Another Visit to Ankeny Wildlife Refuge!

We just can't seem to stay away from this place! I hobbled around in my "post op" shoe and had a delightful time!

Egret



The Pussy Willows are in bloom!















Candy is naming off all of the ducks she sees!

This is a Bufflehead giving its wings a little flap.








It is fun to drive past farmers' fields...


What in the world?









What is it?
Now if that isn't just graceful!











What a dust bath!
There's still some up my nose!!!











At another view point we saw this male Ruddy Duck.


A male Shoveler.









We caught this glimpse of a juvenile Redtail!




Even the bloomed out cat tails were beautiful.













This Towhee is enjoying wintered over apples!



A bright Robin takes his turn.











The Canada Geese were plentiful...


Another young Redtail...or is it a chicken up in the tree?

Let's Be Creative!

My sister Candy and I love the opportunity to do creative things together. Candy brought a very sweet design for us to work on. It seemed like we had about everything we could find pulled out before we could even get started! We had a few healthy munchies on hand as well :-).


Candy
















We enjoyed a little herbal tea break!
This was our finished project made with crayon designs, embroidery, and a few beads and buttons!

A Special Visit!

I drove to the coast this last weekend to visit my mom and to pick up my sister so she could spend some time with my while I recovered from some foot surgery. My brothers came for dinner and the 5 of us realized that it was probably the first time since high school that just the 4 of us had been together to visit with Mom!


We had a wonderful dinner of clams, potatoes and salad.




Terry's wife Diane didn't come down because she wasn't feeling well, but she still sent these wonderful Eastern Clams that she took the time to cook for us!

We also had some razor clams that Chris and his wife Bev had dug in Washington a few weekends earlier (they had been frozen).

Terry showed us some of his recent arrowhead finds. He has a side business trapping moles and he actually found one of these on the top of a mole hill!












We visited Chris
and Bev the next day and admired the green house that Chris was building with the help of his neighbor.







Mom and Bev













We also visited a home where Terry was laying a block wall in preparation for some stone work. Each of these buckets contains about 100 pounds of river rock.
This shows where Terry started laying the rock at the intersection of the two retaining walls.

Anniversary Trip to Yachats Inn

Bill and I made our traditional anniversary trip to the coast to stay at Yachats Inn. We went early this year because I had surgery right afterwards, and did not want to be inhibited regarding where I could walk on the beach!



Our room was the Puffin suite.


The view from our window overlooking the Bay at Yachats.








The view looking out toward the ocean...the surf was pretty rough!















The view from a nearby viewpoint in Yachats.












Bill













What a difficult way to retrieve one's dinner (this gull was attempting to eat mussels from this rock)!




The sand on the beach was very coarse and vibrant colored.









Becky

Earthworks Art Gallery near Yachats

Bill and I really enjoyed this gallery. There were a great variety of media and art forms represented.













































































Color was pressed into the wood of these stands by a special process. They were very beautiful.


These hand made rocking chairs were outstanding! The prettiest wood was Mango.

I loved these earrings. The picture does not do justice to them, but I thought my daughters who enjoy making jewelry might get some ideas.













The next few pictures were from a different gallery. These wall hangings were made from dried kelp and fishing line!













I loved these pouches made from large pieces of dried kelp, driftwood, agates, etc.