I've Lost February!

I'm a bit shocked to see I haven't posted anything since mid-January.  It's been a busy time of helping the babyMomma adjust to a young puppy in her home.  Accidents are getting fewer and fewer as we get this little one on a schedule.

It was a busy early February helping the babyMomma and Grampy get ready for travels.  Grampy headed out for a week in Vermont and then ten days overseas.  The first week he was gone, I was mostly ok.  It was short, the babyMomma was off to NYC to study for 9 days at the American Ballet Theatre Company.  What a grueling, stretching, incredible learning experience for her.  Physically, mentally, and emotionally tough 9 days.  Her mother-in-law came up to take care of puppy, Charlie, and the babyDaddy.  I spent a week working on quilting therapy, covering for my sister's job while she was away for the month, trying to visit my folks.  This quilt top needed a few spots taken out and redone.  Now it will wait for some batting and backing and quilting inspiration, then a binding and some tabs ..... and a hanger for a spot high on my living room wall.

 The last three days the babyMomma was away, I lived at her house taking care of puppy and Charlie.  What an exhausting and busy experience that was!  No wonder there are days I find that she hasn't had a complete cup of coffee or even eaten!  By Sunday it was getting better and I've been over there to help while she transitions back to home.  Very lonely existence.  Being a special needs parent can be so isolating.  Because her babies are medically fragile, people just stay away.  Winter time especially!  So, her only getting out of the house is grocery shopping with hubby and Charlie, if Charlie is healthy enough, and then her ballet teaching on Thursdays.

It's been a very emotional February.  Nine months without Amber and I am still finding it so hard to breathe.  On a more positive note, January gave me a Bobcat sighting, and February a Red Tailed Hawk.  The picture is not great as it was snowing and I was shooting from inside the house.

The babyMomma's mother-in-law spotted it from across the street.  Much larger than the Sharpie I've seen catching birds from my bird feeder in years past.  I have about 75 picutres.....none of them very clear.  The joy of digital instead of film!   

 Hubby and I did get out on snow shoes one rare day he was home and it wasn't snowing!  The shot above and below are taken from the rock looking back at my viewing spot!  You can't see our house through the trees, but our neighbor's house is visible.  The pine tree in the shot below is right where my viewing log is.  I often lean on the pine tree for balance.

 Underneath one of the Great Blue Heron nests.  There are only two left now.  These foot prints were in a single track that we found frequently throughout our trek around the swamp.  I know, I should have a dollar bill with me when shooting track shots.  The single track looked like a drag, almost like a single ski.  I am stumped!!  Hopefully, we'll get back down there.  No deer runs through our back yard where they usually are.  We did find them at the north end of the swamp.  We also discovered our town had purchased some acreage that abuts us and is now Conservation Land.

View Through the Window

For these pictures, it was sound that caused me to stop and look.  Opening windows on a mild January afternoon, the cacophony of squirrels in treetops shouting their screeching, grating alarm was deafening.  If it were a hawk, all would have been quiet so I looked downward and at the edge of the scrubby woods caught movement.  Small dog? Small deer?  Grabbed my camera and set my sights on a Bobcat!!  I did hear a high and full sound, almost a "whoop"  that I'm thinking might have been the bobcat.  Then it settled in under this tree just over the stonewall into the neighbor's woods and dug and dug, and found something to eat....with a tail.  I think this picture, if zoomed in, shows a bit of its tongue.

 This morning coming into the kitchen to turn on the coffee, I caught movement at treeline yet again.  This movement was a vertical drop and ascent.  My guess was bluebirds but they were too far away to see any blue.  These two shots were taken with my zoom but cropped and cropped again!!  I did spot two females and three males.  Only two males made it into these shots. 

Friday Feeding Frenzy

Census

Wow, I was NOT expecting this.  Seeing the return address gave my heart a jump, thinking it was an overdue tax notice.  Opening the letter, I breathed a quick sigh of relief seeing that is was merely the town census.  Almost instantly my heart was in my throat, seeing the deceased column, thinking how awful that will be to have to check off that column next to Amber's name....unfolding the letter and seeing only two names instead of the six we had last January.   Then came a sharper pain, knowing that the babyMomma and her husband would be opening a town census form with four names and having to go through the agony of putting the check mark in the deceased column.

 It is so very hard being a parent and NOT being able to take away your child's agony and unbelievable heartache.  I know I have a heavenly Father who is more than equipped to hold me and shoulder this pain with me and I pray that the babyMomma and her hubby know that too and are daily holding that pain up to him and not trying to shoulder it alone.

Psalms 147:3  He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

On a more positive note, the babyMomma and her hubby will be able to fill out the dog owner information now!  No dogs allowed while they lived with us.

First Snow

I'm a bit behind in posting.  Busy doings here as the babyMomma and her little family made the move across the street into their new home for the new year!  Her in-laws arrived for a week so ready or not they moved over.  It was in stages, mom and dad first for a few overnights ....then Charlie,......then the cats.  All the stuff has yet to go, but there are no deadlines for that.  Hopefully they will be able to take just what they need/want and donate or sell or toss what they realize they don't.  Here are just a few pics out my window during the first snowfall of the new year last week and a final shot of the old girls keeping warm on a cold day.