Old Man Winter...

Can go back to bed any day now...

I'm still here... just lots and lots going on. I've got lots to say and there are days when I think "ohhhhh I need to blog that" but for some reason (likely the 9th month of snow) I just don't have the umph to give a damn to take the time to put it all down. I know. I know. I should make a better effort. I think I'm just trying to work through some things first. Which is my cop out way of saying I'm just pushing it all down and not dealing with anything at the moment... and we all know where that leads to...

Today's horoscope pretty much tells me it's not necessarily time to kick my ass in gear and pretty much tells how I'm feeling..."Are you hesitating, TARA ANN? Do you feel caught between the desire to participate fully in the world and the equally strong desire to remain in your dream world, even at the risk of feeling a little out of it? Who says that these two worlds are not compatible? If you look closely, TARA ANN, you will see that you do not need to choose one over the other."

In the meantime... I snapped the above photo on my way over to the baby shower in February (or was that the first part of March... it all blurs together anymore). By my best count there's about 21 swans in the picture. There were easily half a dozen more off of both sides of the frame. I've never seen so many swans in one place. Let alone hunkered down against a blanket of white snow. It was pretty amazing. Trust me, the picture doesn't do it justice.




***ETA*** I thought blogger ate this post the other night... turns out I'm so completely out of it lately that I dated it for the wrong month and it published it back in the March stuff... well duh, no wonder I couldn't see it... sorry to those in the RSS feed...

A New Favorite...

It's been awhile since I've taken a photo that really resonated with me...
That dry spell is over...
This very well may be my new favorite picture...
At least for the time being.

Lunchtime Quickies...

I came home at lunch the other day for a quick break... not that kind... just enough time to let the kiddos out and check on things because, after all, the next day was the.final.day.to.file.taxes. and my life was crazy busy for the moment... who am I kidding... for the moment? At any rate, I walked out and the sunlight was perfect and the birds were EVERYWHERE. And not only were they everywhere they kept flying in close... which if you haven't figured out by now is an invitation for me to get the camera out...






On a side note, I have no clue what type of berries these are. If anyone has a good idea, let me know! They start out white and turn blackish/purple and a month ago the innards were green... and this is the first time I've seen anything eating them.

My Other Neighbors...

There is never a dull moment around here... I got home from work last Friday and let the kiddos out to do their thing... after they were already running around terrorizing the squirrels I looked up to see these guys about 20 feet from my back porch over by the other neighbor's porch...

Not one...

But two...

Luckily I was able to distract Rockford and Sissie before they saw the moose and tried to take them on (we have a big dog in a small dog's body complex)... and then naturally the next bright thing to do is to head back out myself and snap some pictures... okay maybe not the brightest... and even dimmer still "sneaking" (yeah right I made eye contact with the one) up within 10 feet of them to take a few more... all while wearing a skirt and high heels... okay... in retrospect I'm probably lucky to be posting these shots today... my backup plan in case of a worse case scenario was to tell the EMTs that I'm from New York :)

My Neighbor...

I ran home for lunch one day last week and this guy was circling above the condo in all his magnificent glory... so I sent up an "I love you" in hopes that he would carry it a little higher and closer to Heaven for me.

Speechless...

More to come this week...

Part of Living in God's Country...

Means enjoying things like these...

The Tetons

On Guard

My Local Drive

I needed a break the other day... a break from work... from thinking... from life in general. I was mentally exhausted and it was only Tuesday. So I grabbed the kiddos and my camera and we drove the 50 mile loop around this half of the county.

I stopped along this road with the intentions of getting some shots of the Tetons. Somehow I ended up being a cattle charmer instead... one or two is nothing... ten or fifteen... still not too bad... but at one point there were nearly sixty steers pushing along the fence line! I had a moment of fear and wondered just how many steers it would take to push that fence over... lucky for me they were more scared of me than I as of them.






More to come tomorrow...

Wednesday Hump Day

*Whatchya looking at?*

Full House

I'm trying to edit through the pictures... but right now I feel like I've just got such a heavy hand that's matching my heavy heart... gloomy, doomy, dark is all I've got.