I'm speechless....

Today, this arrived from my secret santa at work. It watched me all day at work, then I brought it home. At one point I dropped it getting out of the car, and I could have sworn it closed it's eyes upon impact. Are you seeing this, thing? I can't decide if it's cool or creepy or both. It's called a "drollerie".

Look into it's eyes... watching you! Creepy, right?

Are you getting this? LOOK!

Even it's hands have veins. So help me if this thing moves....

Swans, Geese and Swan Geese

I took a walk down by the lake to see how winter was treating the birds and the trees. It reminded me how much I love that place in this season- it's so quiet and peaceful this time of year. There are no dogs barking, few people around and just tranquility with lots of interesting bird watching.

A comorant was sitting on a stump drying his wings and looking for fish. I spied up two bald eagles in a tree across the water, then I found these odd looking geese. I took plenty of pictures to try to identify them as I'd never seen anything like them at the lake before. Turns out they are called Chinese Swan Geese- pets actually. They are not native to the US and many people keep them as "watch geese". I felt sad that they may have been left down there to fend for themselves, but then I was comforted by a different thought...maybe they escaped to enjoy the lake and to be free and wild! Whatever the case, they had a couple of ducks to keep them company and all four seemed quite happy. By the time I left, it was nap time and I thought it was darling how they curled their heads inside their feathers to settle in for a "long winters nap". It was a great day for a snooze.

Gloomiest Weekend in Seattle History

http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/111769214.html

The winter blues have hit and Seattle is putting on a show. This weekend was the wettest, nastiest one I can remember in a long time. Next, the weather man says all of this turns cold..to snow or frost. In the meantime...I'm dreaming of this...

The Complete Guide to Exploring Mount Rainier's Wonderland Trail

It's finally public knowledge! I'm going to be an author. I've been contracted with the Mountaineers Publishing to write a guide book for Mount Rainier's Wonderland Trail. It's something I've been working on quietly for some time now, and this fall was invited to submit my proposal to the publisher. From there it bounced to their Board, and then back to me with interest, positive feedback and a contract. The book is slated to be about 225 pages and will contain about 100 of my photographs and my personal stories.

So...I'm writing my heart out now and hope to have the manuscript completed by May 2011- zoiks...that's not long! The actual publication date won't be until spring or fall of 2012. I'll be happy to sign copies for all of you when it actually hits shelves.

I love the following quote, as I had some self-doubts and hurdles going in to this process. I kept telling myself that no roadblock was too big and now, here I am with a contract. There will no doubt be many more hurdles in the road, but for now...

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."

Ayn Rand

Hawaii!

We are slowly getting back into the swing of things after what was a wonderful and busy November! We are getting used to the fact that it's winter (technically Dec. 20th, but who's counting?) and that skiing/snowboarding and snow removal has now replaced house projects and backpacking. The seasons changed so quickly from a few beautiful fall trees to a foot of snow. It's all part of mountain living and as much as I gripe about scary roads, I couldn't be happier being shoulder to shoulder with nature and having it display such beauty.

As you know, V and I hit the Big Island of Hawaii for the second year in a row to do more diving and get some sunshine. We are still learning that island and chose to stay up north in an area called Kohala as it's closer to the beaches. We loved diving up there! The area we did most of our dives was called Puako (Pooh-uh-ko), and found diving up there to be just as we'd remembered Hawaii from last year- great visibility with tons of fish and marine life. The videos of our trip are long, but as I always say- they are sort of replacements of scrapbooks for us...so grab a cup of coffee and sit back if you have time. If you are short on time- watch the scuba video and move it to about 10:40 minutes- we had a really neat treat on one of our dives. The videos are posted to the links at the bottom of this entry. Everything from the stingrays, to the turtles did not disappoint and there was much to see. On land, we even got to tour a wild lava cave, which was out of this world cool.

Maya came to stay with us for the month of November, and again made fasts friends with Summit. They hung out and enjoyed the Northwest while we were away. It's always so reassuring knowing the house and Pup is in good hands. The day after she left, Summit took me downstairs and "knocked" with his nose at the guest room. He wanted me to show him that she was gone. We all miss her!

Thanksgiving was nice, but postponed until Sunday due to weather. So, while we waited for the white stuff to melt on the roads...all the Whos down in Whoville decked our house's halls and built a snowman. It felt a little more like Thanksmas, when Sunday finally arrived, but we were happy Mom could make it and we enjoyed her visit.

With the holidays in full swing, it's nice to reflect on the year and all the blessings in our lives. As usual we are so thankful for our friends and family. Love this shot of V and his Mom!

http://www.vimeo.com/17440143

http://www.vimeo.com/17480387

This was Mother Nature's "Welcome Home" gift as we landed from our Hawaii trip. The next day I grabbed a few pictures as flurries continued. We ended up with about one foot. Isn't it beautiful?

Bandera

So much has happened in one month! For starters, I'm posting pictures from my beautiful sunny day hike up Bandera Mountain at the beginning of November (never got around to posting these). It was oddly warm- upward of 70's in the mountains! That's completely unheard of- except for in 1944, where the weather did that exact thing followed by gobs of snow and record breaking temps. Guess what? We currently are sitting in gobs of snow and record breaking temps- history is repeating.

So I'm drifting back to my early November hike reminiscing in the warmth before all of this was covered by over 2 feet of snow (yes, these pics were only 3 weeks ago- now it's impassible).

Lastly, we just got back from warm sand beaches and the 80 degree water and air temp of the gorgeous island of Hawaii. This shutterbug has a zillion picture from there too- so I will post when time allow. The highlight of our trip was doing 13 scuba dives and enjoying the heck out of the reef life down there. We were treated to some amazing creatures. It's hard to come home (literally, it was hard to come home as we nearly didn't MAKE it home with the deep snow and ice on the hills)- but also...it was a fantastic vacation and really tough coming home to winter after living in 2 weeks of the best summer imaginable. Until the next post...Happy Turkey Day!