The New Year and a Few Interesting Weeks to Follow!

We started the first day of the New Year in our favorite place, the Oregon coast!

Although it was cold and rainy, it was very beautiful and the surf was powerful!

A juvenile gul...

We didn't get a chance to have our Christmas "Farr Fest" so we had it in January instead. All of our daughters were there with us. This is Megan with our granddaughter Charlotte. Our nephew Rob was visiting from Indiana.

Our daughter Kate...
Our daughter Anne...
The goofy guy with the "beard" is Bill's brother Patrick.

Yep...Patrick again :-)

Our daughter Kristin...

The next week we attended the wedding of our nephew, Evan. This is his beautiful bride Anne Megan.

This is Bill with his siblings and his nephew. From left to right: Patrick, Evan, Jim, Bill, Lorna.

I spent some time at my Mom's when my sister Candy had an emergency surgery. This is the neighbor cat Buddy who likes to hang out under the bird feeder to test his luck.

Coming in for a landing...a pretty funny view of a stellar Jay :-).

Two Eurasian Collared Doves after a light snow. Very elegant birds...

"Stellar" certainly describes the colors of this beautiful bird's feathers!

Black-capped chickadee...

My first Townsend Warbler...a striking little bird!

Varied Thrush, also called a Winter Robin...

Another black-capped chickadee...

Gold-crowned Sparrow in the beautiful evening light...

My brother took my mom and I to a wildlife refuge called Jewel Meadows. This is the time of year to see large herds of elk. We saw over 36 bulls. They were pretty magnificent.

These calves look pretty woolly in their winter coats. Their "manes" have a beautiful reddish glow.

These guys were just playing around. I guess they were practicing.
Such a pretty boy!

There was a light blanket of snow while I stayed at Mom's. I captured this little thaw.

I took a minute to check out the hat display at the Art Space in Bay City. They often have some very interesting displays in their gallery. There were hundreds of hats donated by a local lady who used to work in Hollywood.
Mens hats...

These were some of my favorites.
A show girl's hat...

I loved this hat from the 1800s. It reminded me of the one my Grandmother Pearl is wearing as a young woman in the next picture.

Pearl is on the right with her sister-in-law Lola. I love their hats!

This hat was worn by Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman."

My daughter Anne and her husband Matt came to visit while I was at Mom's. This is Anne feeding the neighborhood ducks on the road in front of Mom's house.

Anne teaches science at a high school in Vancouver, Washington. She started her morning out correcting many papers!

I went for a drive with Anne and Matt along the Tillamook River. If you look closely you can see the Tillamook Blimp Hangar which was turned into an air museum. There used to be another one where Bill and I met, but it burned down.

Gold Peak reflected in the Tillamook River. The water was like glass.

More reflections along the river...
We enjoyed these Western Grebes and the smaller Eared Grebe in the background.

This Pacific Loon makes a keen reflection along with the ripples of water.
We drove to the view point at Cape Meares.

The surf on the rocks below was gorgeous!
The ocean was a beautiful color.

Anne and Matt call these rocks the "kissing camels."

From Cape Meares there is a gorgeous view looking toward Oceanside and the Lost Boy Beach.

A few days later Mom came to Salem with me. We drove past Cape Lookout where I snapped one of my favorite views of an area called Crab Harbor and Bay Ocean. Years ago there was a town, but it washed into the ocean.
After arriving home I settled into some of my own routines. I fed my backyard birds, but this Sharp-shin Hawk came around and the birds quickly scattered!

It's been an interesting year so far. I look forward to fun opportunities and hope to be prepared for any challenges the year might bring.