Oh Blah Dee

Just as I thought some of this was melting away.. and by melting, I mean MELTING. It's always a mess here during the melt. We don't have pavement on our roads, so we have bumpy, washboard-like roads with ruts that could swallow my car. We have about a 1/2 mile driveway from the house to the main road, and mailboxes, and I always worry I'll get stuck between the two. It's the worst part of the seasons to me.

Anyway.. just as I thought it was going to wash away, snow has hit hard tonight. In buckets. Luckily I don't have to be anywhere tomorrow, and my car is snuggled up in the garage.
I would think most Montanans are like me. You like Winter and snow... to a point. But there comes that time, about right now I think, where you're ready for the green grass, sunshine, fawns and hummingbirds. I doubt this snow will stick around long.. but for now it's coming down beautifully.
About end of July and beginning of August, you'll hear me complain how I'm ready for Winter again.

I was asked recently which was my favorite season. My automatic answer usually is Winter...but I actually have to stop and think about that.
I do love snow and winter and cold weather.
But I also like when Spring arrives and the flowers start blooming. I love when I can smell the flowers in the garden through my windows. I love hearing that first hummingbird, and seeing that first fawn. Spring gives me a lot of photography opportunities.
Summer.. well.. I'm not a hot weather person, so the warm weather and sunshine is nice, but once it gets into the high 80's, low 90's here, I'm turning on the AC. You might laugh at that last sentence, but high 80's here, is hot.
I grew up in Dallas/Fort Worth area, and I know hot.... and I left it back there.
Our house didn't come with AC, so pretty quickly I bought a window unit and it does run starting in July and August.
I was really surprised how hot it felt, considering where I came from, but the neat thing about here is the temps drop into the 50's at night and everything cools down perfectly.
Fall I like because the coolness arrives, the color arrives, and you can smell the bonfires and fireplaces going.
Right about Thanksgiving is when the snow arrives. Perfect.

It's nice to live somewhere with all four seasons. Especially when you used to live in a place with two seasons...SUMMER for 11 months and ICE for one.

Yep, weather is all I have to blog about.
As the title says...
Oh Blah Dee, Oh Blad Da... Life Goes On.

Here I Come...

...To save the day!














We actually have sunshine and almost 50 degrees today. It feels like summer. It's short-lived as I see rain in the forecast, but hey... windows are open and enjoying it :)

Red

I love these guys.

A Woman's Man

The turkey was in rare form this morning as he was struttin' around the yard. It was pretty cool to watch if you've never seen it.
His head changed color a few times to bright red or bright blue. He would walk with a strut and make funny noises. It was pretty cool.

Junco

Tease

The Latest Moonrise

Can't get any better than that :)

When?

So every year I have to go back in my photos and find when everything begins. When does the snow stop, when do the bear start showing up.. when does the snow melt. After receiving almost 5 more inches of snow last night, I keep thinking it should be done. It's not.
The bear usually show up end of May. I think the fawns, mid June. We can't start gardening until at least Memorial Day. I still have a lot of snow time left.

March Moon

The Big Four

I just flipped over my calendar yesterday and realized this is my blogiversary. Four years. Although I'm not sure I would call the last year or so 'blogging'. But, anyway... four years.
A lot sure has changed in four years. A lot of new people in my life since then. Some still around, some not. Some relationships worked, some didn't. All because of this blog. Wild to think about really.

I used to talk about everything but now through some lessons learned, I don't/can't talk about everything. I learned that if you really want your blog to be personal or private, that you don't use your real name and sometimes not even your state. I've been googled often and found. That's expected though I guess. Who'da thought at one time that you could be "googled".

My blog was a creative release at one time and I'm glad I started it. I think now the release moved onto photography and less blogging. I miss it sometimes, just letting it all out on this blog, but in the end sometimes it's better to just keep it personal.

It's cold here today.. 8 below when I woke up and I think it's moved up to a whopping 3 degrees. The skies are blue and the snow is just gorgeous. I saved a robin from an owl yesterday, it was quite the event. I was standing in the right place at the right time and thankfully separated them and they went their separate ways. I worried for awhile if the robin would be okay. He's been here for over a month and it was neat seeing him daily.
He showed back up after awhile and still here this morning.

Anyway.. that's that. Four years, who'da thought.

A Small Break from Snow

Welcome Spring?

I could watch them for hours....

...actually, sometimes I do.

Today

The Moon & Venus

There is Pleasure in the Pathless Woods

Just In Case You Wanted to Know...

