the foreground. If you look closely at the image below, you can see Patches, the painted pony (look for the patches of white).
I turned from taking the sunset photos and saw almost the exact opposite effect in the sky toward the north. The sunset over the San Pedro Mountains looks almost pastel by comparison. Same sunset, same time, very different results!

Enjoy!

Glorious Sunset!

Check out the great sunset we had the other evening. All of these photos are of the same sunset - you can actually see how the clouds are very similar if not the same in some of the photos.

Wouldn't the above photo make a great bookmark? I really like the glow of the sun on the clouds on the left side of the photo.

These two photos (above and below) are the first photos that I have of Jazz, our friends' new horse. She's a mare, about 4-5 years old. She's very shy and not fully trustful of people yet. Our friends believe that at some point in her life she was either mistreated or just trained rather roughly. She is very pretty, and is slowly coming around, and it will be nice when that happens.

The last photo (below) is a great one of the sky, isn't it? It's one of the major reasons why I love living here so much!

Enjoy!

Final Segment - Crater Lake National Park

Yes, it's really June! Apparently, Crater Lake National Park is only snow free 2 months out of the year - July & August! It just opened a few days before we got there, and only a small portion of the road that circles the Lake was actually open. The majority of the road is still under about 12 feet of snow! The afternoon we arrived, we thought we'd try to get up to the Lake, but ran into this blizzard. We did stop at the first view point, but only saw a wall of white - a combo of cloud and snow! We drove up again the following morning, and the weather couldn't have been more different. The shot below was taken at the same spot where we only saw the white wall the afternoon before! The Lake is breathtakingly beautiful. It is self-contained, and only gets water from snow and rain. It is supposed to be the cleanest water around, altho they still don't recommend trying to drink it!

The image below is of a nearby mountain. It just looked so majestically beautiful, I had to include it in this small collection.

And, finally, here's another image of a couple of neighboring mountains that haven't erupted! We were in the Cascade mountain range, which is, of course, still considered active in terms of volcano activity (think Mount St Helens and Rainier, which folks say can blow at any time). I just love mountains, don't you?

Enjoy!

Northwest Trip - Along the Oregon Coast

This was Miki's first experience with the ocean, and clearly, she just loved it! She took off running to and fro, and even splashed into the water. She wasn't into running into the water to swim, like she does in lakes, but that was ok with us. We didn't know what kind (if any) of undertow there might be, and neither of us felt equipped to deal with that, if she did swim out & get caught in it.

Here's a shot of Jeff playing with Miki along the shore. She just had a grand ol' time!

This shot was of the Haystack Rocks along the Oregon coast, close to a town called Cannon Beach. It was kind of ironic. Most of the time, the weather along the coast was damp, cool, and rainy, but every so often - which just happened to be when we were at a great photo op spot - the rain would break, skies would clear and we'd have perfect weather!

The last time Jeff & I were in this neck of the woods was the very first trip we went on. It was in July, 2004, and the weather was nothing but rainy. I got some great shots of the Haystack Rocks, but the shots were very moody, and sort of looked like they were black & white photos. It was a 180 degree difference this time along the shoreline. Altho the moody shots were nice, I much prefer the nice weather!

Northwest Trip - Drive from Spokane to Seattle, WA

Well, the weather broke and turned sunny the day we left Spokane for Seattle. We did get some very nice views along the backroads we traveled. We did the northern route, and ended up taking the ferry from Seattle to Poulsbo, across the Puget Sound, to Jeff's sister & brother-in-law's place. The above photo was just a little town/village we saw along the way. It almost reminded me of a village that I've read about in my murder mystery books set in the New England area.....except for the mountains, of course!

The above image was taken at a little county park that we stopped at to eat lunch - we ended up doing a little picnic, altho we were just steps from our RV, so I'm not quite sure that truly qualifies as a picnic, but I'm calling it one!

This image was taken in the area around the Grand Coulee Dam. That's a really cool dam, and longer than the Hoover Dam, altho the Hoover Dam is taller. I just love the reflection in the river. What a nice bookmark this would make!

Isn't this a lovely shot of a mountain waterfall? I have a feeling this may be a seasonal waterfall, just for the snow melt-off from the mountain, but who knows? Maybe it's a year 'round thing, since this is the northwest, where rainfall is more plentiful. Notice the lush green around the area, too. It sure is pretty, but I'm not sure that I could pay the price - all those rainy days! Still, lovely to see!

Recap of Recent Trip - In Spokane, WA

Just got back from a trip to the Northwest, visiting Jeff's brother, sister and their families, and doing some sightseeing on the way back home in our RV. These photos were some that I took when we were at his brother, Rick's, and sister-in-law, Barb's place. They have a bird feeder, and I got some cool shots of the birds as they had breakfast! The above photo reminds me of a dance of sorts, and I call it The Dance. The photo below was of some beautiful blooms just below the bird feeder - the tall blooms are lupine, but I forget what the smaller blooms are. I applied a filter that makes the photo look like a painting, just because the image reminded me of one!

The little bird below is a House Finch (per the bird book Rick had), and I just loved this image. I think I'm going to convert it to a return address label!

This last image is another one I liked, just because of catching the bird coming in for a landing on the bird feeder above the House Finch. The days here were cool, damp, and sometimes rainy, but it was great for capturing images of the birds and blooms with very saturated colors!

More to come - the next blog will cover the trip from Spokane (eastern Washington state) to Seattle! Stay tuned!

Marikate's Dream Box

Check out the Dream altered cigar box that I just finished for my niece, Marikate. I really like the way this came out - reminds me of her! The above image is of the top of the box. Her favorite color is silver, so that was the main color used on the box.

Here's a photo of the front and side of the box. I made up some quotes that I think are true about dreams on each side of the box. The front clasp opening is accentuated by some jewelry wire with a few beads. The feet of the box are wooden drawer knobs that I painted.

On the sides and top of the box, I adhered some cool buttons that I've inherited from a friend of mine, Vicki, to use in my creative endeavors. I think they are perfect for this box! As you can see, I did feel the need to add some color, and I found some very nice handmade lilac paper that worked well with the silver. The flowers on the top of the box are spiderwort that used to grow in my garden when I lived back in Illinois! The color just seemed to work well with the paper and this box. Enjoy!!