Our Newest Visitor ~ Ruby-Throated Hummingbird!

This is our newest visitor and I was so happy to get some shots because this one is very shy.  He comes by several times a day now.

Can you see the bright red feathers on his throat? (click on the picture to see a closeup)

I'm still in awe at how they can turn the red feathers on and off! Here they are off, so they just look like dark feathers on his throat.

And now the red feathers are on again!  Amazing huh?

Skywatch Friday ~ Beauty Before Sunrise!

These were beautiful skies on March 15th and thankfully my husband woke me up from a dead sleep to capture them!  I hit the floor running, as I threw on my clothes, grabbed my camera and tripod, put on my socks and shoes, flew out the door, climbed down the hill and proceeded to set up my tripod on uneven terrain.  Whew....I was out of breath!  The only regret is that I don't think I was fully awake yet, so I forgot to change my aperture.  I changed everything else, but unfortunately it was on f/5.6, therefore the trees and branches in the foreground are not sharp. If I would have changed the aperture to somewhere between f/11 and f/22 like I normally do, everything in the picture would have been sharp and in focus.  Oh well.....lesson learned! Hopefully next time I will be fully awake and have my thinking cap on.  LOL

This was my first shot and as you can see....the horizon isn't quite level. My tripod wasn't cooperating with  me or the uneven ground!

The colors in the sky were simply gorgeous!

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Skywatch Friday ~ Sunset on the Beach!

I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of the sunset in quite awhile, so Andy and I decided to head to the beach.  As we were driving on the beach we were amazed to see cars parked everywhere and almost every vehicle had someone standing beside it snapping pictures of the sunset! I can't remember the last time I've seen that many people on our beach....I guess we all had the same idea! LOL 

I took these on March 6, 2010

It really WAS spectacular!

You can barely see the silloutte of these little birds.  Right after I snapped this shot the sun was gone, so I didn't have a chance to adjust my exposure to make it a little bit lighter, but I still love these little birdies anyway!

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Skywatch Friday ~ Saddle Mtn. Clouds & Fog

These photos are straight out of my camera with no editing, just in case you're wondering. I took these pics on January 15th and I was so taken by the fog and the clouds! 

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My New Little Baby.....Sophie!

My daughter Kasey brought home this adorable puppy a few weeks ago and told me she was my birthday present.......umm, YEAH RIGHT! Apparently, the owner was taking the last few puppies to the pound and of course, Kasey couldn't handle that, so she picked one out and brought her to ME. She's very cute, but I already have a very busy schedule and I had no idea how I would be able to train a puppy. I'm not one to just get a puppy, feed it and play with it and then leave it to itself the rest of the time.......I put a lot of time into training them! My exercise routine has suffered considerably and I am very upset about that because now I'm not going to reach my goal by the end of April.  Oh well, that's ok for now, fortunately Sophie is smart and is learning pretty fast.  Although, she does have a stubborn streak in her, but thankfully she now knows that I'm the pack leader! 

I had forgotten how exhausting it is to have a puppy.  I can't take my eyes off of her for a minute, while she's in her teething stage and I have to take her out to potty constantly.  The cool thing is that I don't actually have to go outside with her anymore though....by the 5th day I was able to open the front door, put her down and say, "Go Potty," and she would go down the steps and out into the grass all by herself and go potty.  Then when she is done going "tinkle" I say, "Go Potty Again," and if she has to go "number 2" then she will go, but if she doesn't, then she will just go "tinkle" again.  It's pretty funny because one day I was trying to get her to go potty both ways before I brought her back into the house, so I kept saying, "Go Potty Again," and she went "tinkle" 5 times. LOL  What an obedient little doggie!

Awww! Isn't she cute when she sleeps? 

Here she is chewing on a branch with Sunny!

This is one of the things I'm trying to break her of........tormenting my cat, Ling ling!


So far I've taught her.....sit, down, speak, fetch, wait (meaning she has to sit down and wait until I call her to come through the doorway into the house and also before going outside). I just started working with her on Come an she's doing better with it the last two days.  I taught her hide -n- seek....where she has to wait, while I hide somewhere in the house and then I yell, "Sophie Come," and then she has to come find me.  She loves this game because she gets a treat when she finds me!  I don't know if  I will teach her all of the tricks that I taught our dog Sunny, but we'll see.


Oh boy, here we go again!


Wow! A moment where she's not going after the cats......that's amazing!


Trust me when I tell you.......THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! LOL Cheetoh is not one to be messed with and he doesn't allow anyone near his tail, especially since the raccoons took the end of it off, about 6 years ago. He is a tough cat.....he's been hit by a car......been in many cat fights.......been in fights with raccoons at least a few times......and has been cornered by dogs trying to kill him. He really isn't afraid of anything and so I tried to warn Sophie to not mess with him. Oh sure, Cheetoh played with her a little bit, but then.....well, let's just say this......Sophie knows her place with him now!

Eagles Wanted My Puppy For Lunch!

The other day I was out in the hot tub in the afternoon and I happened to look up to see one of the eagles hovering right above just circling and he was really low......of course you know what I did next, right? I jumped out of the hot tub, threw my robe on and as I was heading into the house to get my camera, the eagle flew off screeching. Fortunately, my camera was just inside the door!

I grabbed my camera, quickly switched the lenses and by the time I got outside, there were two eagles hovering and circling over me. I snapped a few shots and then knocked on the living room window and pointed up to get Andy's attention. As Andy was coming out the door, I’m overly excited and I’m saying, “I’ve never seen them do this before......Look how low they are........they’re just hovering over us!” Then Andy said, “Honey, they’re after your puppy!”

Just then I realized that they were hovering right over where the puppy was playing in the grass. GASP! No wonder they were looking down......duh! That never even dawned on me! Andy quickly grabbed the puppy and put her in the garage and the eagles continued to look for her for a little while, circling the house and looking in the front yard and the back. Isn’t that scary? Oh my goodness, I was so freaked out! Andy probably nabbed her up just in time. Can you imagine how horrifying it would have been for me to see an eagle grab my puppy and take off with her? I probably would have been hysterical!

They keep coming back and circling looking for her, so obviously they remember where they see their prey.

Now I'm constantly on the lookout for Eagles hovering above! They can just find themselves some other Entree because they're not getting my little puppy!!!

Skywatch Friday ~ Red Cloud Sunrise!

I've been away from Skywatch for a couple of months now, since my computer died on me and I'm glad to be back. Hopefully I will have my computer fixed soon, but for now I have to use my husband's, when he is not working. I hope you enjoy these red and pink clouds as much as I did!

***(click on pictures to enlarge)

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