I thought this was kinda fun...


Your date of conception was on or about 10 November 1967 which was a Friday.

You were born on a Friday
under the astrological sign Leo.
Your Life path number is 7.

Your fortune cookie reads:
May life throw you a pleasant curve.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 4 & 22.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path number 9.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 3, 6, 8 & 11.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2440070.5.
The golden number for 1968 is 12.
The epact number for 1968 is 0.
The year 1968 was a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/30/1968 and ending 2/16/1969.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Monkey.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Salmon; your plant is Raspberry.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Paopy, the second month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 8 Av 5728.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 9 Av 5728.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.14.17.6 which is
12 baktun 17 katun 14 tun 17 uinal 6 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Friday, 7 Jumadiyu'l-Avval 1388 (1388-5-7).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 14 April 1968.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 21 April 1968.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 28 February 1968.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 2 June 1968.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 9 June 1968.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Monday, 23 September 1968.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Saturday, 13 April 1968.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 27 February 1968.

As of 2/24/2009 12:15:07 PM EST
You are 40 years old.
You are 486 months old.
You are 2,117 weeks old.
You are 14,816 days old.
You are 355,596 hours old.
You are 21,335,775 minutes old.
You are 1,280,146,507 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Hallie Eisenberg (1992) Edward Furlong (1977) Jeremy Castle (1974)
Victoria Jackson (1959) Judge Lance Ito (1950) Peter O'Toole (1932)
James Baldwin (1924) Carroll O'Connor (1924) Myrna Loy (1905)

Top songs of 1968
Hey Jude by Beatles I Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye
Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat Honey by Bobby Goldsboro
People Got to Be Free by Rascals The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding
This Guy's In Love with You by Herb Alpert Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel
Love Child by Diana Ross & the Supremes Tighten Up by Archie Bell & the Drells

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.79882583170254 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

Your lucky day is Sunday.
Your lucky number is 1 & 4.
Your ruling planet(s) is Sun.
Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th.
Your opposition sign is Aquarious.
Your opposition number(s) is 8.

Today is not one of your lucky days!

There are 159 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 41 candles.

Those 41 candles produce 41 BTUs,
or 10,332 calories of heat (that's only 10.3320 food Calories!) .
You can boil 4.69 US ounces of water with that many candles.


In 1968 there were approximately 3.7 million births in the US.
In 1968 the US population was approximately 179,323,175 people, 50.6 persons per square mile.
In 1968 in the US there were approximately 1,800,000 marriages (9.3%) and 479,000 divorces (2.5%)
In 1968 in the US there were approximately 1,712,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1968 the population of Australia was approximately 12,145,582.
In 1968 there were approximately 240,906 births in Australia.
In 1968 in Australia there were approximately 106,345 marriages and 10,731 divorces.
In 1968 in Australia there were approximately 109,547 deaths.


Your birthstone is Peridot

The Mystical properties of Peridot

Peridot is used to help dreams become a reality.
Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Sardonyx, Diamond, Jade

Your birth tree is

Cypress, the Faithfulness
Strong, muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give, happy,content,optimistic, needs enough money and acknowledgment, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered,unruly, pedantic and careless.



There are 304 days till Christmas 2009!
There are 317 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waxing gibbous.

Take-Off

Patience

Captive

Well, so much for moving my blog and blogging more, eh?

Not really much to blog about lately. I still don't think we've reached 40 degrees in who knows how long. Just as we reach about 36 and things start to melt, we go down to the 20's at night, it snows and everything refreezes. This is that time of year where I'm ready for green and flowers and start gardening. I have quite awhile though.

Nothing much else new. I've made myself leave the house almost daily to look for wildlife shots. I've found eagles almost daily if I drive along the hwy. Unfortunately, we have so much roadkill from all the snow and the deer forced to remain close to the streets. But, it does give me the eagle photos. The grey skies don't help, but I still get out.

I decided to make a couple of bound photo books to put down at the store. Only thing is, they're not cheap to make, so not so cheap to sell either. Not sure if someone would pay that much for a local photo book, but I guess you never know. I'm going to try it anyway.

I'm hoping to go to Chicago in September. Anyone wanna housesit? Ellen?? I had an option to try to go to Phoenix in March, but it's not going to happen, so I'm shooting for Chicago. We still have that NY trip on hold also, which I'm dying to go.
After seeing Shephard's photos of Paris, I think I want to go there too. Of course this is all daydreaming since I can never seem to get out of here.

What else? That might just be it.