No, not the Alfred Hitchcock kind who come and attack you, trying to peck your eyes out. I'm talking about Finches and Sparrows, and the occasional Stellar Jay or Woodpecker. Two weeks ago, when it started snowing, we began throwing out bird seed for the little things and they started coming in droves. I guess we still miss our cats. And the hummingbirds.
There were so many on this tree at one time ( I counted 17 ) that they looked like Christmas ornaments. The wonderful thing is, they don't cause a ruckus. Occasionally a Stellar Jay will come by and get loud, but there are so many birds out there that no one particular kind seems to stay for long. It's like they come in shifts.
We won't spend a lot of money on this because it's not really good for the birds to rely on us. Where we live they definitely don't have to. Most of the ones we've seen have been plump little suckers, so I know they're doing well in the food department.
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MY LOVE left early Sunday morning to drive to Portland. She was spending the day with her mother doing some shopping, getting their hair colored, etc. while I elected to stay home and get some work done. I missed her a ton, but I'm glad I was home to witness the incredible thunder and lightning storm that evening.
The thunder was intense - it shook our whole house.
Remember when I said it felt like our home/the resort was under a dome that storms had to pass around in order to get where they were going? Well, it wasn't like that on this particular night. With one camera running under our front porch and one running on the back deck, I captured some amazing footage.
There was a flash flood, but it didn't last too long. 
Some of the lightning strikes were a mere two-hundred yards away, and I have video footage to prove it. Throwing caution to the wind I actually stepped out into our front yard and held the camera for a while.
And then I did something absolutely crazy - as you'll see below. Stepping out onto our back deck, I stood in the wind and rain and watched the sky above for more lightning strikes. This was the time when the storm was clearly beginning to move over our house, and the experience was thrilling. And damn scary! The picture you see below, with me squinting up into the sky as a bolt of lightning strikes behind me... the thunder right after that was so loud that I covered my ears with my hands and ran inside. I didn't know, until looking at the footage later on, just how close the bolt had been to me. HOLY SHIT!!!
The answer to your question is: No, I do not have a death wish. I'm just adventurous.
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It’s been pretty friggin’ hot around here lately, as it has been in many parts of the country. Record high temperatures for this time of the year and all that. Where we live it’s been exceptionally hot, but nothing I’d consider out of the ordinary. This weekend we were expecting thunder and lightning storms and we got them two out of the three evenings.
The resort we live on has it’s own weather sometimes. I’ve walked in the sunshine while it was snowing and we’ve watched storms float by a mere two miles away, but never venture over to touch us. It’s like our house is under a dome that storms have to slide around in order to get where they are going. It’ll rain all around us but never on us, and thankfully the same goes for the lightning. Saturday afternoon I stood out on our front lawn and watched strikes of electricity bursting all around me, but they never seemed to fall anywhere on our resort.
MY LOVE and I were in the middle of watching a DVD when the really aggressive thunder began. The night before, I’d gone out on the deck and listened to it roll and roll, for what seemed like minutes at a time. No breaks and no lulls, just one wave of thunder after another. The lightning had been brief, and there had been hale, but it was a rather tame animal compared to what we saw on Saturday. Turning off the movie, I stepped out front while MY LOVE went out on the back porch. Eventually I joined here, and there we sat and watched the storm go around and away from us. Strong, cooling winds came from all directions and there was a brief bit of rain, but it was really the thunder and lightning that we were out to witness. Sitting on our back deck, under our new Hummingbird feeders, we took in the spectacle.
I brought out the video cameras and set them up to record while we were enjoying the show. The Hummingbirds were very active and put on quite a show themselves. We had, at one time, no less than seven of them vying for space on two feeders. Of course, there’s always the guy who wants to show everyone he’s boss, and this group was no exception. One particularly loud and aggressive Hummingbird kept chirping maniacally and chasing off any others that came even close to the feeders. I never saw any beaks getting used – they seemed to fly up and bump their chests together. At one time there were four of them on one feeder, which is miraculous considering how much they chase after each other during the day. This activity is the closest thing MY LOVE and I have come to “getting a pet”. We are determined to go without until we move to Europe, otherwise we have to A) Leave the pet behind. B) Take it and put it through many miserable weeks of quarantine. Nope. We’ll just feed the wildlife a little bit, watch them grow, thrive and survive, and try to be content with that.
The storm did not seem to bother the Hummingbirds a bit. We heard or saw our neighbors, all around us, which is a rare thing. I know the good weather brings many people to the resort, but I had no idea nearly everyone around us was home. It’s a nice, quiet, private place and we like it that way. Some houses around us stay vacant for half the year, and for me that’s the best kind of neighbor. You just can’t get that, living in Portland, or if you did it would be massively expensive to dwell there. Not that our payments right now are anywhere near what you’d call cheap…
I wish it had been darker – the pictures would be more dramatic. Still, there are some pretty amazing captures, aren’t there?!
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Woke up this morning to about three inches of snow. What a wonderful site to begin your day. MY LOVE left early in the morning to drive to Eugene, so I was left alone for the majority of the day. I had time to go walking in the hills and take a few pictures for you to enjoy.
Being without MY GIRL was difficult, but I felt like I got a lot more done. This makes no sense, because we hardly distract each other, or take up one another’s time. She sits at her section of the desk and I sit at mine, and occasionally we’ll reach over and give the other a hug or something, but that’s about it. Today I was no more focused than I normally am, nor did I spend more time at the computer than I usually do. Actually, I spent a lot of time eating and hanging out with the cat if you want to know the truth. When MY LOVE is out of the house he knows it, and gets a little needy. That, and he’s always convinced it is time to eat, or his water bowl needs refilling.
While MY LOVE drove through snow and wind that made travel nearly impossible – once going as slow as 20 mph she says – I walked around our front yard with only a sweater on. Greyster came out with me and smelled everything that wasn’t surrounded by melting snow while I put away the garbage and recycling cans. It was warm and sunny, with a touch of wind, and it was snowing ever so lightly. The sky above me was clear but all around the clouds were dark and fluffy. Around here, the snow can drift for miles before it finally reaches the ground…
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Much warmer today. The sunshine is out and doing it's job. This is exactly how it needs to be, if we are to travel to Portland in four days.
I opened all the windows in the house today and let the fresh, cool air in. Our two cats took a brief walk outside to smell the new smells that have accumulated near their favorite bushes. I don't expect this to last too long but I am going to enjoy it while it does.
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