Fall is officially here, but it is still warm! Looks like we will have lovely weather for a couple more days, how cool (ha) is that! I do love fall, but I am not quite ready for the cooler temperatures. I think the Californian in me is speaking right now :) The funny thing is that if I were in California, I would anxiously be awaiting cooler weather. Heh, I guess I need to ask the Lord for contentment wherever I’m at.
Incase you were wondering if bees have moods, since they always keep a straight face :) I obviously had way too much time on my hands today while Todd was playing in his disc-golf tournament!
I was playing with baby… I mean camera today, taking a picture here and there. Playing with scrapbook paper backgrounds when I decided to take a picture of me. I never take self portraits and I debated about posting one of the ones I took. Wow, I have a lot of freckles…must have been all that sun this summer :) If you can get past my unruly eyebrows, I kind of like the photo and that’s saying a lot!
The cupcake is chocolate, chocolate chip with peanut butter frosting, pretty good for vegan. I also like sheep, black sheep in particular, dunno why :)
With the warm weather we had up until a couple days ago, you’d think it was summer in the garden. All sorts of flowers are still in bloom and some got a second set of blooms like our butterfly bush. I still have poppies opening up that started back in April! I am not sure if this abnormal or not since this is my first garden in the Pacific Northwest.
Besides flowers, we also have lots of little critters in our yard. Of all the critters, spiders are my least favorite but I know they are excellent for catching bad bugs and they make beautiful webs. I love the bee sitting in the fuchsia photo. Looks like he’s chillin’ in a retro egg chair. I don’t know why, but sometimes I have an overactive imagination :)
My five-part photography class starts this Tuesday evening and I am excited to learn how to use my camera settings properly. Also, I am always open to suggestion from anyone who reads my blog on how to taker better photos :)
My new camera arrived on Monday and I have had fun taking pictures ever since. Keep in mind these are all test shots, I hope I will get better with lighting once I take my class. After that I will have no excuse for bad photos :) They are also unedited in RAW format…incase you wanted to know…I know you did :)
Tuesday night I picked Todd up at work for a dinner date. Before we left, his co-workers wanted to play with the camera for a bit. The guys took the first 3 photos, they look good!
The food photos were taken at Anthony’s Restaurant off Bellingham Bay. I was impressed that the majority of the pictures turned out even in dim lighting and with no flash! The dinner its self was pretty good, I had alder smoked salmon which was yummy. Afterwards we walked around the harbor and ran into the cutest cottontail bunny. The one posted of the bunny is not the cleanest shot, but he looked adorable posing for me. I would have never been able to get a clear shot of him with the light I had to work with and my old camera (way to slow).
Todd and I just returned from a 15 mile roundtrip backpacking trip into the North Cascades this past weekend. It was my first time ever and Todd’s first time in about 12 years. The weather was wonderful, blue skies and warm! We originally planned to go for three days…Friday, Saturday & Sunday…but returned Saturday evening due to soreness and pulled muscles (mine) :) The hike was hard for me, I can’t even remember the last time I went on a hike, let alone carrying 20+ pounds and going for 7.5 miles one way. The hike home was tougher, we were both sore and half of the hike was climbing 2,000+ feet in 3.5 miles…that was tiring :) The cool part about backpacking is that you are pretty alone for most of it. It’s quiet, except for a few hikers here & there, and it’s also quite scenic!
On Friday we made it to our camp in about 6 hours and set up our tent and made dinner on our tiny one-burner stove. I think we went to bed around 9pm because we were exhausted. Before we left I was told there were no bathrooms in the forest, and why would there be. So I had my shovel and toilet paper in preparation for the worse. Much to my surprise there were a few “toilets” along the way and at our campsite. The “toilets” were actually wooden boxes with a hole on top sitting out in the open air, what can you expect :)
We definitely had an adventure, including almost being eaten by a bear! Well, not quite, but we thought we were bear food for a few seconds. Here’s the story…
Todd & I had just eaten lunch in a large clearing and were getting ready to continue down the trail. We were told there was a bear somewhere in the area but weren’t sure where he was. The trail thus far is open except for a small patch of trees that we have to pass through to continue on our trek. I am in front to set the pace, since I am a sloooow hiker. We start to walk through the treed area when all of a sudden I hear a loud thrashing, snapping of twigs sound about 20 feet from us. I freak out knowing it’s a bear and thinking it’s coming after us. So I quickly try to bolt back up the trail knocking Todd off balance and he falls into the bushes. At this point I am not sure if should keep going or help Todd get up. I couldn’t leave Todd to the bear so I try to help him up while keeping an eye out for the bear we can’t see. We both make it back up the trail several yards and see our bear, a beautiful black bear staring right at us! We had startled him by getting too close and luckily the loud noise was him running away from us, not towards. To keep our distance we decided to go off the trail and hike way around to give him plenty of space (that’s when I took photos). He was munching on blueberries (reminded me of this cute story) of which I tried a few as we passed around him. So that was our bear experience, a little too close for comfort, but we lived :)
